New England Championships 11/08/09 - 11/15/09

NEW ENGLANDS

was so epic. Just ask the kid beside me who yelled "THIS IS SO EPIC" during the first 200m of the muddy and wet Wickham park course. I had to smile when he said that. But he was so right! Mud was flying up absolutely everywhere! I was getting hit by mud all over (even up to my hair!). I wanted to redeem myself so badly in this race because after states and I think I did. It was kinda weird: my odd numbered post season races #1 (KVAC) and # 3(States) were pretty bad... but my even numbered races #2 (Regionals) and #4 (New Englands) went really well! I placed 9th out of the Maine guys at NE's and 43rd total. I was 23rd out of Maine guys last week so I am pretty happy with the improvement. Last year I was 82nd at New Englands. My time wasn't all that impressive... but I really don't care. The race was so much fun.

The Race: The starting line was just as big as I remember. There was actually the same # of runners as last year (266). I got to be in a box with a bunch of out of state kids and I talked with one of the about USATF from last year. He was on a team we competed against and he remembered us. When the gun went off I got squeezed out a little bit but I made a move up at about 150m into the race to get a good position. I was already covered with a pretty good amount of mud after only 400m (awesome). Things didn't seem to be going out really really fast, although it was definitely faster than last year. I could still see the lead guys for a while which I thought was good. I had no idea where I was in terms of place but I could tell I was up a lot farther than last year. I felt pretty good throughout the entire race, there wasn't the energy drain like States and KVACs. The mud did make the race pretty slow overall but there is no way it would have been as fun without it. I think I would have been able to place better without it but it doesn't really matter.

(me looking cool)

At that big hill I tried to run up pretty stong and I picked off a couple of people. Running the course was weird because you would work hard up the hills but get no rest going down-hill. You had to work to keep yourself from falling. The worst part was just after the two mile. There was a long gradual down hill which I wanted to run fast on SO BADLY but I couldn't because I couldn't control where my feet went! The finish was pretty flat except for the last 100m and I think I finished pretty strong. The chute was slippery just like the announcer said and I saw a lot of slipping tired kids.


SPEAKING OF SLIPPING:

Absolutely the best part of the meet-

Sliding down the hill at the end was so sick. You could go so far! You also got to taste mud.... Which was worth it based on the fun level of the activity.

Well, this is the end of XC (for many of us). It was an incredible season. Whether or not you had the season you were really hoping for, you have to recognize that it was a great season and a lot of fun and awesome things happened. I wish good luck to all in XC who are continuing their season and a huge good luck to everyone in their winter sport!

XC 09 :) -Seeks

P.S.
I got back to Maine hours later and then went to Farmington with Nic! So much driving in a day but so worth it! We ate a good breakfast the next day (fruit + muffins!!!!) and then went to Mandy Edwards' balloon release at EA. So many nice balloons! We came back later and decided to run through puddles and splash everywhere. I definitely hadn't had enough rain and mud for the weekend :)

Maine State XC Championships 11/02/09 - 11/08/09

The 2009 Maine XC season is almost over with only New Englands left (which I just BARELY made)! I can still remember everything just starting off with the Cony Laliberte Invitational. It seems like a long time ago, but the memories are still very fresh. The state meet has come and gone and, truthfully, I didn't make my time or place goals for the meet at all (not even close really). But I have decided to use my frustrated-ness to finish my XC season on a high note at New Englands and train hard going into indoor track to kick some butt! I am pretty annoyed with my post-season but every time I think about it I get a little more fired up for later races.

My training the week of states really wasn't much. It really just included easy runs and an easy speed workout on the track.

The class B race began at 1:15 in the afternoon but my day of states really started at 7:00 when I got up and ate honey-nut cheerios for breakfast. Our school had decided to take a bus down to bring anyone down who wanted to watch the meet. It had been decided that the bus was going to leave at 8:15, so that's when I was going to have to be there. The reason for the early time was so Eben and I could run the course before the "A" races started. I had only ever seen the course once and Eben hadn't seen it at all. The bus ride down went as usual. We all just listened to music and danced/partied on the bus.

When we got the I admit that I got pretty nervous. This definitely isn't unusual at a big meet for me, but I hadn't felt that nervous for a while so it just seemed weird. Eben and I ran over the course and hung around watching the other races. People were running so fast! As our race time approached we did some more warming up and eventually got down to the starting line. The start actually felt really good. It was, of course, fast but it wasn't bad at all. Then Frye started to take off and from there everybody started chasing and things stretched out.

I felt ok at the beginning of the race but pretty soon I started feeling my energy drain, a feeling that you don't normally get until about 400m to go. It just felt like there was no gas. Logan Price came up next to me for a while and I used him to push up for a little while.

After he pushed away I was running alone for quite a while. I couldn't really see people all that close in front of me and I couldn't hear people behind me (yet). After I climbed the wall at the end Tim Follo caught up to me and I tried to reach for that end of the race push but came up empty. I just kinda watched him run away from me. Here's me looking tired at the end:

Eben did have a pretty good race, however. Considering the course he ran to a very strong time in 17:44. He doesn't look to bad in his pictures:

Nicole Showed up to the meet and made me feel better and people tried to cheer me up and it helped but I was still pretty bummed. I really wasn't sure if I had made New Englands after the B race so I had to stay around and see the C race. As it turns out I was 23rd out of 25 so I made it but was really close. Now I have another meet to take out my XC-sub-par-post-season-rage on! Yes that is all one word!

But really XC season was great this year. The team grew quite a bit and everyone ran a lot of times that they were very happy with.

Next week!!! The (heroic) end to XC! I have already decided that NE's will be great! Good luck to all racers. Make it good!

Eastern Maine Regionals 10/19/09 - 11/01/09

After two weeks of waiting regionals finally came and I am so glad that they did! With an unexpected delay in the season our team just had to plan out another week of training (not a big deal). However, we had to keep ourselves pumped up for the important meet during the time off (a very big deal). The boys were definitely ready to have a better race than at KVAC's (I know I was). I made sure the guys knew how important every second they could take off was. 10 seconds off one of their times could mean as much as 4 or 5 places.


Training (since KVAC's)

Monday October 19- easy 5 mile + strength workout


Tuesday October 20- Hard 3 mile + track work (200's)


Wednesday October 21- Track work (repeat 1200's + long warm up)


Thursday October 22- Easy 3


Friday October 23- Rest Day before Regionals NOT! 4 mile run.


Saturday October 24- Regionals NO! 7 mile run

Sunday October 25- Rest Day went to movies with Nic and saw CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS! Very funny and very cute. Ate popcorn by myself because not everyone in the world has recognized the magic of buttered popcorn.


Monday October 26- 5 mile easy. good warm up.


Tuesday October 27- Track work 2x800, 2x400, 2x200. Faster than race pace.


Wednesday October 28- Medium pace 3 mile + 200's


Thursday October 29- easy 3

Friday October 30- rest before regionals no really this is for real this time.


Saturday October 31- Regionals! Very windy yet pretty warm. 16:30.72. Volunteered in the haunted house in Augusta and scared some kiddies. Drove to Farmington and watched some cheesy Halloween movies.

Sunday November 1- Rest Day. Hung out with Nic!

Regionals - Much better than the day regionals was originally scheduled for. It was almost 60 degrees at the meet which wasn't bad at all. The wind made it feel a little chilly but overall the weather was really not bad for a race. I made sure the guys did plenty of warm up + mobility exercises before the race. I didn't want anyone to have stiff muscles. The course didn't look too bad and even by the time the class B boys race was ready to go (the 4th race of the day) things weren't too muddy. We lined up in box 13 only to be moved to box 8 (our girls team had box 13....). We did our run outs and were ready to go. The race started and, like usual, went out fairly fast in the first 100. Surprisingly, though, the pace didn't stay as fast at the beginning as I thought it would. I had based a lot of my race strategy off of a fast start. But when the first 800 was definitely slower than I expected I decided to take over and push it out. I knew that Ryan James, Darik Frye, Ben Chapman, and Gabe Stewart were moving positions around behind me but I wasn't quite sure where. A quick check going around a corner about 600m after the mile mark told me that Gabe Stewart was right on me.

From there I just tried to keep the pace up and eventually crossed in 16:30, not my best at Belfast but better than KVAC's! Eben had an amazing race to PR in 17:22. Spencer Gray also busted out an amazing PR with his 19:36.

The awards ceremony had its cool factor increased by at least 3 points when THE Ryan Widzgowski and myself did an awesome handshake + chest bump. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZrdFKhgWs8

Oh and if any of you went to the haunted house in Augusta (at the old circuit city) on the night of Halloween I was the Werewolf in the camping room... Not the scariest room in the house but I did my best.

NEXT WEEK! States @ Twin Brook in Cumberland. Good luck to everyone! Its gonna be good!

KVAC Championships 10/12/09 - 10/18/09

Wow its cold. I guess I don't mind too much because that's a sure sign that the post season is underway. There's nothing like running in one of the most important races of the season when you know you have to push hard and win and the air is cold! KVAC's marks the first of (hopefully) three important meets the team will push for victory in! We gave it our all Saturday but now KVAC's has gone by so its time to look ahead to qualifying for States at the Regional meet.

Training:
Monday October 12- Long run in the cold! Stacked wood for strength workout :)

Tuesday October 13- Mid distance run then track work.
Wednesday October 14- Tempo 3 mile then 3 x 1200m + 3 x 200m

Thursday October 15- Warm up then easy 3 miles

Friday October 16- Rest day before meet. Frisbee.

Saturday October 17- KVAC's at UMA! Ummmm 17:10.8 :(
Sunday October 18- Rest Day. Walk in Vaughn Woods in Hollowell with Nicole :) (near Hall-dale HS)

KVAC's - It was a fairly cold and randomly windy day on Saturday. There were times when the wind was blowing like crazy and times when it was completely still. I made sure my guys did plenty of warm up before the race. We definitely didn't want stiff muscles for the race. After the Girls ran (great job Abby Mace!) we were ready to go. The start was massive like it always is at KVAC's, it seemed like you were looking so far when you looked up and down the line. The start was SO FAST. I ran out pretty hard to make it up there in the pack. The crazy thing was it didn't slow down after the first 200 to 300m... It seemed to get faster! I will spare the guys by not writing all their times. Jason Grotton, Jarrod Lenfest, and Eben Hodgkins ran pretty well. Their times were 20:39, 19:47, and 17:56 respectively. Not a great day for the team as a whole or individuals really. We had a team goal for 4th place (and 3rd place if we had a really good day). We got 8th but the difference from us and 4th was only 16 points. We will do it at Regionals though!

Next Week @ Belfast for the Eastern Regional Championships! Team goal - Qualify for states

Mt. Blue 10/04/09 - 10/11/09

The post season is almost here! You know what that means... Mt. Blue relays! OMG techno party! But really I am pumped for the championship races too. The guys trained right through this week not worrying too much about how they were going to feel on Friday. Coach and I definitely want us ready for KVACs, Regionals and States. (If I get some photos of the mt. Blue relays I will put them up)


Sunday October 4 - long run. went down to twin brook with Ryan to run the course a few times. Saw Lauren Fecteau and Jonathan Clement.


Monday October 5 - Track Work. 5 x 1000m with warm up and cool down runs.


Tuesday October 6 - Hard 3 mile run @ 2 minutes slower than 5k time. 6x200 on the track.

Wednesday October 7 - Rest Day. Math Meet at Cony....

Thursday October 8 - 3 miles easy


Friday October 9 - Mt. Blue relays! ran the course 3 times! (warmup and 2x racing!)

Saturday October 10 - Watched Nicole's race at St. Joes and ran about 5 ish miles while there!

Sunday October 11 - Rest day. Went down to Farmington to visit Nic. Watched Hannibal it was great. More gore than silence of the lambs but not as good.

Mt. Blue Relays - Mt. Blue Relays rocks! It is the perfect way to bring the regular season into the post season. I don't like having to run really competitive 5k's all the way until the championship races. The Mt. Blue relays is such a fun way to keep people relaxed before KVAC's. My team mates and I didn't have very clear goals coming into the race and I didn't know quite how the course was going to compare to last year. I wanted to try for 10:40. I thought it was very feasible because I ran a 11:11 last year. Either it just wasn't a good day for me or the course condition slowed me more than I thought it would because I ran 20 seconds slower than I had hoped. 11:00... At least its better than last year! I know Eben narrowly missed his goal too with a 12:03. He really wanted to get under 12:00.

Our team goal was a little more important: Beat our last year's team time. We did just that! We ran 1:06:10 last year.... This year we ran 1:03:34! I am hoping this means that we are on pace to do better in the championship meets.


The techno music during the race and in the awards area at the end was great. I saw the mosh pit by the speakers at the end but I unfortunately didn't get to be a part of it. I was, however, in the big dance group inside after dinner. That was awesome! No one could move though. We were all packed pretty tight. Fun meet! OH AND WAY TO GO MT. ARARAT CUP STACKER!

Up Next week. KVAC Championships at UMA. Good luck everyone!

Erskine Academy 9/27/09 - 10/03/09

I am so late with this blog! I apologize for my extreme lateness. I forgot to do it the weekend after the race and by the time I remembered I just decided I would save it for this weekend. The week of our home meet went very well. We measured our course several times (and I obsessed over every little detail of the course). By this point the guys were so much stronger. Their hard work and Minzy's training was ready to show. It was our home meet week and we were ready to run some good times.

Training:
Sunday September 27 - Easy mid distance run in the rain and the dark!

Monday September 28 - Track work. 4 x 1200 on the track with good warm up run and cool down run.

Tuesday September 29 - More track work. 4 x 1 mile.

Wednesday September 30 - Course preparation. Ran the course twice and marked it up. Strength workout.

Thursday October 1 - Easy day with team. Warm up + capture the flag.

Friday October 2 - HOME MEET! Ended up being an awesome race for everyone and wasn't as cold as I had thought.

Saturday October 3 - Easy mid distance.

Home Meet - First off I have to say that we had the best food at our home meet that anyone has ever had at any race anywhere. There was healthy food for people who actually eat that stuff and tons of desserts for normal people.
Our meet ended up growing a little bit from its original size. There were only supposed to be three teams there: Skowhegan, Gardiner and Erskine. MCI and Messalonskee ended up showing up though which was cool. It was definitely better having a 5 team meet than only a 3 team meet. The start felt like a legit start with enough people on the line. Mr Stout, our athletic director, yelled "go" and we were off (below).

I wanted to set a pretty good time on our home course. Its flat for the first and last mile so I told myself I was going to try to push the hills during mile 2 hard. I went out in the first mile, with one small hill, in 5:05. I ran through the second mile which had two very respectable hills (one is like 1/4 mile long) in 10:26 and closed on the flat again to finish in 16:18. I am pretty happy with that time, it was a little more than 40 seconds off last years time there and it was close to my PR. Then Eben came in with a PR and then...... EVERYONE ELSE ON MY TEAM PR'ed..... whoa!

I learned after the race that Jarrod Lenfest (our 3rd) had an incredible race and in doing so pulled all the guys behind him. I have to give credit to him because I know Spencer was pacing off him and everyone else was pacing off Spencer. If he hadn't run so well all those guys wouldn't have run as well. Eben hit 17:31 (17:41 previous), Jarrod ran 18:53 (first time under 19:00!!!) (19:06 previous), Spencer cruised to a 19:48 for his first XC sub 20:00 (20:34 previous) and he dragged in Aaron Bengtson in 20:08 (20:49 previous), Jason Grotton in 20:21 (20:45 previous) and Logan Merrithew also at 20:21 (20:44 previous). From there the guys continued to smash times. Anthony Arbour ran 21:13 (22:22 previous) in only his second HS XC race ever and Tom Ferguson (21:53 previous) also PR'ed with the same time of 21:13 just behind Anthony. Kevin Graham opened up his first race of the season with a 23:00 , Ryan Wood came in with a 23:33 (23:56 previous), Addison Cox broke 24 with his 23:50 (24:35 previous) and Jason Goggin came SO CLOSE to getting 24 with his 24:03 (24:36 previous).

Everyone improved consistently and the meet was so fun!

Next week @ Mt. Blue vs. a ton of teams. Good luck everyone! (yes I know it already happened)

Lincoln Academy 9/19/09 - 9/26/09

Great week of XC. Everyone on the team is improving and all are bettering or staying close to their PR's each week. I thought that after Belfast it would be hard for a lot of the guys to beat their times by as much as they have. Many saw improvements at Medomak and a few saw better times this week at Lincoln on a much hillier course. Most at least stayed close to the time they got last week. Awesome!

Training:
Saturday September 19 - Long run 10.5 miles pretty hard. 5 Circuit strength workout.

Sunday September 20 - Rest day. Spent a wonderful day At Bailey's Island on the coast with Nicole!

Monday September 21 - Track day. Long but fairly speedy warm up. 3 x 1200 on the track race pace. Same cool down but slower.

Tuesday September 22 - Hard three mile on the road (1 - 2 minutes slower than race pace). 6 x 200 on the track.


Wednesday September 23 - Run at the UMA course. Did it twice. Everyone on the team but Eben and I got lost.....

Thursday September 24 - Easy day 1.5 mile easy jog and stretch. Came up with the team t-shirt.

Friday September 25 - Course run then race. 16:18 for 5k at Lincoln.

Saturday September 26 - 9.5 mile run at Orono with the boys XC team there. (Plus Ryan Widz and Kelton!)


Lincoln Academy - Coming into Lincoln I wasn't sure what to expect from the course. I knew that a lot of people ran some very good times on the course the year before despite the course having one rather large hill that you run twice. Turned out that the course is still conducive to pretty fast running. I really liked the trails. My dad and my coach had me at 16:17 but the official time was 16:18. I think I'll just go with the better time especially since you can see me after the finish line and the clock still says 16:17 (below).

The course was, however, a little short last year and an extra lap around the athletic field was added which probably tacked on 200-250 meters. This was really cool because Widzgowski actually ran a better time this year with the extra lap! I felt 10x better than at Medomak and, along with Ryan, ran a few seconds better than at Medomak last week. A few of the guys PR'ed on the team and everyone stayed close to their best times. Tom Ferguson PR'ed by about 8 seconds with a 21:53 (22:01 previous). Addison Cox ran a 24:35 (27:39 previous!) That's a 3 minute + PR. Holy Crap. Jason Goggin busted up the 25 minute barrier with his 24:36 (25:04 previous) and Shawn White almost took off two minutes hitting 25:35 (27:29 previous). A new freshman, Anthony Arbour, opened with a 22:22. There was much rejoicing and it was time for a nice sub 17 picture for Ryan (below)

Up Next week - @ Home vs. Gardiner and Skowhegan. Homecoming Meet! Gotta get a good time on our home course!

UMaine visit - After the meet was over I left for home to pack and eat because I was going to go to UMaine that night to stay with the boys XC team! Ryan and Kelton Cullenberg were going that night too so that made it wayyyy cooler. On the way up my dad thought he went by the entrance to Orono so he pulled over so he could turn around. Of course we were looking in the mirrors to see if there were cars coming behind us and what do we see? The blue lights of a cop pulling us over. Now we knew that we weren't speeding but my dad just said whatever and I tried to find the registration. About 45 seconds later the cop came up and told us that he thought our plate light was out but then after he pulled up behind us he saw that it was actually OK. Weird.

By the time we got up there it was pretty chilly. I met Ryan Harkleroad and some of the boys on the team. Everyone was really cool. We went to Tim Horton's and played Halo. They were all better than Kelton, Ryan, and I.
I was by far the worst of us three so.... yeah. The next day we ran 9 miles and ate at a place called Johnny's. The food was really nice. Kelton and I got a tour of the campus from Riley Masters and David Currier and then we both went home.

Medomak Valley 9/12/09 - 9/18/09

My guys impress me every time. The rate at which some of them are improving is amazing. Coming off of the Belfast race, the guys had a lot of confidence. I knew, that based on their training, they could be doing better but they just needed to be shown that. Belfast helped a lot. After Belfast I talked with a few of them about pack running in XC. They nodded and said "OK" and did some drills requiring them to try to stay together. I wasn't really sure if they were going to do it in a race or not. This Friday I got to see if they would.

Training:
Saturday September 12 - Medium-hard pace 7 mile. Watched the three way college meet at Colby with Bates and UMF. Got to see Nicole run great and saw some dudes from Colby who were at the XC camp this summer. Very fun to watch.

Sunday September 13 - Long run 10 miles. Mom biked with me and gave me water!

Monday September 14 - Track work. 9x400 at 1:09 or faster (finished with a 1:01!)

Tuesday September 15 - Ran our XC course and then a 3 mile loop immediately after.

Wednesday September 16 - Warm up and then track work. 4x1mile at 5:26 or faster.

Thursday September 17 - Easy day with team. Basketball.

Friday September 18 - Race at Medomak Valley. 16:24 for 5k.

Medomak Valley - Medomak Valley offered me a similar chance at a good time much like Belfast did last week. Many of the guys had goal times in mind and most importantly they had the confidence that they could do better. I knew that they could do really well based on their training in practice. I was still unsure even at the race if the guys could learn to run together and push each other.

Looking back at my race I think that I went out a little too fast based on how I was feeling that day. My first mile didn't leave me with the same strength that I had at Belfast and my time ended up being a little slower.

The outcome for my team mates was quite different. Eben came in and ran to a strong finish with a 1 second PR (17:41 To his 17:42) over last week at Belfast. What happened a little later is what was really amazing though. The guys 4-7 ran in a pack. Spencer Gray lead Logan Merrithew, Jason Grotton, and Aaron Bengtson to 3 PR's and one season best (# 2 all time). Gray came in at 20:34 (20:50 previous), Merrithew followed with a 20:44 (20:37 PR), Grotton (below) cranked in for a 20:45 (21:40 previous!), and Aaron rounded out our top seven with a 20:49 (21:11 previous). Other guys with improvements were Tom Ferguson with a 22:01 (22:41 previous), Mike Raffia with a 22:17 (22:53 previous), Jason Goggin running a 25:04 (25:32 previous), and Addison Cox with a new 27:39 (28:27 previous).

There was an award ceremony at the end which I had no idea about. I thought it was just a regular meet. Ryan gave me two awkward hugs at the end of the race which was.... nice. One during the awards and one just after he finished. It was almost as awkward as that time when I didn't dress up as Paula Abdul and pretend to be drunk... Then we discovered that we had been beaten by Belfast by 4 points! 71 to 67! So close! If the guys can learn to push each other like they did at Medomak yesterday then we are going to be very competitive in KVAC B races. I know that mostly everyone was happy with their race and that they look forward to the meets to come.

Good luck to everyone in their season so far and keep up the good pace!
Next Week: @ Lincoln Academy vs. Camden, Medomak, Rockland and Winslow. Should be a good race! Lets do it guys.

Belfast 9/05/09 - 9/11/09

Another great week of XC has gone by and things look to be getting better! People are improving and our team's performances and the performances around the state are getting me pumped up for the rest of the season! After the hilly Maranacook course I was ready for some faster courses (but really I was very happy with my Maranacook race). Here is some of the stuff I have done leading up to Belfast.


Training: 
Saturday September 5 - Mid length run, fairly easy. Then drive up to Farmington to visit Nicole "awesome calves" Morissette. An attempt to hike a mountain in Rumford was made.... found some really creepy back roads and heard gunshots while we were walking around to find the trail. Turns out we went too far past the trail entrance. When we finally found the trail it was getting dark and the trail turned out to be really crappy anyway. Bleh!

Sunday September 6 - Another hiking attempt.... this time successful! We went to hike Mt. Blue and it was great! Nicole pretty much sprinted up and down the mountain. I couldn't keep up! She is so fast! Later that day I ran 7 miles in the dark.... I didn't feel any fatigue or any discomfort while I was running because I was too afraid some animal was going to come eat me.

Monday September 7 - 6 mile run really hilly. Then 8 x100 (in about 20-22 seconds) hills after and 5 circuit strength workout.

Tuesday September 8 - Track work. Warm up then 800,400,200 ladder x2. 3 mile fairly hard later.

Wednesday September 9 - Warm up then 6 mile run.

Thursday September 10 - Easy day with team. 1 mile easy then wiffle ball.

Friday September 11 - Race at Belfast 16:10.92 for 5k!


Belfast - Coming into this race I was kind of nervous because I knew this course would give me a good shot to get a decent time. I know my team members also had fairly high expectations for themselves. They had all set goal times for themselves at the start of the season and this would be the first real shot to get close to if not beat those times. The race started and I tried to get out pretty quick. Later when looking at a video of the start I saw that Eben had a pretty good start (Below) as did most of my team. They all got out pretty well.

I had Jason Kaake and Ryan James right next to me going down the incline on the backside of the first little hill. Running through the course I could tell that Jason and I were moving pretty well. (Below)

Unfortunately no one was standing at the mile so I didn't know what our pace was! Aargh! I tried to keep the pace up heading to mile 2  and Jason held on to my back. Going by the two mile there was still no one saying times... but luckily a Winslow girl (I think Riley Jones?) told us our time probably 10-15 seconds after we went by the 2 mile mark. She said 10:44. The 2 mile was probably about 10:30.

From there I tried to push the last mile pretty hard. I went back around the last loop and finished in 16:10 which means I did about as 5:40 for the last 1.1. Eben came in at 17:42 which is a new life time best. and Jarrod hit 19:06. Almost the entire rest of the team PR'ed there (or at least came really close). Jason Goggin, who smashed his previous best time last week at Maranacook with a 26:44, broke his record again with a 25:32 at Belfast. That's such a ridiculous improvement over last year!

Overall a very good week of training for the guys and their hard work is showing.

Up next week: @ Medomak Valley Vs. Belfast, Camden, Edward Little, Lawrence, Lincoln, and Medomak. I hear this one is a fast course too... if not, we will just have to make it fast!

Maranacook 8/29/09 - 9/4/09

Hey guys! The first week of the regular season has gone by and what a first week it was! I saw great times posted on courses all over the state. Things are looking really good. Since Laliberte I have felt very good about my training and race ability. I always come into a season a little unsure about racing because I haven't done it in a while. Laliberte showed me what it feels like to race again and I had high expectations for my season coming off the race.

Here is what my training has looked like since Laliberte:

Saturday August 29 - Big strength workout including core and back work.

Sunday August 30 - Long run (11 miles). Dad biked it with me.

Monday August 31 - Track work. 10x400 at 1:13 or faster (got to 1:11 and 1:07 at the end). 10 x200 rests. 1 mile warm up and cool down with stretching.

Tuesday September 1 - Warm up and core/sprint workout. 5 mile run then cool down.

Wednesday September 2 -  Track day.  Warm up run 3 x mile at + 20 over 5k goal pace.. 1/2 mile cooldown. 5 circuit strength workout.

Thursday September 3 - Easy day with team. 1 mile warm up + kickball. stretch and jog cool down.

Friday September 4 - Race Day. Course jog with wind sprints and then race: 16:57.

Maranacook -  Kickball Game - Shortly after discovering we didn't have enough balls to play dodgeball we decided we should play kickball. It was girls vs. boys and the game play was so intense. The lead changed hands so many times... I still don't know who won....  Eben kicked at the #1 spot and I kicked at the #2 spot. We wanted to get some speed on the bases early (I totally could have kicked number 4 with these jacked legs. My nickname is "The Boom-ah"). After the game we had to meditate for a little while cause were all so pumped after playing a game that intense.

Maranacook - Yeah so I liked the weather at Laliberte a lot more than at Maranacook. It was hot and sticky this time! I did a jog of the course with Eben Hodgkins, Jarrod Lenfest, Logan Merrithew, and Aaron Bengtson and we were all soaked and dripping by the time we got back. We basically hid in the shade until it was time to go cheer on the girls. The girls race went well except one of our girls had a problem with her foot and was in a lot of pain. She made it through 2/3 of the course but had to make it back to our team area mid-race for some ice. I also watched Abby Mace win by about exactly 2 minutes. When it was time for the boys race it had cooled off .25 degrees and dropped 1 percent humidity...(now at only 99 percent humidity...).

The race started off and the 10 teams there shot off the starting line. Luke quickly came up on my shoulder where he would stay for the remainder of the race. We climbed up the fairly large hill that is just a minute or two into the race and went into the woods. The first mile was apparently fairly slow. I thought I heard someone say 5:20 something. It must have been the hill cause I thought we took it out pretty fast. Luke and I stayed together for pretty much the whole thing. (Below)

We would pass each other  every once in a while but neither would let the other get ahead more than 10 feet. During the last 1/2 mile I tried to push pretty hard. We flew down that big hill again and went through the field and small woods section to the finish. Coming up the last rise and onto the flat field where we finish Luke kicked and pulled away to win by about 1.5 seconds. We were both under 17:00 which I was VERY happy about. I ran 18:18 on the same course last year.

My boys all had pretty good finishes. Most passed at least one kid in the last 200 meters. I like to see them finish strong. Eben broke 19 (18:59) which is also incredible. Jason Goggin came into the season with a 29:06 PR on a much easier course. He ran 26:44 yesterday.... I love seeing people break barriers like that.

Up next week - @ Belfast vs. Morse, Rockland, Belfast (duh), Lincoln, Winslow and Medomak Valley. Anyone else going for a PR?

Cony Laliberte Invitational 8/23/09 - 8/28/09

My first XC blog post !!! This feels rather strange to me. I read other blogs from track and XC last year but I never really thought that I would be blogging myself! For those of you who don't know me I am Sam Seekins and I am currently a Senior at Erskine Academy. Erskine is a semi-private Class B school (just under 750 kids) located in China, ME. China is about 25 minutes from Augusta. We run in the KVAC in both track and XC and are we are in the Eastern Region during XC. I have run all three seasons since my freshman year and have had a lot of new experiences with running. It has been great! I have decided to share my XC training, racing, and team experiences with you this season and I hope you enjoy! ( I apologize for the length of this post.... the posts after this one will not include a personal intro, a summer recap, and a team intro and will therefore be much shorter :)  )

End of Track + Summer - Coming out of New Englands I was definitely ready for some rest. Unfortunately I was pretty sick at New Englands and after running two races that day I was ready for a break. From there I took about 2 weeks off before easing into running again. My first week back I ran 21 miles.... I didn't want to hurt myself as I jumped back in to training. After gradually building up to about 40 miles a week I attended Colby XC camp and had a great time there. While there I did a 55 mile week. I did not dress up in girls clothing and pretend to be Paula Abdul in a skit while there. What? That 55 mile week helped me transition into a little bigger miles after the camp and I have maintained over 45 miles for every week since then.

Beginning of XC: A New Start - Coming into this season I wasn't quite sure what to expect from my team. I didn't even know what my team was going to have. Over the summer we had a few new faces show up for some group runs at our school but unfortunately none ever came back once official practices started. Even the familiar faces were still an unknown in terms of their fitness. I only was certain about the training of a few people. I knew that Eben Hodgkins (Left) (#2), Logan Merrithew (#4-6) (Right Down), and Jarrod Lenfest (#3) had been running very well over the summer. Spencer Gray (#4-6) (Our team mascot. Also known as Pinocchio) had also done a fair amount of running. I would just have to see where everyone else was at.

As our training progressed our new coach, Scott Minzy, quickly had us training in two separate groups: Those who did run over the summer and those who didn't. I liked this..... I liked this a lot. I can remember last year having days where all I did was run 3 miles cause everyone on the team did the same workout. Now every one can run at their own level!

Training 8/22 - 8/28 - 

Saturday August 22 - 11.5 miles - Long run

Sunday August 23 - Easy day. Spent the day in Acadia with a special someone did a fair amount of hiking and some running.

Monday August 24 - 1.5 mile warm up. 9 x 400 (2 + 1/4) at 5k pace with 9 x 200 (1 + 1/8) easy pace in between for rest. 3 mile tempo run then abs workout with short sprints.

Tuesday August 25 - Fairly long tempo run (6.5 miles ) with warm up and cool down.

Wednesday August 26 - Hard three mile run with hill repeats and abs after.

Thursday August 27 - Easy day with team warm up then ultimate frisbee. Cooldown + Stretch.

Friday August 28 -  Course run with occasional wind sprints, race on Cony Laliberte course 16:36 (3.03 miles).

Laliberte Invitational - I woke up on race day to find perfect conditions for an XC race. It wasn't too hot, rainy, or windy. It was a great day for the first meet of the season. After a PB and J for breakfast I headed over to my school in my little truck (which I would later forget to pick up when riding home with my dad). The bus ride was fun like always and I played some tunes through my speakers. Shortly after arriving we found our usual spot and began warmups. I had Jarrod and Eben run through the course with me to get warmed up. Every half mile or so I would run hard for about 15 seconds to "get some speed in my legs". After the short delay (no hard feelings Winslow) we were on the line and ready to go. The race went out and everyone immediately began squeezing in. I luckily did not get trapped and was in the position I wanted to be in when we entered the woods. I ran fairly comfortably behind the leaders through the mile and up until the big hill. I told myself before the race that I wasn't going to push too hard on the hill. There is still a considerable amount of race left after the hill. As we started up the hill I was right behind Jason Kaake and the three leaders Kelton, Will and Luke. I didn't let myself get caught up in the hill running and just ran up next to Jason pretty comfortably. When I crested the hill and came into the field I found that three ahead of me had opened up a fairly significant gap. At least 15 seconds, probably even 17 or 18. I had saved a little too much. Now it was time to play catch up. I just tried to keep the three ahead of me in my sight as we went down the hill and back up into the woods just before the school. I could tell I was gaining on them. As I came up the small hill before the school I saw that the gap had probably closed to 10-12 seconds. I reeled them in heading around the pond and caught Kelton on the backside of the pond. Luke and Will were probably within 8-9 seconds at this point. I dug across the field and up the hill and pulled in a little closer (Below). Kelton had hung onto me when I passed him and he kicked by me just as Luke was crossing the finish line. I kicked too and held on to come in 4th about .7 behind Kelton.

After I went through the chute I ran (not very fast) back to find Eben. I waited for a couple of minutes but I couldn't see him. I thought he should be coming in somewhere near here. I saw our third runner, Jarrod Lenfest, go through so I knew something was wrong. I talked to my dad and he didn't see Eben either. 10 minutes later I saw Eben talking to Logan Merrithew (our 5th at Laliberte). I was like "what the heck!" Apparently by the time my dad and I had started looking for Eben he had gone through! Last year he ran a 20:57... this year he pulled out an 18:25.52! His absolute fastest time last year was at regionals on the belfast course (very fast course): 19:21. He came in so quick we didn't see him! That is a great time for that course. Jarrod also smashed his best time (even accounting for the .07 mile difference). He ran 20:12. Last year his PR was 23:20.... wow.

Up next week! Race at Maranacook Vs. Camden Hills, Cony, Leavitt, Lincoln, Mt. Ararat, and Oxford Hills.

First Post

Hi Guys! This is my first post to my blog! I started this mainly to write about my XC team, races and training this season but I will also occasionally write about other fun things. I will probably start blogging the week of Aug 31. See you then!