Eric Hatch's Blog

For this race I was just trying my best to get in the swing of racing agoin after my dissapointing El Dorado Park performance. I was racing in the Frosh Soph race to gain confidence. The start of the race was the fastest that I have ever experienced. I was in tenth place, and the leaders came through the mile in 4:52. During the second mile, I worked my way up to the back of the lead pack. However, I completed that hilly mile too fast beacause coming into the rolling hills, I fell off the pack with another Great Oak runner. 10:32. My last mile was dissapointing, but I was satisfied with the end result, and the drive home from Clovis. 16:41 5k. If the team maked it to state, I am shooting for a time like 16:10.

Every year, the Poly XC team goes to the DP Invitational. This was my first frosh race after my injury. I took the race out from the gun to a moderate first mile with a headwind for the first half, and a tailwind for the second half. I did not have a watch, but the mile was most likely around 5:20. During the second mile, I let Joshua McGregor, a Dos Pueblos runner, take the lead for the 500 meter long downhill segment with a tailwind. In the parking lot, I made a wrong turn that cost me about 2 seconds on the leader. Fortunatly, the leader made a wrog turn as well, and I was right back with him. I made my move going up the big hill in a headwind. By the second mile, I had about a three second lead on the Dos pueblos runner. I am guessing the mile split to be about 5:35. In the headwind, I tryed as hard as I could to gap the competition, and by the 800 to go mark, I had a 15 second gap. I crused into the finish in 16:16.

Getting back from injury. 2 miles of strides.

Ran a medium distance run to the Queen Mary as my first full workout after the injury. The weather was very hot and I was dehydrated. Averaged around 7:10 pace for the run and ran with Jonah. 

First quality workout since getting back from my injury. 6x600 and 3x400. The six hundreds felt great. 2:00, 1:59, 1:58, 1:57, 1:57, 1:54. The 400s felt difficult. the first one was too slow with 79. The next one jumped in pace in 73. On the last one, I took the lead and led the group to a 70. 

Hour of X training on the bike with core work.

Moore League Finals preview run. Really sleepy coming into the run. 4 Miles of warmup on the course. My legs felt heavy on these. 6 sprints felt odd because I could feel my hip while picking up the pace. After 1 Mile of cooldown, I was ready to go to my chiropractor appt.

Cutback Threshold workout went well. 8:43 for the first tempo segment. 8:33 for the second. First one felt easy. On the second one, I had to start pushing it and stayed with the lead pack. the last Signal Hill loop was 4:33 which is 5:24 mile pace. Good indicator workout for CIF meets.

3 miles on the Moore League Finals course with strides around the Heartwell lake. Felt fatiged from the day before.

I had a good race a the Run Like it's Recess 5k. Just getting beach into it from being injured for about 5 days and missing Mt. Sac Invitational. For the first the first two miles I pushed the pace of the race too hard. Unfortunatly, I did not know the credentials of the runner right on my tail (Josphat Boit 2:12 marathoner) and when he sprinted away from me with one mile to go, I could not hang on. 16:39 was alright for an 85% effort.

Was sick today and could not run my workout.

Had an alright cutback interval workout today. Just two sets of 4 400s. First set was 76, 75, 75, 74. Felt a little fatigued from being sick the day before. Last set was 74, 73, 72, 69. Glad to get the workout, but I felt like I should've at least ran a 67 last 400.

Premeet was not the best today. I was very sleepy coming into it.

Moore League Finals was not a good day for me at all. Being sick on Monday did not help, and temperatures were at 92 degrees with an 8% humidity level. The first mile 5:13 went out slower than usual, but was okay for the weather. After that point my hamstring started to cramp up as compensation for my previous injury. My right leg could not extend all the way back, so I was forced to hobble run. Two miles 10:36 came, and I was already gassed I was cramping up, and my throat was dry from the heat. The last mile was painful, but I made it to the finish in a time that I was not proud of. Hopefully I can pull it together and run under 16:00 at Mt. Sac.

Recovery went well for me today, but as a team we were off. Colby and Gian spent most of the practice fighting, until Gian ended up leaving early. Many people were felling sick today.

The Whittier Run went well today. 10 miles felt good although I was stil a little sick.

The Signal Hill workout from today was somewhat dissapoining. I did not get as much sleep as a would of liked, so I was feeling fatigued from the start. The 3 mile tempo of 18:22 was alright, although I fell of pace from the front group. The next .85 loop was hard, because it was backwards. 4:51 was okay for how I was feeling. For mile repeats and 400s, I am hoping to average 5:15 for the miles, and 71 for the 400s.

The recovery run at LC park today felt great. 8 alley strides helped increase my turnover and recovering hip muscles.

I had one of my best workouts of the season today. The weather was at about 70 degrees, and we were running on the Chittick Field track, instead of Poly's dirt. The first mile repeat was one of the easiest miles that I have ran. The first lap went out fast at about 71, but I was not too phazed. 5:02 was a quick mile. The three 400s were 71, 73, 68. These felt fine, and I still had room left for 300s. The 300s were 50, 49, 50, 47. Although I sprinted too hard on the 2nd one, I kicked in strong to finish. Going for under 16:00 at Mt. Sac.