Moses Cone

Time: 121:30
Distance: 19 mi.

Fantastic run at Moses Cone Park, which is just a short drive from Zap, and in fact, I believe it is the primary reason that Zap settled where it is. Miles and miles of dirt and light gravel trails winding through the woods and open fields. We started by Bass Lake, ran past the Manor House and Trout Lake to a fairly high point in the park (someone said we climbed from about 3400 to 4200 feet) at about 65 minutes and then we turned back to backtrack most of the way down.

Maybe it was the cool autumn air, or the beautiful scenery, but I felt great. I'm totally recovered from the race, and we all seemed to be enjoying ourselves out there, despite pressing the pace pretty much the whole way. Ryan Warrenburg and Jon Pierce guided us along the whole way, and were also shooting for a two hour run.


The carriage trails wind through the woods and pastures

The Manor House

After the run we had to make a pretty quick exit, throwing everything in the cars, saying goodbye to Zap, and heading towards the airport...

State Farm Fields, Daniel Boone Dr.

Time: 75:00
Distance: 11 mi.

Easy recovery run back at the State Farm Fields and some of the surrounding neighborhoods. Feeling very recovered with few physical complaints... hips a bit sore and still some stomach issues. Did 4x100m strides at 60 min. that were good to get the legs going and shake 'em out a little bit.

In other racing news, Jordan apparently pulled off a decent 5k 10k double this morning, and most of the other top teams in the country ran at Pre-Nats.

Blue Ridge Open

Time: 83:00
Distance: 13 mi.

Goals: don't be afraid to run hard and go to the well a little bit, be positive, run together
Race: 24:21 for 7th overall, 3rd on the team, team won handily; splits - 4:47, 9:32, ?, 19:32


The Zap Fitness guys led from the beginning and there were over 200 people in the race

Overall a good day for the team and me personally. Jake, Kyle and I ran together well through about 3.5 mi. I had a little bit of a hard time being aggressive and going for it at the end, probably a combination of some continued stomach trouble (suck it up) and not having raced in a while. That being said, I felt pretty good most of the way. Tried to go after Tamas Kovacs (?!) but had the feeling of... Wasn't dying but couldn't seem to turn it on and go faster.

Place  Name                 Year School Avg Mile Points
===========================================================
1  451 Warrenburg, Ryan        ZapFitness  4:50 23:59
2  327 Stanley, Erik        SR Texas       4:50 24:02 1
3  289 Kanyaruhuru, Daniel  SR Queen's     4:52 24:09 2
4  450 Pierce, Jon             ZapFitness  4:52 24:11
5  324 Miller, Kyle         JR Texas       4:53 24:15 3
6  150 Kovacs, Tamas        JR High Point  4:53 24:15 4
7  328 Washburn, Owen       SR Texas       4:54 24:21 5
8  325 Morse, Jake          SR Texas       4:55 24:27 6
9  66  Waggoner, Bo         FR Duke        4:59 24:45 7
10 320 Brown, Darren        SR Texas       5:00 24:49 8

17 319 Berhane, Habben      FR Texas       5:04 25:07 15
23 323 Manzano, Leo         JR Texas       5:06 25:18 20
45 329 Wetzel, Robert       FR Texas       5:12 25:49
46 321 Heller, Jay          FR Texas       5:13 25:53
49 330 Wilson, Ryan         SR Texas       5:14 25:56
61 322 Lowry, Bradley       FR Texas       5:17 26:13

Team Scores
===========================================================
1 Texas           23   1  3  5  6  8 15 20  
Total Time: 2:01:54.00 Average: 24:22.80
2 Duke            85   7 14 18 22 24 28 37
Total Time: 2:05:43.00 Average: 25:08.60
3 Appalachian     98  10 13 23 25 27 30 32
Total Time: 2:06:04.00 Average: 25:12.80
4 North Carolina  109 12 16 19 29 33 45 51
Total Time: 2:06:35.00 Average: 25:19.00

Recap at TexasSports, full results at GoASU, and more photos at Flotrack.

State Farm Fields

Time: 61:00
Distance: 9 mi.


The somewhat harrowing drive from Zap to Boone

Drove up to Appalachian State to see the race course, about 20 minutes from Zap. The course at State Farm Fields seems quite nice and not too difficult: a few field loops and then a section of trail that winds into the woods a little bit with a moderate hill. Finished up with some strides in spikes. Body feeling good, but not too good. Annoyingly still having some digestion problems.


The open field section of State Farm Fields

Goals for the race: don't be afraid to go after it and hurt, run together, be confident and positive.

From Harlot's Ghost, which I'm currently reading:

I had reached a point where I was ready to live in the maelstrom. I no longer wished to quit. Blessed feeling! Damn the damage! Whatever little futures were being wrecked in me forever were not going to count against this fortification of my ego.

Zap Fitness Trail Loop

Time: 23:00
Distance: 3 mi.

Easy morning shakeout at Zap. It is beautiful here... We ran through crunchy leaves and could see our breath. Amazing. Sciatic was pretty sore on my right side, probably the result of tightness on that side along with flying yesterday. Stretched and rolled out with Brendan when he got back from his workout. Looks like he's ducking me tomorrow!

Boone Bound

We're headed to Boone, NC this afternoon for the Blue Ridge Open and to get some training in at Zap Fitness. I was able to make it there once about a year and a half ago when Craigger and I were driving down to Austin to visit Brendan.

We got in a good run at Moses Cone Park, and explored the local scene (sometimes frightfully at the hands of Brendan's driving)

Also, Flotrack has a few videos from Zap this fall.