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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Whoops
Yeah, due to the many frantic activities of life, I managed to forget about this blog.. sound familiar? Anyway, I have had at least 10 races since my last post that I don't remember much about, so sorry about those. These races include at 10k duathlon, many disastrous classic races, a few skate races, two biathlons and a frightening 5k at Old Forge.
With that said, the Empire State Games are coming up, and I will attempt to remember to post about the Biathlon on Friday. I also have a hockey game that day, and if we win we will be playing on Sunday which sadly coincides with the Skate race :\
See you soon?
Posted by Mike at 11:14 AM
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Tuesday, January 13, 2009
West Meadow
Had a race today at the West Meadow of Mendon Ponds Park. It's basically across Douglas Road from the weird field with the bent field goals, and involves many of the trails used on long runs I've been on the passed (including the day of the Duathlon).
The snow was really coming down, and the temperatures were decreasing rapidly. I started out with all my teammates in the same row, but pulled away within 20 seconds. I double poled for a long time and enjoyed the scenic view of Lost Pond, having to yell at kids for not tracking. I tried to diagonal stride at this time, but was unable to do so due to inproper waxing for the changing weather conditions.
I had to basically wait in line to go up hills due to slow people, but it didn't make too much a difference because it was freakin impossible to get up with my skis anyway. Going up Hawk Hill, a hill which I remembered running up in agony, "HFL Mom" yelled at me for skating up, which was total bs. It's not like I could do anything else because I had no kick and all glide.
After double poling pretty much the whole race and falling down a downhill after Hawk Hill due to someone being in my way (though these not being the only spills), I finished the race a few minutes ahead of the next teammates. I could have performed much better if my wax was proper, but I was satisfied with my performance for what I had to work with except the falls..
Overall, it was still a satisfying race and a fun course.
Posted by Mike at 7:58 PM
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Sunday, January 11, 2009
Eh
I am typing this post within a half hour of returning from Salmon Hills in the Tug Hill region, where I just competed in a 5k race. My dad and I departed at around seven, and after I slept for pretty much the whole ride, we arrived at about 9:20.
After dawdling for a bit, I proceeded to go on a warm-up/ski around, and went pretty far and up many hills. Soaked in sweat and reasonably tired, I arrived back at the lodge at around 10:00 and then did the usual pre-race preparations. After staying warm, I arrived at the line at 10:30, and saw that my race had only four people in it including me.
After the 10k Men's and the 10k Women's both went off, our race started promptly. I double poled the start reasonably well, and was in second place at the end of the zone. My three competitors proceeded to leave me in the dust from that point forward, and my legs were sore after climbing the first small little embankment of a hill. I felt this way for the remainder of the very hilly race, and blamed it on my much-too-lengthy warm-up. I also fell at least five times, which obviously is not too good at all.
Overall, I was still glad I raced and my father and I deemded it 'A Learning Experience'.
Posted by Mike at 2:10 PM
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Tuesday, January 06, 2009
O hai
Break has unfortunately concluded, and I now fine myself punched in the face by schoolwork. We watched "Gandhi" today, and I must admit it was a very moving film. This post however, is mainly going to be about skiing.
On Saturday my dad and I trekked out to Glens Falls/Queensbury at 4:30 AM for a ski race. After pulling over in Syracuse for about 20 minutes, we arrive at about 9:40 and were able to register, despite registration supposedly closing at 9:30.
After skiing in circles in a field jammed by spectators and watching others race, it was time for me to start at around 11:30ish. It was my first race over 3k, so my expectations weren't high. I fell twice, once on a flat turn in front of several spectators, and other time at the bottom of a hill that had an assortment of sticks and plant remains. I finished in about 37 minutes, which was satisfying for a first 9k. My dad also bought me an awesome t shirt :)
I strongly dislike classic skiing, but since it's a classic year we eventually had to have a classic race... that being today. It was held at Mendon Ponds park, and the course was the water tower loop that I have skated many times. It a few changes, but it was nice knowing the course despite the unfamiliar technique. The wax on my skis was not as satisfactory as it could have been, but I made do I guess.
My expectations on the race were pretty low, so therefore I am not disappointed by my results (which I am unaware of the time, just finishing in general). I fell maybe three times, once before the cobble street cabin or something like that, another time right before Fawn Hill (which I did not fall going down), and another time going up a hill.
With that said, I will conclude this post with this sentence.
Posted by Mike at 7:57 PM
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Thursday, January 01, 2009
Not feeling too creative at the moment..
Song of the Day: Satellite - Guster
Lyrics - Video
Happy New Year. As you can see, I decided to post again. It's not that I made the decision to not update, the thought just slips from my mind due to my 'busy' schedule and terrible memory.
I am typing this post on Winter Break, probably the best two weeks of my life since August. The stress of school was getting pretty ridiculous, and this recess is definitely a necessity for all. I have been nordic skiing quite frequently this break, and am on the school team as my winter sport.
What?! Not indoor track?! OMGWTFBBQ?!?! Though I have may have done indoor track had it not happened, I got another stress fracture in my left tibia --same thing as last year. So in order to stay in shape with as little impact as possible, I have been cross country skiing. I must say, I am learning to really enjoy the sport and am going to pursue it in my future high school years.
Well I am going to conclude this post to work out a bit --My nightly routine being my physical therapy exercising, then strengthening my calves, hips, abs, and quads using various methods. Of course, all of this done in either my purple and white
Eastbay Shorts, or my green and yellow ones.
Ps: Sorry for any grammatical errors, or even above average stupidity level of anything written in this post. I stayed up all night with three of my friends playing videogames. Currently I must admit to feeling like dumpster sludge, but I overall do not regret the experience.
We mainly played the game "Left 4 Dead", which I would highly recommend to average "hardcore fps gamer". Basically, the plot of this game is very similar to the movie "I Am Legend". You and three other survivors are under attack by all the other "humans" in the world, who are infected by a crazy zombie virus thing, and you basically have to survive by any means possible. In this case, blowing their heads off with automatic shotguns.. It provided some fantastic nightly entertainment, and kept us awake.
Plus, we counted 15 empty soda cans in my friends basement..
Posted by Mike at 7:21 PM
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That is correct, I am actually blogging again. If there are still any misconceptions, read the previous sentence a few more times and allow time for it to sink in.
Alrighty Then..
So the reason I decided to blog tonight is because when I was in 'My Documents' to start my English homework, I found my write up on my Seventh Grade Washington Trip. As I was reading, I enjoyed myself greatly while reliving the events of the journey, and remembered this blog and the pleasure of posting in it. The main focus of this blog is most likely going to become a running log.
So currently in life, a new month has just begun. This new month finds me running cross country in my freshmen year of school, and the hockey season beginning. I have yet to attend a hockey practice due to there only being one thus far, which was during the McQuaid Invitational (which I will write about soon) but am looking forward to attending our second practice tomorrow.
The Brighton cross country team is doing very well, much to the pleasure of our team. We all put in a lot of hard work this summer, and it is nice to see it pay off. Of course I am not contributing much being a freshmen, but it is still nice to be part of a fantastic team. Our team has a great shot at winning sectionals, which is always a notable feat that we are excited for. I've only ran in two meets thus far, due to being a freshmen.
The first meet I ran in was at the Mendon Ponds West course, featuring the mighty Cardiac and Coronary hills. I will go over the race as well as I can, from my point of view: When the gun went off, it felt fantastic to be racing again. I had forgotten the feeling of racing (after having not raced last year due to a stress fracture) cross country, and the first 400 felt reasonably good.
--Don't get me wrong, I am not very good at running. The first mile was at a decent pace for me, and I felt good coming to the base of Cardiac. This extremely steep and reasonably long hill is a demoralizer, thank god it is not late in the race. Our coach taught us not to look up to the top of the hill, because you will not see it and you will be crushed. I followed his advice and kept my eyes 10 feet in front of me, and didn't feel TOO bad at the top of the hill.
After Cardiac, we had a gradual downhill. It was nice to see fans cheering, and I didn't feel too bad at that point. Next stop: Coronary Hill. I honestly didn't think this hill was very bad, though ascending it kind of did suck. Ironically, the top of the hill was possibly worse than the climb. We took a sharp right turn, only to find another hill in sight :( I was pretty crushed at this site, and could only think about how much I wanted to finish the race. After this hill was a gradual downhill and the road back to the start, which I slightly picked up my pace after.
This next part of the race kind of sucked as well, however. We passed the finish on the road, and turned onto the field which the finish is on. However, we had to run the perimeter of this field before finishing, which is about 500 meters. All I wanted to do was cut across and finish, but I kept going anyway because I didn't run this race to just cheat 500 meters. Finally I reached the home straight away, and started my kick. I did not pass anyone, but I definitely lost some time had I not kicked. I charged up the hill to the cheers of the fans, and the official said "Twenty-Four".
WHAT THE HELL?! 24 MINUTES?! The first 5k I ran was 24:29! I was extremely demoralized, and felt no matter what my time was, that I could have pushed myself more. My teammates said not to worry about it and that I will learn to push myself over time, and it often takes a whole season. I felt a little better, but still was not satisfied. I went home kind of mad at myself, but was still satisfied at finishing the race which was all I really wanted.
Later that night, when I checked the race results, my mood had lighten significantly. My time had not been 24 minutes! It had been 21:55! I don't know how I heard 24 somewhere, but nonetheless I was overjoyed. My previous PR for a 5k had been set the previous summer (not this summer, summer of 2007) at the Ten Ugly Men 5k. The time was 23:11, and I smashed it by a decent amount. Even though this course was only 3 miles, the hills compensated for it and I would have PRed by a bit anyway. Our team had edged Rush, Sutherland, and Spencerport as well, retaining our undefeated season. I went to bed happy that night :)
The McQuaid Invitational was the Saturday of that week. This invitational is one of the largest of the East Coast, with teams from many states and Canada coming down to Genesee Valley Park (in Rochester) to compete.
As soon as the fun went off, my shoe came untied. WHAT BAD LUCK! This was very disheartening, but I kept racing and did not retie it. The course was extremely flat, with just a few hills. Heck, they shouldn't even be classified as hills. More like embankments :) I felt reasonably decent the first mile, with the exception of my shoe and the randomly occurring scent of grills.
The second mile felt like ages. After I past the "Mile 2" sign, all I could think was "THAT WAS ONLY TWO MILES!" The thing about this course is that we run many of it more than once, such as the portion where the two mile mark is. This made running it feel extremely long, though it offered many advantages as well.
I had a cramp during a great portion of the 3rd mile, but kept pressing on. With about 650 meters left, there was an embankment where I felt very good ascending. I passed about 10 people during my ascension, and my moral boosted a bit. I picked up the pace at the top, and then kicked to the finish after a gradual downhill.
21:45?! WHAT?! I ran 21:55 at Mendon West, and it had two giant hills (and is the same distance! Oh well. I blame this on my shoe and cramps, and perhaps I am better at hills than I am flat land? This kind of gives me hope for the future in a sense.
My goal for every meet during this season is to PR. I know it is not very realistic, but I could definitely do it if I push myself. Wish me luck!
Posted by Mike at 6:52 PM
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Monday, December 03, 2007
Another Day
Yep it's another day, the world indeed has not ended. Wow that was a really weird/depressing title. Whatever, you get the point I guess, assuming there is one... Well I'm reasonably happy because the snow has been falling pretty steadily for the last like, 10 hours. I'm hoping for the best tomorrow if you know what I mean.
Also tomorrow, I have an appointment for my stress fracture. If you want to know more about that, read the post from two days ago. Well, I am imagining that I will find out how much longer the road to recovery is, and possibly some stuff to do during it. I am not expecting to like the news that I hear =\ But I'm gonna be optimistic and hope that I might be cleared!
Well anyways, time to get on with my daily events. Today was a semi-decent day I suppose. I woke up at 6:05 and took a shower in my parent's bathroom, due to the drain not working in the other. The water pressure could of been a lot better, but I was still satisfied. Haha. After the shower, I went downstairs and had two blueberry pop tarts and a glass of Cranberry Raspberry Juice for breakfast. Then I trudged upstairs to my computer where I messed around for a bit. I played Pac Man, Pets, and Jetman on Facebook and listened to music to pass the time.
After getting ready and brushing my teeth, my mother and I departed for school. My mother is forbidding me to bike for the time being, due to my leg. Well I got to school, and did the usually loitering before homeroom. It turned out I was tied for winning the football pool and since the other winner didn't choose how many points were going to be scored in tonights game Patriots vs. Ravens and wasn't in homeroom, I was the winner basically. I'm not sure though, because I'm not going to be in homeroom tomorrow because of my doctor's appointment.
In health first period, we presented our drug powerpoints. I learned some interesting facts about methamphetamine (meth.), Psilocybin (Magical Mushrooms), and Marijuana and I presented Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (Ecstasy). In gym we lifted weights in the weightroom, not very exhilarating to read/write about. In science, we did a density lab and some other stuff I can't remember. In math, we worked on finding the areas of dot thingy MickJaggers. By this time it was snowing reasonably hard. Lunch was lunch, and in English we worked on short stories and read one. It was pretty un-interesting.
Then my mom picked me up, and I killed some time playing guitar until departing for my 3:00 orthodontist appointment. It was snowing pretty hard, but the roads were very clear and it didn't take long to get there. They did something to the bottom of my mouth, I actually have no idea what.. interesting.
After that, I got home and finished reading the short story "A Man of Peace" about fencing. It was pretty interesting I guess. Then I did my math homework, and then I ate some food. Then I went on computer, and played some Halo. I also played guitar and IMed of course.
Well, I hope tomorrow is happy!! I don't want to jinx it!! Well I'm pretty exhausted from typing, type to you later!Labels: amazing, boring, chill, life, school
Posted by Mike at 9:36 PM
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