There's a reason why you wear this uniform...

This isn't exactly running related, but I can't help but be pumped up by it. I had heard that the "turning point" of the postseason for the Red Sox was before game 4 of the ALCS when David Ortiz held a team meeting to get the team focused.



Sports Illustrated has published some details from the players-only meeting, including this:

"Listen," designated hitter David Ortiz began, "we're not just a good team. We're a great team. And don't you fucking forget that. And let's go play one at a time and go prove that. Because let me tell you something...."

Ortiz pulled on the sides of his gray road jersey. "There's a reason why you wear this Red Sox uniform...."

Ortiz paused for a beat, letting the suspenseful silence fill the rapt room.

"Because you're a bad motherfucker."

Update: More on it (and more) in Papelbon's interview with Letterman.

IF, Hancock

Time: 93:00
Distance: 13.5 mi.

A very easy mid-week medium long run. Stayed on the soft surfaces with Erik and it was good to run the whole thing with him. Sore from yesterday and the legs (especially quads/hip flexors) were pretty tired by the end of the run.

Morris Williams Hills, 300s

Time: 90:00
Distance: 13.5 mi.

Target: 16 steady to hard hills; 6 x 300m in ~48 sec with 100m rest in ~25 sec (~7:20-25 total)
Workout: 16 hills from 42 down to 35ish?; 300s from 48-49 down to 46 (7:26 total)

An okay workout, but I was feeling a little off of it on both the hills and the 300s (especially the last one that the guys blazed). Tried to keep under control on the hills, which meant getting dropped a little bit up and then catching up across the top of the hill. These are never my best workouts, and both hamstrings were very tight so I wanted to make sure not to over do it.

Town Lake Loop, Infield

Time: 81:00
Distance: 12.5 mi.

Ran in the afternoon after spending the morning studying for a mid-day exam. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to try to clear my head. Some mild stiff/soreness and digestion issues, but overall it was a good run. Did a loop on the east side and ran back around to the Lamar bridge and back on Congress. Finished with about a mile on the grass.

Week In Review

Time: 495:30
Distance: 74.5 mi.

Overall it was an okay week. Training-wise it was pretty light with just one easy workout and low milage, but it was nice to get in one last two hour run. Still thinking about the Big 12 race and feeling mixed about it, but trying to consider things I can take from it: trust yourself and your fitness to run more conservatively and work on focus before the race. It has basically taken me 2 years to really get back on the horse.

The Brown guys got 6th at Heps on Friday, which is certainly worse than they were shooting for. Unfortunately for them, it does not look like the coaching situation has settled down much which undoubtedly doesn't help. I wish I could say I was surprised.

Maybe most importantly, though, the Red Sox sealed the deal as 2007 World Series Champions.

Town Lake

Time: 120:00
Distance: 18 mi.

The last 2 hour jaunt of the season... not going after it too hard. Headed out starting slow (it was hard to see at 6:30) but settled in to about 6:30s and then 6:00-6:10 on the way back. Definitely more sore than yesterday, but not too bad--mostly just tired hamstrings.

Summer running partners Steve Bogden, Ben Peisch, and Eric Reinauer ran in the Marine Corps Marathon today. Not sure if they were all happy with their times, all in the 2:50s, but it does make me excited to do a marathon at some point. Plus, it looks to me like Jordan must be sneaky-training for a marathon (why else would you do 30k of work in a morning?!).

Shoal Creek, Road Loops

Time: 81:00
Distance: 12 mi.

Easy run starting running down Shoal Creek with Dave and Brian who were doing a hill workout near Duncan Park. Did some loops near that part of Shoal Creek and then headed back up through Hyde Park. Body felt surprisingly good after the race and a late night... guess I'll just have to see if it's delayed-onset soreness. The weather is great, which allowed us to go in the afternoon.

Erik sounds pretty excited about the regional meet!

2007 Big 12 Cross Country Championship

Time: 70:00
Distance: 11 mi.

Goals: run for top-10 individually and for the win as a team; give 100% effort.
Race: 14th (25:10), fairly good effort/race; 3rd as a team behind Colorado and Oklahoma State, who both ran well.


Stan, Jake and Me

An okay day, but a little frustrating to be third. We were a little too aggressive early in going for the win as a team (we were leading at 3k and in second just past 6k), which probably kept us from getting second as we all faded a bit after 5k. Leo sacked up bigtime after falling a bit back in the middle, and Kyle and Stan were both solid. I would've really liked to be in the top ten, but felt flat over the last 3k. Overall, though, this still ranks as one of the best cross country races I've run and there is still a lot of room for improvement in our races in the next few weeks. Our team performance was almost undoubtedly better this year than last (despite getting 3rd), with 4 in the top 15 this year and just 1 in the top 15 last year.

The rumor is that the course was 160m long in the last mile, which seems to make sense from my splits: first two miles were about 4:45, hit 4 miles at under 19:40 (~5:00?) and finished the race in 25:10 (5:30 for 1600m, just about 5:00 for 1760m). The course was surprisingly difficult: all those little bumps added up to making it hard to get into a rhythm. Also, it was dry as hell... and the altitude shouldn't be totally ignored.

Place   Team            Score   1   2   3   4   5   6   7
=====   =============== =====   ==  ==  ==  ==  ==  ==  ==
1       Colorado        34      1   2   4   11  16  17  24
2       Oklahoma State  48      3   8   10  12  15  25  40
3       Texas           58      6   7   9   14  22  45  55

Place  Bib #  Name              Team            Time
====== ====== ================= =============== ========
1      52     Brent Vaughan     Colorado        24:22.30
2      45     Kenyon Neuman     Colorado        24:36.50
3      225    Ryan Vail         Oklahoma State  24:35.80
4      47     Stephen Pifer     Colorado        24:64.30
5      110    Colby Wissel      Kansas          24:51.05
6      243    Erik Stanley      Texas           24:53.05
7      241    Kyle Miller       Texas           24:55.20
8      217    David Chirchir    Oklahoma State  25:02.60
9      240    Leonel Manzano    Texas           25:04.00
10     220    Sean Fleming      Oklahoma State  25:04.10
11     43     Peter Janson      Colorado        25:04.30
12     222    David Jankowski   Oklahoma State  25:08.50
13     302    Edwin Sang        Texas Tech      25:09.60
14     244    Owen Washburn     Texas           25:10.05
15     215    Matt Barnes-Smith Oklahoma State  25:11.80

22     242    Jacob Morse       Texas           25:30.75
46     238    Jay Heller        Texas           26:19.40
57     237    Darren Brown      Texas           26:33.50
61     236    Habben Berhane    Texas           26:37.45
84     245    Robert Wetzel     Texas           27:24.80

Coverage: Flotrack Video | TexasSports

Lubbock is pretty out there, but now I can't say that I've never seen prairie dogs of cotton patches.

Rawls Golf Course

Time: 38:00
Distance: 5.5 mi.


Checking out the course

Shakeout run on the Big 12s course after an easy flight from Austin. Body feeling pretty good, despite random soreness in my left foot (as Hanley observed, everything has been going too well... You can't race like that) and the usual stomach business.

I think we're ready. Not much more to say than that.

Short Possum Trot

Time: 70:00
Distance: 10.5 mi.

Morning run with the guys on the Possum Trot loop, cutting it a little sort on Enfield to get back to the track for some strides. Right hammy and piriformis tight/sore, but other than that feeling good.

Also, upon showing Colin the somewhat absurd picture that TexasSports is running right now he offered some fantastic wishes:

May your dominaysh be swift and thorough.

Morris Williams Speed Play

Time: 56:00
Distance: 8.5 mi.

Target: 3 sets of 3:00 (1:00) :30 (2:00) - long intervals at just under 3 min 1k pace and short intervals in about 32 sec 200m pace
Workout: Ran decently hard together and felt good, completed the fartlek


Morris Williams Golf Course

A chilly and clear morning in Austin. Got up early to finish an exam and while I was pretty tired heading to the workout, I'm happy to be done with everything up to Big 12s. Did the fartlek approximately on the 1k loop that we've used earlier in the season which at least gave us an idea how hard we were running... from what I could tell we were just about on the target pace. Everyone ran together well. Stomach continues to be an issue, but I was able to run through it fine.

Shoal Creek, 15th

Time: 60:30
Distance: 9 mi.
Map

Didn't end up getting out until the evening... busy day and my stomach was feeling pretty off in the morning. It ended up being a pretty nice run, especially because we've finally gotten some really chilly weather (under 50 F!) and it almost felt like a Brown afternoon practice run. Brian waited until I was done with class and other stuff and we headed out around 6:30.

Stomach still a little weird and right hamstring is very tight.

Week In Review

Time: 572:50
Distance: 85.5 mi.

Starting to taper somewhat with Big 12s coming up on Friday. Felt good all week with no major physical complaints and good workouts.

The goals for the upcoming week (Big 12s) are clear: we are very fit and need to run together to challenge every guy on the course, especially over the last 3k. When the point of decision comes, as it inevitably does in every race, it's time to be confident and aggressive.

Town Lake

Time: 82:00
Distance: 13 mi.


The east side of the Town Lake trail

A reduced Sunday run with Big 12s just 5 days away. Just looking to go 80 minutes at about 6:15 pace. A bunch of the guys inexplicably seemed to have trouble running together, which was annoying, but I was happy to run with Jake and Kyle the whole way. The weather was great and we were in good spirits... autumn is actually upon us (just a little bit of a warmer autumn than I'd like). Both hamstrings and right glute got sore... will have to pay special attention to these to get them worked out in the next few days.

Town Lake, Greenbelt

Time: 80:00
Distance: 12 mi.


The Greenbelt is almost completely dried up

Drove down to Barton Springs with Jilane and did a small loop on Town Lake before the crowds were more than I could bear and then headed back to do most of the run on the Greenbelt. Nice to get out there as we haven't been doing the Wednesday runs there too much this year, but ended up wandering a little bit when I tried some new and somewhat overgrown trails about 25 minutes out on the trail. Right glute/hamstring tight again as on most recent post-workout days, but they loosened up over the course of the run. Really nice to see JR have a good run too!

Infield

Time: 30:00
Distance: 4 mi.

Easy afternoon 4 miler before weights (which I incidentally missed due to new draconian rules in DL-8). Loosened up a little bit and got a chance to stretch and roll out, which was good. Right hamstring getting tight again.

2 x 4 Mile Tempo

Time: 65:00
Distance: 10 mi.

Target: 2 x 4 mile tempo, 21:00-21:20, 90 sec rest
Workout: 1 x 4 mile tempo, 21:07

The target was a repeat of the Sept. 21 2 x 4 mile tempo on Town Lake, but with no 300s at the end and a little faster. Vig cut it short after the first one despite everyone being on because... "trust me, you guys are fine." He was a little bit ambivalent about two decently hard workouts this week when I talked to him about training last weekend, so I guess I'm not really surprised.

I would've liked to have done the whole workout and was definitely ready to do it, despite a few of the guys looking a little flat coming off travel last weekend and Tuesday's workout. We were a little slow through the mile, and I took the pace through most of the rest of it keeping us right on track... it would've been significantly faster than we did it earlier if we had finished it out.

Right glute was pretty sore, and I was stretching it out during our rest when Vig called the workout.

15th, Shoal Creek

Time: 63:00
Distance: 9 mi.
Map (approximate)

A little bit of a hodge-podge easy run... Stan and I left our place and picked up Leo and Dave on the way down towards campus. Stopped at the track because I couldn't do a whole run in the Victory's that I am (trying to) wear-test. Not sure that shoe is built for me. Then ran down to 15th, and over to lower and upper Shoal Creek and back to the house. Fine run, but a little disjointed... never got into a rhythm. Left hamstring/glute feeling better today.

Town Lake, Greenbelt

Time: 90:00
Distance: 13 mi.


The fog over the track when we arrived at 6:30

Very easy 90 minute run from the track across Town Lake to the Greenbelt and back. Everyone seemed to be a little lethargic or sore after yesterday's workout, and it was pretty muggy out (with a surreal fog). My right upper hamstring / outer glute was very sore again today, which resulted in some hip flexor tightness as well, all as a result of yesterday's harder stuff... not too worried about it coming around by Friday, as it has done this a few times this fall.

Zilker 1ks, Track 300s

Time: 91:30
Distance: 14 mi.

Target: 6 x 1k in ~2:45 with 3:00 rest; 6 x 100m/300m in 25/48 (7:30 for 1.5 mi.)
Workout: 2:50, 2:44, 2:44, 2:43, 2:43, 2:39 (avg. 2:43.8); 7:31


Downtown Austin, Town Lake, and Zilker Park (bottom left)

Headed out to Zilker with a small group (Jake, Kyle, Stan, and Rob and Jay for a few) for some quick 1ks with solid rest, then back to the track for 300s with quick rest. Overall a very good workout... meant to target an area that we haven't done much training on: intervals pushing VO2 Max with decent recovery. I have a great aerobic base, but didn't feel on Friday that I could push beyond that, which is exactly what this workout was for--and I felt it just as I expected: I recovered quickly, but I had heavy arms and was rigging a bit by the end (got dropped by a few seconds by Jake, Kyle and Stanley on the last one). Happy with the work we put in, though, and definitely an indication that we're in great shape.

The rankings got shaken up a bit this week after pre-nats, but conference weekend is when things will get really interesting.