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.