July 15 - August 4, 2013

I took that Monday off for whatever reasons, ran semi-hard on Tuesday for 58m’35s’, approx. 8.3 miles, ran an easy hour on Wednesday, hard 6.25 miles on Thursday morning, and then easy 32m’ on Friday as I was gearing up Rockville Twilight.  On Saturday, we were pump as Team MCRRC debut jersey as group.  Then around 8:30, as final preparations were being made and warm-up completed, an intense lightning storm settled in just to our north. There was no rain, but strong wind was blowing; there appeared to be no threat of the storm hitting us, but the race was postponed until 9:05. Then 9:15. Sometime around 9:30 the official call came: the race was canceled for the first time in its 28 year history.  A group of us felt we need to run couple miles as to wear off the adrenaline and I called the night off with approx. 4 miles.  Few hours later, I met up with the MCRRC team in CCT for an easy 14 miles.

Monday of July 22, I ran http://gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6013708 for 44m’36s’.  Tuesday was 43m’06s’running on http://gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6015169.  Wednesday was good-old 8x800m repeat on the oval.  I planned to run 2m’55 for each rep and I split: 2m'53.26s', 2m'58.55s', 3m'02.16s', 2m'56.98s', 2m'57.75s', 2m'58.38s', 2m'56.30s', & 2m'47.54s’; which was averaged 2m’56.37s’ for each.  Thursday was 55m’45s’ on http://gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6018064 and day off on Friday.  I ventured out with the XMPers on Saturday morning on first 9.5 miles on http://gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6021888 and ran 7 miles on Cabin John Trail with Nicole as we discuss team business.

Monday of July 29, I ran http://gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6023227 for 42m’19s’.  Tuesday morning, I did a 5x1200m workout on Hais Point with Dojo of Pain and I split: 4m'28.52s', 4m'20.98s', 4m'40.73s' (this rep was about 75 meter longer as missed the paint on the road), 4m'25.40s', & 4m'26.39s'.  I finished the day with total of 8.8 miles.  On the last day of July, I ran http://gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6025630 in 1h’15m’19s’ and finished the month with 216 miles.

I took Friday off and jog 4 miles on Saturday morning as I leading up to Riley Rumble Half Marathon.  I planned to run under an hour 30 in Riley to build up a strong endurance for Parks Half and MCM by the end October. 

Sunday morning, temperature was unseasonably cool at low 60s’ and I drove out to Germantown at 06:35.  As I just put my running shoes on and planned to do a mile easy jog, then I saw Noam and Jennifer stroll down the trail, and then I decided to join them for the warm up.  I had my hands full with key and bib number, I was so careless and thought I can multitasking to put my number while catching up with them; one of sudden, something kicked my shoes, then I crash, and faced downward on the trail.  Right knee was bleeding just as: 

which taken 8 hours later

 

I slowly got up, jogged slowly to the medical, applied some alcohol wipes, a drop of antibiotic ointment on the wound, and put a large band aids on it.  That was 06:52 and time was running out.  I endured the pain, dashed back to my car, and put my Kinvara on; and then run back to the starting line to join everyone else.  “GO” was call and everyone was leading forward. 

The pace was pretty slow at the first mile, as everyone conserved energy for big hills to climb.  After one lap around the Football Plex, the pace start pick up some.  I crossed the second mile mark at 13m’10s’ and that was about 10 seconds per mile faster than I planned.  I immediately slow down base on that time and didn’t want to suffer at the end.  I push forward with a better control pace and tried to running every tangent I could. 

The scratch on my right knee was somewhat bothersome around mile 2, but faint away as I stopped thinking about that, and focus on the race itself.  I still having a hard time switch back to good-old-Timex-watch from Garmin, I completely forgot to hit splits at mile marks, but it wasn’t really matter.  I remember I clocked around 27m’20s’ at mile 4, 34m’10s’ at mile 5, 40m’50s’ at mile 6, and 54m’30s’ at mile 8; I couldn’t remember others split, but I know I slow down some as I climbed the last few hills.  I finished the race at 1h’29m’53s’, averaged 6m’52s’ per mile, and just good enough for 13^th place overall. 

I crossed the line with very bloody right knee and blood splats all over both calves.  Lesson to learn: do not try to multitasking while running.  I came across an article today by an ex-GRC teammate and I think she explained exactly what I was doing on that race: … turn brain on or shut off at the moment I need it most.  In that moment, focus makes prefect.  With this finish, I think I should able to run a close target time in Parks – as long as I stand/running upright.

In addition, MCRRC Competitive Racing Team has a good tune up as gearing up for fall racing season:

Overall Place	Sex/Tot	Div/Tot	Name	S	Ag	Net Tim	Pace	Gun Tim	Pace
1	1/287	1/21	Nicolas Crouzier	M	27	01:19:06	6:03	01:19:07	6:03
2	2/287	1/36	Will Rawson	M	30	01:22:37	6:19	01:22:38	6:19
3	3/287	2/21	Miles Aitken	M	28	01:23:39	6:23	01:23:39	6:23
4	4/287	1/45	Jordan Snyder	M	46	01:26:18	6:35	01:26:18	6:35
5	5/287	1/45	Mark Neff	M	50	01:26:23	6:36	01:26:24	6:36
6	6/287	2/45	David Haaga	M	51	01:26:28	6:36	01:26:29	6:36
7	7/287	1/31	Yuji Funakoshi	M	36	01:27:21	6:40	01:27:23	6:40
8	8/287	2/36	Josh Sohn	M	32	01:27:43	6:42	01:27:47	6:42
9	9/287	3/21	Patrick Murphy	M	28	01:28:03	6:43	01:28:04	6:44
10	10/287	3/36	James Brameyer	M	34	01:28:06	6:44	01:28:07	6:44
11	11/287	3/45	Juan Vasquez	M	51	01:28:41	6:46	01:28:44	6:47
12	12/287	1/57	Scott Koonce	M	41	01:29:34	6:50	01:29:34	6:50
13	13/287	4/36	Yukun Fung	M	34	01:29:53	6:52	01:29:53	6:52
14	14/287	2/45	Paul Jacobson	M	49	01:30:00	6:52	01:30:00	6:52
34	1/199	1/29	Anna Savage	F	30	01:35:04	7:16	01:35:07	7:16