Milesplit California Track & Field Journals
Alex Dunne and Zack Torres are among the top Track & Field distance runners in California. Throughout the Track & Field season they will share their journey through their final prep season. This week Alex and Zack talk about finshing their dual meet season as they head into the Championship Meets.
Alex Dunne
(Sr., San Clemente)
Entry #5 (May 18, 2009)
Entry #4 (May 1, 2009)
Entry #3 (April 15, 2009)
Finally, track has my absolute and undivided attention! No more 2 kilometer repeats or 4 kilometer tempos for me-- now it's time to dive into the speed work! My first true "track workout" was the Monday prior to Arcadia.. we call it the "workout from Hell." I felt great during the workout and was able to hit all my splits. It was a relief to know that despite my lack of speed work, I remained in "track shape" thanks to the V02 max workouts I had been doing. After the workout (which ended up consuming 3 hours of the day since we talked for almost an hour before even warming up), I hurriedly prepared for a flight to San Jose.
On Wednesday I ran some 200's while my mom jogged a few miles...she wanted to be able to tell people she ran on the Stanford track :). We arrived home Thursday afternoon, and before I knew it, Saturday rolled along and it was time for Arcadia.
Entry #2 (March 27, 2009)
Greetings from Amman, Jordan!
Today is March 27th and it is about 3:00 p.m. here in Jordan, meaning it's about 5:00 a.m. in the U.S. (although I am going to pretend I don't know that). I am having the time of my life here and I am so excited for the race tomorrow! We previewed the course this morning. It consists of three loops (one short loop and two longer loops) and starts and finishes uphill. It is fairly hilly, and somewhat similar to the Nationals course. The other junior women (Neely, Emily, and Sara) and I ran two loops of the course together and we're all feeling positive about tomorrow! We plan on starting out fairly conservatively and really trying to use the downhills to make up places. It was so exciting being at the course with all the other countries... we warmed up right behind the Kenyans!
However, I am getting a bit too ahead of myself. To back track a little bit, we arrived in Jordan on the afternoon of the 23rd. In the week I have been here, I have already eaten lamb (and quite possibly camel), floated in the Dead Sea, visited ancient Roman ruins, sampled Middle Eastern delicacies, and rode a camel. I have discovered that pita bread and hummus are considered a reasonable breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and not to question what you're eating as long as it tastes good. To my surprise, mustard serves a noble purpose here in the middle east: it's not only spread on sandwiches, but serves as a dressing on salads, a dipping sauce for vegetables, and a marinade for chicken. Despite the odd obsession with mustard, the food is quite good. Each meal is served buffet style and lunch and dinner feature a wide assortment of vegetables and spreads, pita bread, two types of meat (usually chicken and "beef"), a variety of salad, rice, and potatoes.
(Photo on right; Victor Sailor, PhotoRun.com)
Breakfast consists of eggs, yogurt, pancakes, and about 30 different types of bread and rolls...oh, and of course, pita and hummus. There is also this odd purple bean dish that I bravely decided to try...apparently it's made of chic peas but it looks more like mashed up baby food. Definitely not my favorite. In addition to the food, I am also adjusting to the 4:00 a.m. prayer call. My first night in Amman I was abruptly awakened by the sound of a man singing an eerie hymn in Arabic. At first it seemed like the man was in our hotel room, but then I realized the sound was coming from outside. I thought possibly I was dreaming or delirious, so I whispered, "Sara, do you hear that?" (Sara Vaughn/my roommate/freshman in college in Alabama) She said yes and we both broke out in hysterical laughter. The next day, we discovered that the eerie singing was actually the prayer call (it sounds 5 times each day to signal each prayer). So every night at about 4:00
a.m. Sara and I exchange agitated groans as we are thrust from our peaceful sleep. Equally interesting is the lack of toilet paper in nearly every restroom here (I have started carrying a roll in my bag). Most shocking were the restrooms at the Dead Sea, which were merely holes in the ground. Gotta love different cultures! Nonetheless, the people here are very welcoming and the training facilities are top quality.
We've been training at Amman's National Stadium, and there is a forest near by with a well-maintained 2 kilometer dirt trail. The first day of training my legs felt heavy and I had a bit of an upset stomach, but the majority of team USA felt the same way-- jet lag at its finest. Each day I am feeling more adjusted. I felt great today on the course, and I think my body is finally in sync with the time change. Anyway, the girls and I are about to go watch Twilight (and rest our legs!), but I will fill you in on any more adventures and the results from the race in my next entry! Go USA!
~Alex
Entry #1 (March 3, 2009)
Although most people are beginning their track seasons and transitioning into speed workouts, I am still in the midst of my (very extended) cross country season. I had planned to focus on the 800m early in the season and try to get down to around a 2:06, and then transition into training focused more on the 1600 and the 3200m. However, having qualified for the U.S. national team, my track season won't "officially" begin until after March 28th (the day of the World Championships)-- a very worthy trade-off!
Nonetheless, I will still be competing in the usual track races, but my training will continue to be geared more towards the 6 kilometer race. In order to start working on my speed, I incorporated a day of track intervals during the week. I guess you could call it multi-tasking?!
Anyway, I am so excited for the World Championships! We leave March 22nd for Amman, Jordan (and no, it is not a barren desert as I originally thought; it's actually really nice and somewhat mediterranean! Well, according to pictures.) Competing at Worlds is such an amazing opportunity and I am looking forward to getting to know the other athletes on the U.S. team as well as acquiring more international experience!
In terms of racing in the meantime, we have a pre-season meet this Thursday against Huntington Beach. I'm using the meet mostly as a training day, but it'll be nice to get back into the racing mode and experience that exciting competition atmosphere.
I have so much more I'd love to say, but I just wanted to outline basically where I'm at right now. I'll elaborate more next time! I wish everyone the best of luck in training and the start of the season!
~Alex
Special Note: Alex Dunne turned in her journal entry before her first meet. When asked how her meet went, here is her reply........
The meet went really well! I wanted to use it as a training day, so my dad (aka coach) gave me splits to try and stick to in order to make my races resemble tempo workouts. I wound up running 5:01 for the 1600m and 10:42 for the 3200m and I felt great! It was a good day.
Zack Torres
(Sr., Crescenta Valley)
Entry #5 (May 18, 2009)
Hello Milesplit! Congrats to all divisions moving on in their sections. This week was actually a quieter week. I played our rival team in baseball, arcadia HS. There were a good two to three hundred people there, and a lot of excitement. In the 3rd inning of the game, I had the worst thing happen to me…. One of their players crushed a line drive to me, and I bent down to catch it, but it took a sudden bad hop and hit me square in the head. After the play stopped, the fans were dead quite, and the athletic trainer and my coach (my dad) ran out to check on me. I told them I would keep playing, even though I was seeing more stars than an astronaut and my head was screaming at me. The very next play was a ball to my left, and I ran as fast as I could and dove to catch it, only to tip it on the end of my mitt. When I hit the ground, I had an extreme pain in my shoulder and felt it pop. I flipped the ball with my good arm to my right fielder as I lay on the field in pain AGAIN only two minutes after taking a rocket off my head, and yanked my arm to pop it back in place. I played the rest of the game with a sore shoulder and a headache bigger than Texas. Our team lost 6-4; I felt miserable because it was the first loss to arcadia for the championship in 9 years and I played my heart out just to end up playing my worst game, going 1 for 3 with a base hit, a pop-up and a strikeout. The next day was CIF prelims, so I went straight home to sleep. When I got home, I found that my team had “chalked” my entire driveway AND street wishing me luck at prelims, which was extremely nice and made me smile because I had a rough day obviously.
I woke up the next day with the worst pain in my shoulder, and I couldn’t lift it above my head at all. I drove out to the races early, and raced both the mile and the two mile. Fighting for a spot with a hurt shoulder was extremely painful, especially in the beginning of the race, but I had to tell myself to “shut up and stop complaining” because if I wasn’t going to be tough then the field would eat me alive. I just cruised my mile at a 4:15, it felt good and I felt strong, so I was satisfied with qualifying. I then ran the 3200, teaming up with Toby Villalva to qualify with a decent time. We ran pretty perfect splits and then closed at a decent pace; I finished second in my heat with a 9:22. We are all very excited for next week
I'm sorry I don’t have any amazing stories to tell, but with AP testing, I haven’t done too much except train and study and sleep. My plan this week is I have a baseball playoff game this week on Tuesday and then CIF finals Saturday. After CIF finals, I’m going to my prom (with no date because otherwise my date would have to watch me race, then come to prom late, so ladies if you want to come sneak on the yacht with me after CIF finals I’d love to dance with any of you at my prom). And after THAT will hopefully be CIF, but I’m taking each race one step at a time. Congratulations on everyone’s seasons and good luck to anyone moving on.
Entry #4 (May 1, 2009)
Hello Milesplit fans, hope everyone is having a great week, and getting in some great training! I have had a very eventful past two weeks! Let’s start things off with the big races… Mount Sac Invite! Instead of playing in a baseball tournament in San Diego with my baseball team, I decided to run at the annual Mount Sac Relays. Unfortunately, right before my 1600 invite race, I got a call from my mom saying that my dad was driving himself all the way back from San Diego to check himself back into the hospital because his stomach pain was too painful to handle.
Now, this really affected my focus, because, to put it bluntly, my dad is like the terminator to me: feels no pain and won’t let it show. Since I was thinking about my dad, I really wasn’t mentally prepared for my mile. I got to the line and started the race, but Justin on accident hit me in the face at the beginning so my first two steps were a bit groggy. Jarvis (Collin Jarvis, Rancho Buena) hammered a hard 2nd lap, and it was really difficult to notice in the race until it was too late and he was 25 ft in front. He kept moving farther and farther. I made absolutely stupid moves in the race, like trying to pass on the inside and not pushing the pace with Jarvis; I just wasn’t thinking. I relied on my kick too much in the race and tried to make up a four second gap in one lap and ended up less than a second behind Jarvis and losing also to a kid from Canada.
In all honestly, I was disappointed in myself because I knew I ran stupid and I could have done better. I went home and slept that night, because I knew the next day, the DMR, would be an even more important day because my team would be relying on my leadership to get them pumped and ready to compete.
Saturday morning, I woke up, and drove to the hospital to visit my dad. I was very happy to see him back to normal, and I told him about my race and the evening. It was hilarious to see him in the hospital bed actually, because he refuses to wear hospital gowns, so he is decked out in all CV gear laying in his hospital bed with a CV dry-fit workout t-shirt and CV sweatpants, yelling at the Dodgers through the hospital TV to score some runs. It’s funny that even while not being able to even eat real food or drink anything besides Gatorade and water, he still manages to yell at umpires about balls and strikes or tell players what they should have done differently. My team photographer made a recording of my race to show my dad before I left and that was even harder to watch my stupidity in person rather than just run so aimlessly. My dad still doesn’t understand too much about running quite yet, but this is his commentary during the whole race video ‘‘You should be there… Where are you…. How far do you want him to be ahead before you decide to compete?..... When are you guna decide to go? After your tea party…….?’’
After, he told me to race hard in the DMR and do the right thing and keep my composure throughout the meet. That night, I had all the inspiration I needed, and I carried my team into our DMR by starting the race with a 1200. This time, I didn’t let Jarvis get away from me, and I didn’t worry about any times or splits, I did what I am best at, RACING, not PACING, and with one lap to go I found myself close to Jarvis. I closed my 1200 with a huge kick, and came in the line yelling out loud at my freshman teammate, James Maturian, so he could run a fast 400. People tried to tell me my times, but I didn’t care and ran off to the outside of the track to yell at my teammates. James ran a 51.3, which fired me up, and then Neil Jones ran a 1:58, which kept us still in the running, who handed it off to Mikey Duncan, another freshman, who handled a 2:10 first 800 in the mile but then fell to a 4:35 mile at the end, which we were very proud of him for doing. I was jumping up and down like a monkey screaming at them every motivating thing I’ve ever thought of. And after each of their races, they ran over to me and would cheer for the next guy racing on our team. It was a very bonding moment, and I enjoyed the race very much and was so proud to have led my team.
Apart from Mount Sac, I played our rivals in both sports: baseball and track. I ate some bad chicken unfortunately from El Polo Loco on Thursday, and the next day we played arcadia, our schools HUGE rival, Arcadia. We had the stands packed, some schoolmates even came shirtless and painted; it was like a community gathering. The game was close, but we ended up losing in the end 11-7 in the final innings. I went home and didn’t even try to have fun, my stomach was aching so much and I knew I needed to get better before racing our rivals in the Arcadia dual meet on the upcoming Monday. I ended up running a PR of 4:13 in the 1600, and another PR of 1:57 in the 800.
Finally, my week ended tonight with a great ending to both sports. I ran my league prelims in the mile and won so I qualify for my next round of league. Straight after the game, I went to play a baseball game against the number one team in our league. The game was close, 2-1, and in the final inning, with a man on third which could tie the game, we put the infield up. If the batter got a base hit, we will tie the game and might lose. The batter hit a line drive, and I dove in the air and caught it, saving the game. Our fans went crazy, my team was ecstatic, and we beat the number one team. It was definitely the highlight of my week, winning as a team, not just by myself.
I know I wrote a lot milesplit-readers, but I wanted to share my enthusiasm over these past few weeks. Thankfully, my dad is healthy and I’m feeling faster, so next time we speak will be CIF prelims!
Entry #3 (April 15, 2009)
Hello Milesplit! I’ve had an amazing time since the last time we spoke. Let’s just cut straight to the chase…. ARCADIA INVITATIONAL! Leading up to arcadia, I had a very rough week. My dad unfortunately was put into the hospital with stomach problems for 5 days, and may have Diverticulitis. I had to play a baseball game against a rival team where I was heckled a lot during the game, and was even hurt physically when a player purposely kicked me in my shins with his metal cleats during a pickoff play, hard enough to make me bleed. The games were very hard for me as my dad was in the hospital, however, I pulled myself together and made some amazing plays, along with getting two base hits for my team. Fortunately, he is OK now and back to yelling at me to do my homework and even is throwing batting practice and hitting ground balls.
Coming into Arcadia, I was both nervous, and pumped to race. I was also ecstatic to see all my friends from Footlocker Nationals. I still continued with tempo and interval workouts leading up to the race, and ran 50 minutes Thursday before the invite. My first race at Arcadia was a 4X800. I was anchor leg, and we were in 4th to last when it was my turn to run. However…. When my third leg came in to pass the baton… instead of being on the line where I should have been, I was standing on the side of the track, wondering when I would be allowed to go to the line. Let me explain: Because I was in ‘‘the zone’’ before my race, I was focusing on my race, not on what lap my teammate was on. I expected the starter to call us to the line, however, I failed to hear him in the commotion and crowd, so basically, my teammate came sprinting in the finish line, holding a baton, looking for me, yet I wasn’t there. I sprinted from the sidelines and grabbed the baton (even when he didn’t see me), then doubled back to run the rest of the race. I only ran a 1:59, but I was more frustrated on my stupidity than my actual time. It is definitely in my top ten stupidest things I have ever done (and trust me, I’ve done some pretty dumb things).
(Photo: Zack Torres in his final 100 meters during the 3200 at Arcadia)
Saturday night I ran the invitational 3200. I was pumped to race some of my old friends from Footlocker, like Matt Sonnenfelt, Joe DeMoore, Steve Magnuson, and Chris Schwartz, as well as some other big names in the race like Mac Fleet and Collin Jarvis. Since Arcadia high school is my high school’s rival, it was typical for me to get a few students heckling me from the sidelines as I walked to the line, but that just pumped me up more to race. The race went out the first 200 in 30 seconds, so we were a little quick off the gun, but other than that, I pretty much ran slow splits throughout the race. I wanted to maintain and not let the crowd affect my pace, and then use the energy the crowd was offering in the final kick. The strategy my coach gave me for this race was to move a little after the first mile, however, I was so far boxed in with all the runners, that I wasn’t able to make a strong move. At some point on my 6th lap, Matt Sonnenfelt put his hand on my back and mumbled something to me. In the race it sounded like : ‘‘comonzahh’’, yet, through many races of speaking this ‘‘racing gibberish’’, I know how to translate that into ‘‘Come on Zack, lets go, your slowing me down and I want you to either move out of my way or go with me or else we will both be left behind.’’ After Matt’s gibberish, I started to make a slow and steady move towards the front of the pack. With 400 to go I was in about 12th, place, and at that point, I finally woke my brain up and let the crowd and the cheers and the fans get to me, and let myself fly down the track. I closed in a low 62, and went from 12th to 5th place in that final 400. I was disappointed in my time, because I felt like I could have run a smarter, more tactical race. 5th place was very disappointing, but Collin and the rest of those guys ran a great race and ran very smart. Mentally, I just wasn’t as into the race as I usually am. I finished the race with a 9:02, which is a three second PR, so my coach was happy about that too.
After the race, I went on a cool-down with Matt, Steve, and a few other new friends I met in the race, along with a few girls from nationals like Jessica Tonn. Jessica’s cool down pace kicked my butt, and I complained the whole time about how fast we were going and joked about how now even girls are kicking my butt in running. I finished the cool down, and was about to leave when I saw Trevor Dunbar frantically looking around. I approached him and right away he asked me what size shoe I wore. I thought it was a humorous greeting, considering he didn’t say ‘‘hi’’ before he asked me, so I laughed and said ‘‘Hi Trevor, nice to see you too. I’m size 8.5 shoes’’ (I know, I know, I have tiny feet. For goodness sake, I’m only 5’-5’’, don’t make fun of me!) It turns out, someone stole (or moved) his spike bag, with his running spikes still in them, and he needed some to run in. Luckily, he had the same shoe size as me, and wanted to know if he could wear my spikes. I lent him them (OBVIOUSLY), and my Dad made fun of me the whole rest of the evening on how ‘‘that’s the fastest those shoes have ever run before.’’ That night, I had a few runners and their parents over for a kickback party, and he stopped by my house to eat and drop off my shoes. Overall, Arcadia was at once a very eventful and amazing two days…
Ha! So I know I wrote a lot, but I wanted all you Milesplit fans to know about my Arcadia experience. It was far from ordinary, yet, all in all, I had a great time and the meet ran very well (no pun intended).
The next time you see me, it will be at Mount Sac invitational this Friday and Saturday!
Entry #2 (April 1, 2009)
(Photo on right of Zack Torress by Tammy Abbott; Glendale Newspress)
Hello Mile split! This is my second journal and I am so excited to talk about BOTH my seasons. In track, I have run a few league meets and two invitationals so far; and in baseball, we have played a bunch of games already. I started out slow getting into baseball shape, but now I am doing a lot better for myself, and our team is doing pretty well also. In track, I have complete faith in my coach that he will make me get faster as the year goes on.
Ok, so there is the update on sports, now I’ll continue about my training. I’ve been working really hard at practice, grinding out every workout coach gives me; HOWEVER, lately the workouts have been brutal and I am a HUGE complainer and Coach Evans does a great job at ignoring my cries. He will tell me to run a time for a tempo or interval and every time my reply is an:
“AWWWWWW, coooooooooach!”, very dramatic like I am having a temper tantrum (For any athletes reading this, this is not a very successful technique at making your workouts easier). Lately, coach has been giving me workouts where I look at him like he is asking me to race against Pre. Times where I wanna say “YOU do it first!!!!”, but then I grumpily go along with it until I’m breathing like a goldfish out of water at the end. One workout that I absolutely dread is 3k repeats on the track, because not only are they about as boring as reading Jane Austen, but they are also incredibly tiring too! I feel like a hamster running in circles around a track for 7 laps multiplied by however many repeats he wants. My workout regiment isn’t as hectic this year because I am my Dad’s TA fifth period so I can start track workouts earlier and go to baseball practice after. This just means however, instead of splitting my workouts up into two different times, I go straight from weight room at lunch time to running two mile repeats or VO2 max workouts, to then dragging my body to baseball practice to take an average of 100 ground balls a day. Basically, instead of a 2-hour workout, then a rest, then an hour lift, then a rest, then a 3 hour baseball workout, I get the privilege of doing a 6 hour straight workout (sarcasm is implied at the end of that sentence). And all of you reading this know, that coaches not only don’t care but also don’t want to hear: “ I’m tired” or “I’m sore” or “AWWWWWW, coooooooooooach!” at either practice; so I have to “suck it up” and do it without complaining everyday.
To conclude this, I will tell you about last Saturday, where I had a game and race, yet pulled through a big in both my sports. In the afternoon, I ate sushi at a fancy restaurant with two of my lady friends (had a gift card!), and had to specially order a separate truckload of rice to eat because I needed carb’s for my race. Then from there I dropped the girls off and went to a baseball game, where I got two hits, turned a double play, and made a really good catch over my head on a chopper (a really high bouncing ball for anyone who doesn’t speak baseball jargon) and threw the guy out. In the 5th inning, sprinted off the field, grabbed my glove and bag, and ran to my car (still dressed in full baseball gear and baseball cleats), to make my way to the “Meet of Champions” held at Mount Sac College. Before I left, my dad yelled from the field that “You’re not leaving our team to get there and not win!!! You better win!” I thought about that the entire drive out, so when I arrived, I was “ready to roll”. I arrived to the track with only an hour and 20 minutes before the 3200 invitational. I dropped off my bag, went to my coach, went on the warm up, and then I ran the race. I ran exactly how I was suppose to, and worked off of the leaders until I felt a pace that I didn’t like, and then I took the lead. However, Toby came flying by me with 600 to go and I just didn’t have enough juice in the tank to keep at his closing speed of 59 in the race! (Great job Toby, hat is off to you). I finished the race very bitter because I really hate losing. I don’t think there is another athlete who loses as much sleep as me after a loss, but I still turned around and told everyone great job at the end then walked over to my coach. My coach came over with a grin, showed me my time while laughing at me, and pretty soon, I was laughing too, because I didn’t expect the time I got. Coach Evans said after “you can’t be too upset with a 9:04 at the beginning of the year Zack…” I told him “Coach, I didn’t come in this race to beat the time, I came to race. I got second, and I hate second.” So I will keep up my training because I hate being “the first loser” to come across the finish line! Good luck to everyone and the next time you see me will be the Arcadia Invitational!!!!!
Entry #1 (March 10, 2009)
Hellooooooooooo Milesplit fans!!!! My name is Zack Torres and I am a distance runner from Southern California in a quiet town called La Crescenta. Now I really don’t know where to start these journals off at, so let me start by explaining who I am and what I do that makes me a little different then most distance track athletes. Growing up, my dad was a professional baseball player, playing in AAA with players like Mark McGwire and Tony Gwynn. Growing up, sports wasn’t just “fun”, it was LIFE. My first word was “ball”, I would practice diving in the front yard like Pete Rose, and the magical story of my life is.......I took my first steps on Christmas. My younger brother, sister and I grew up playing every sport imaginable; and inventible. We would mash as many sports into one event if we needed; as long as we were sweating and there was a winner and a loser, it was a sport. A football game could turn into a wrestling match, a basketball game into monkey in the middle, and anything could become a race.
Now for those of you who haven’t met me in person, I’m not exactly the tallest tree in the forest (I’m pretty darn short!). I’m 5’5’’, 125 lbs with the spunk of a dog twice my size. I was never the biggest or strongest, but I also was never the last pick, because I wanted to win at everything; from football to a game of Go-fish, I was going to win. Growing up, if you were second place, CONGRATULATIONS! You are the first LOSER!!! Only one thing mattered..........who won, who lost. By the time I could take my first couple steps, my dad was already training me to be the next Brett Farve, Jackie Robinson, or Michael Jordan. Throughout elementary and middle school I played many sports, but my true love, baseball, I played all the time. Ninth grade year rolled around, and my dad came to me and said “Zack, you need to play a fall sport. You are too skinny to play football, and they will snap you in half. You can’t swim without any body fat, so you aren’t going to play water polo. So you are going to run cross country. And that was that, no arguing, just a “yes sir” and went on with my life. Coming into cross country, I had no clue what to expect or how to run. How hard could it be? “Zack, see that guy, beat him”. That strategy worked at practice until I made my way to varsity and got under the guidance of my seniors and Coach Evans. By the end of my freshman year, I was named fastest freshman in California.
Here is where the controversy comes in…. Spring rolled around, and I was ready to say adios to track and “hello” to baseball. Track kids thought I was crazy to do baseball, baseball kids thought I was crazy to do track. Both my coaches were fighting for me any way they could, so finally, fed up one day, I asked the question “why don’t I do both???” It made everyone come to a complete stop, because they all knew that I wasn’t kidding, and if anyone was to put in the time to be the first kid to do this, it would be me. So, after lots of research and planning, we decided to do both. I won’t go into detail on how each of my days work ( you can read that in my interview), but basically, each work day is 6-8 hours of very strenuous workouts consisting of early mornings and late nights with baseball, track and weight room every day.
So now that we are acquainted, let me tell you about my season so far. I had my first meet, where I ran 4:27 in the 1600, 9:38 in the 3200, and I tried out a 400 and ended up running a 53! Later, I told my coach I was quitting the 3200 and doing the 400. He asked why and I said “Cause I’d rather run one lap than 8!” He told me to suck it up and finish my cool-down. I also had my first baseball game of the year, where I actually played pretty well. I made a diving catch, and had a sweet bunt and dove headfirst into first base to avoid a tag. After the game, I told my dad that practicing the Pete Rose dive in the front yard was worth it because it not only helped in baseball, but also helped me in cross country (at nationals). What is actually quite ironic is my jersey number is 14, the same as Pete Rose. My workouts so far have been NO FUN, lots of work. One of the hardest workouts this year for me was.............. I went to school and took 2 AP tests, weight room for an hour, straight from there I ran to do 4 sets of hill repeats, then I ran 40 minutes UP HILL to a two hour baseball scrimmage where I hit a double. (Now I know that a double sounds good, but when your legs feel like being amputated, I’d much rather had struck out). My next upcoming race is against Saugus, where I will be running only the 1600, then going out to Glendora for a baseball game that night.
I know I wrote a lot, so thank you to all the readers who didn’t get bored and actually read this. I am currently writing this in my English class because I have no spare time at night to write and tonight I have a baseball game so I will be up till 12:30 AM typing this to send it in. Not to mention I have a great day of waking up at 5:30 AM to run tomorrow (which is now today by the time I finish typing this). Good luck to all the runners out there and I know that hard work pays off when you fight for what you want. Keep a watch out for me and PRAY FOR ME because I have no energy left at the end of each day.
Zack Torres