Luke Beauchamp's training log

Easy 5 mile with Will and Dante in preparation for the time trial tomorrow (1600 in trainers). Feeling a little sick and I hope it doesn't affect tomorrow.

Time trial today, our coach doesn't think that spikes are a good idea because this event is not too important and is just used for assessing workouts. Today I ran warm up to start off. Not sure if I drank too much water or if it was my nerves. Either way what began as an attempt to eject sinus drainage from my residual cold-esque feelings ended in me barely stopping myself from actually throwing up and having to spit like 25 times to get rid of the excess saliva due to my body's reaction to the throw-up process. Quite the chain reaction. All of this happened while the coach was detailing the time trial while we were all at the start line. I was doubled over and did not hear a single word. Shortly after I began regaining control of my seizing stomach and lungs, we were sent off. This combined with my lack of a recent mile race may have affected my splits: (1: 73.0, 2: 71.X, 3: 71.x, 4: 66.x). I went out slow, realized my mistake upon seeing my split, turned it up for lap 2, realized I could go faster for lap 3, finally realized I could go a lot faster, and closed hard, coming through at 4:42 on the dot. I missed the motivating presence of Alex Doran, who usually kept pace with me for these, this year. However, I was 3 seconds faster for this than I was for last year's cross country time trial, and I was very happy with the opening races of last year's season although my rigorous academics prevented me from improving at all throughout the season and I ended poorly. Classes are easier this year and it's safe to say I could have gone faster today. Also I was average 40-45 mpw throughout last year's summer yet average 20 mpw coming off of a 2 month hiatus from running that extended into the summer. I feel like I've got a lot of progress to make throughout the season despite already being at a great speed. Followed the time trial with 8x400 average 69s in trainers with lap jog in between each to work on rhythm. Rough Results from the trial today:

Interlake

1. Luke Beauchamp 4:42

2. Dante Paszkeicz 4:51

3. Will Oden 4:52

4. Raymond Salgado 4:56 (Completely new and out of nowhere, no prior running experience or Summer training)

5. Matthew Roberts 4:56

6. Bryce Rosenwald 4:59

7. Chris Taves 4:59

8. Carter Blunden 4:59

9. Joseph Rodgers 5:02

10. Mitch House 5:09 (Not really a mile guy but today was a lifetime PR)

11. Chris Watson 5:12 (Not at his usual form but ran the trial anyways like a champ)

12. Sebastian Brinkman 5:22 (Freshman with no prior running experience or Summer training. Stomach was killing him today but he was running between Joseph Rodgers and Chris Taves for Monday's tempo)

After that we had plenty more fast dudes but these are all the guys who have spots on the top 14 locked down.

Easy 5-mile with Dante, Will, and Chris Taves. I updated the results from Wednesday to be more accurate. I also found out today that my time trial is apparently just about the fastest xc time trial of anyone coached by my coach. I also found that Sebastian ate a bunch of yogurt right before practice, which would explain his stomach issues. At least he learned the lesson before an actual race. It's safe to assume that he would have been closer to Mitch and that Chris Watson would have been up with Carter in normal circumstances. All in all a very fast time trial for the team.

Ran 3.5 in the morning. I forgot to mention that on Tuesday I started weights class for school, so I also did that in the morning. Afternoon I did an easy 4 mile then 800m on the track just to work on keeping a rhythm. Did 4 buildups in my spikes from last year. They feel pretty good.

Long run today at Robinswood Park. My watch was bugging out today. Probably because of all of the trees in the park. As such I could not use the GPS function so I just used what I knew about the course, which pretty much forced me into doing a bunch of hills. I ran the 5k course twice and then ran the first two miles of the 5k course. For the 2 mile section of my run I ran into Matthew and Carter pretty quickly and just ran with them. After the two miles we ran around the field and one lap around the pond, which gave me at least 8.5 total. Did 4 buildups in my spikes. My ankle felt great today, so this is the best I've felt at the end of a week in a while.

Rest day. Just stretching

Today was a morning practice, but it wasn't that bad. 5x1k track repeats around race pace with 1 minute rest in between. I wore my new trainers that I haven't finished breaking in, so my lower legs were a little more strained than I would have liked to maintain effective stride. Nevertheless, I averaged 3:10. I am encouraged by this because this was my usual pace for postseason workouts during evening practices and with much larger rest. There will be a race on Thursday of 2 miles. I ran the course in 9:56 last year and would be very pleased if I could beat that time. 6 buildups in the spikes that I will be racing the course in after practice. Same ones I used last year.

2 miles in the morning on the track in PE and 6 miles in the afternoon.

Ran 5 miles towards Bridle Trails and then turned around. I was angry so I ran very fast, which wasn't a good idea. I didn't have my watch but I know it's 5 because I've run it with a watch before. It was definitely faster than I've ever gone on a mileage run.

First race back was a success, I would say, although maybe a little poorly executed. I did not feel as much resistance from my stomach as I usually do for my racing. Today everybody took it out fast, with JR leading the pack for almost 800 meters. Then the three Issaquah fast kids took the lead. Kennan took the lead and started surging as we approached a series of sharp turns. I went with him and we began to move away from the pack. I got right up next to him ~50m before the mile mark on a brief straightaway. I felt really good and thought I could negative split, but moderate amounts of tiredness seemed to pop out of nowhere just before the mile mark. I think we went through 4:58-ish. Kennan continued at an elevated pace. I stayed with him for another 1.5 minutes or so. I think if I pushed my limits I would have been able to hold with him for longer, but I felt like keeping things comfortable and within my control so I let him gap me with the hopes of maybe coming back. This was a mistake. For the rest of the race I kept a solid turnover and finished with a powerful kick, but Kennan got 8 seconds on me and I was on my own for most of the second mile. I feel good about the race because I was just about as fast as last year, and last year I stayed the same speed the entire season, whereas I know I will progress if healthy this season due to ample sleep and being fairly undertrained coming out of the Summer.

Today I ran 6.5 miles on the Blueberry Trail by myself. Very stiff legs. Turns out we beat every team yesterday except for Issaquah. Pretty good provided we were missing out #2 and #4 from the time trial. Also almost all of the freshmen cut the course and ran 1.4 miles. It was kind of funny watching Tom run sub-8, though. Long run tomorrow.
 

9 miles with the crew today to Mercer Island and back. Carter and Matthew went half a mile farther down before turning around so they were only there for the first half. Ran with Chris Watson, Chris Taves, Will, and Sebastian, who is coming back now after a series of absences due to soccer.

1k repeat workout at Lake Samammish State Park today. We alternated between two 1ks of the course, which now has an altered second loop, so we practiced the first and last 1k, as measured by my coach's wheely thing measurer that he uses for our home course. They were supposed to be hard, and the first 1k was 300m of sand, and the second one was really just flat and rough terrain so the opening 1ks were considerably slower than the closing ones. We ran each 1k then jogged to the start of the next. My first repeat was 3:12 on the hard one, then 2:58 on the easier one. My coach told me to slow down, so I thought like 5-6 seconds would do. I ran 3:16 for the next hard one and followed it up with 3:04 for the easier one. My next hard one I kinda got thrown off because the other guys must have been burning out and slowing down and got out of earshot quicker than usual so I thought I was speeding up. I came in at 3:18 so not that bad, but I was hoping to hold 3:16s but I know I was in control enough to do that. I then did another 3:04 for the easier 1k. My coach then pulled me out of the workout with the sophomores because I do 45 miles per week! That made me angry because he said we were doing 8, and I had another sub-3 cooking for #8. It doesn't make sense that he tells me it's a hard workout, and then makes me slow down my splits and then pulls me out early. I really feel like I didn't exert myself much but whatever. I warmed up by doing the Jamboree course, blackberry bushes and all, forwards. Then I cooled down by doing it backwards.

5 miles on the brogre trail easy. Race tomorrow. It's a brand new course and Andrew from Liberty will be doing a tempo so I guess I get the very first course record I've ever gotten. I will be running in flats because it's apparently not a spike-compatible course. It's also supposed to be rainy tomorrow and I've heard the course is really difficult. I'm pumped.

Very wonky 3 mile course today. Ran through some neighborhoods and some construction areas around Liberty's campus. I held a pretty consistent pace in my flats and it felt pretty good, although I briefly went off course early in the race, which probably added a few seconds. Cooled down 3 miles with Andrew. My warmup was 2 miles so I totaled 8.
 

It was dumping rain for the run today. Ran 5 with Carter. Real bad stomach issues I had to resolve. Then I ran 1 mile on the track until they closed it for a soccer game. I would have finished before it had I not had to receive my warmup gear with the other top 14s and 4th year seniors before my run. I then moved all of my stuff to my car and ran 2 of the most miserable miles I've done. I had to stop midway to resolve the stomach issue again. It felt really good to be done, though.

Ran the course plus a little. Fell behind on my posting so I'm posting this on Tuesday.

Long warmup and long cooldown. Salt Creek was alright this year, but I ran alone up front after 400 meters. Kept a consistent stride and effort and the only real disruption was when I went off course, which only cost me 4 or 5 seconds. Still, I think sub-15 was a possibility this year. Minor bummer but I was still 11 seconds faster than the year before. I am not going to enter next week because I have fallen behind on my entries and do not have a good recollection of the week. I am writing this on Sunday, September 27th. I felt a little crummy the morning of Salt Creek, and then really bad on the way home. I woke up feeling sick, and deduced by the end of that Sunday that I was developing a fever. It peaked at 102 degrees on Monday. My coach and parents didn't let me run on Monday. Felt a little better Tuesday, and went to school because I had tests I didn't want to have to make up. I ran that day as well. Decided to run the meet on Wednesday. Bad idea, felt awful, but I still ran 16:35 on a pretty hard course. It must have taken a lot out of me, because my Thursday run was one of my worst experiences ever. Friday we went to Portland and I ran the course and did build ups. I felt better but as I am typing this I am still coughing up mucus and expelling snot with great frequency, and my nightly sinus drainage on saturday is probably what killed my race. I got even worse stomach cramps than I did on Wednesday during the Danner race and it was a trainwreck. I ran horribly, 26 seconds behind where my coach and myself wanted me to be. Coincidentally, I got beat by Will, who I can usually be expected to be 20-25 seconds ahead of, so I know I could have run faster in this race. Bryce has also been sick and did not run too well. Matthew didn't run very well either. Raymond rolled his ankle and didn't race, so Dante ran, although he has been hurting, and ran #6 for us that day. Chris was #7 and needed help walking after the race. I'm not sure what part of his leg he hurt. Really the only people who ran well were Will and Joseph, who ran 15 seconds behind me that day. I am now 10 pounds under what I was a few weeks ago. Hopefully I can get back in action this week. I would like to run low-16s or sub-16 at Luther Burbank, a fairly difficult 5k course, on Wednesday and follow it up with a sub-15:40 at Twilight. Essentially, I'd just like to forget all about last week because I was clearly out of it and set myself up for a 15:30 performance at the state meet.

Today we ran the KingCo 5k course for warmup. Coach then measured out a 400m track at the park and had us partner up and run a continuous 2x400 relay. Our rest was how quick our partners could run a 400. I had Dante for a few, but he stopped. So for most of the workout I was partnered with Michael. I kept trying to catch Carter, who was partnered with Matthew, but he would start with a sizable lead on me. I started to gain more ground on Carter than Matthew was getting on Michael but then Carter dropped out. Unfortunately for Michael, I was booking, and he started to get tired. The longer he took, the more rest I got, and the faster I went, and thus the less rest he got. It kind of created a positive feedback loop and he is pretty upset with me.

5 miles for the day before the Luther Burbank race. Went over the course map and it looks fine.

It turns out the Mercer Island people don't know their own course (they called the 5k I did sophomore year a 3 mile because they didn't know and hadn't measured so they just guessed). They said they had to lengthen it because construction cut off parts of the course. However, I checked and it matched exactly what the course map showed and exactly what I ran 2 years ago there. Nevertheless, they lengthened the finish. Coach told us to go out super fast and dial it back after 1.5-2 miles if he thought it was right. I think I got carried away. I went out in 4:48. However, I didn't lose it like I usually would have, I just kept on chugging. It felt very good. Matt Roberts ran super well and probably would have come very very close to me had I run like I did at Portland. He split from the main group early and ran isolated the whole time, probably the best race he's had this season. Raymond and Bryce looked quite strong and ran together in 3-4 most the race. Some MI guy ran out of his head and disrupted our sweep. His team went crazy when they saw him so far up. Chris and Carter had extremely good races. This is the first time Carter has run at a level greater than his freshman speed, even though his time didn't reflect it. Both of them almost matched their Portland times, which nobody did on this course. My dad yelled 15:02 at me when I was nearing the final stretch for the course I ran sophomore year (the official one that they have online). Had I run that one, I would have been 15:40-15:45. My sophomore year I topped the MI time I ran that Saturday at Twilight by about 10 seconds. If I could take 10 seconds off of the time I would have gotten and run under 15:40 at Twilight, that would be fantastic. I feel stronger each day now that I am recovering from my illness. I still weigh like nothing though.