Jak’s Life 2.0

Well today Thomaston High School boys cross country was aiming to be the first boys class s team to advance from the New England Championships in Cumberland, Maine this upcoming weekend. Unfortunatley today was not Thomaston’s day to do it, despite the varsity team’s best efforts they simply fell short of their goal despite several amazing races by many of the runners. This year’s state open was a very close race where most of the teams were only seperated by only one or two points. For example Thomaston was only 25 points behind 6th place. It is in-fact a sad day from many of the seniors on the THS XC team but it’s been an amazing season and all good things must come to an end but unfortunately it will not end at New Englands. Now all we can do is look forward to the indoor track season!

Well I just realized how long it’s been since I last blogged so I’m going to just give you a quick update of everything that’s going on in my life.

I’ve been using Leopard and it is awesome although I have had a few kernal panics it’s truely been awesome, it seems faster and more friendly to my computer than Tiger did. It seems to run more programs better without any issues of them getting really slow (even Lightroom is better). Time machine I’m not a big fan of only because I don’t have a big enough external hard drive. And yes I did experience the fated blue screen of death issue that some people have been having and an archive install wasn’t an option for me so following Apple’s dirrections I used their “advanced” fix even though it’s really easy.

Next, I’ve gotten back to running and it’s been great although I am still having stomach problems and my doctor isn’t exactly sure what the issue is now and is thinking I need a capsule endoscopy to help the diagnosis.

Even more, Thomaston cross country is the Connecticut State Class S champions for the third year in a row and now is gunning to become the first class “S” team to advance to the New England Championships in Cumberland, Maine. Good luck to all teams in the state open tomorrow and see you there.

Yes I’ve still got more to tell the world. I’ve uploaded a few new pictures to my flickr account (box on the right) so please go check them out and leave me some comments, I’d appreciate it.

I think that’s it for now I’m sure I’ll have some more over the weekend and keep the comments coming.

Well as you may or may not know I’ve been having stomach problems for the past few months which have greatly hindered my cross-country performance this season, except for today. Here’s the story. On Wednesday I went back to my gastrointernolegist to see why my stomach problems were still persistent and maybe even getting worse. His solution was to put me on a new pill to control stomach pains which may have also messed up my vision a bit or it’s just a coincidence but today I finally broke the visous cycle of stomach pains. At the Watertwon Invitational today I finally managed to get my time back down to where I’d like to see it, 19:26 for a 5k. I managed to finish 8th in the JV race. Excuse the randomness of this post but I was just so pumped that I needed to get my success out there.

Yesterday made me realize why I love cross-country (XC) and stick with it. It’s not so much that I love running like most of my team it’s the people that keep me glued to running. I’m not sure this is true with all teams but I know for a fact that all this is true with my team. There is almost always support for you while you run no matter if you’re #1 or 20, the remaining team is there for you while you finish. Another thing that you find in XC that you don’t find in other sports not even track is that even the other teams cheer for you and/or your team even if you’ve never spoken, sure the cheer may not be as intense as it is for their own team but the support is still there which I find very important. Another great thing about cross-country is that in anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes you’re done although there are no time outs or subs. In general the runners, fans, and sport it’s self if a lot of fun and there is a lot of pride to have in it, If you’ve ever had a slight curiosity about cross-country I encourage you to go out for a team whether you’re in high school or college. If you don’t fit into either of those categories I’m sure that you can find people to run with no matter where you are.

As you may know I am a cross country runner and the actual season just started last week. Well I’ve been having stomach problems (IBS) since June and the pains I experience while I’m running are at times unreal, sometimes I need to stop and keel over or even as extreme as me needing to lay down pretty much in the fetal position to relieve some of the pain. I’ve been put on prescriptions to help me but they have only helped a little. From this pain it makes me question if I should even keep running because most of the time I can’t even get a good run in without at one point needing to stop and succumb to the pain that is overtaking my stomach. At this point I’m having a very hard time motivating myself to keep going and work through this and I was wondering if anyone had any tips on what I should do with my life and if I should keep running or what. Any tips would be appreciated. This was also another thing that I needed to get off my chest and thanks in advance for any tips you’ve got and for reading this ~JAK

I have set out to teach you everything I know from running high school cross country, well not everything. I run for the two time Class “S” State Championship team from Thomaston, CT.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, please consult your doctor before begining any training regimin outlined below. I am not resposible for any injury caused by the information below.

Shoes

First there is your shoes, I would highly recomend a specialty shoe or running store. The employees at these stores are specially trained in fitting shoes and can recomend the best shoe and fit for you. If you live in Connecticut I would recomend Road and Track in New Milford, Woodbridge Running Company in Woodbridge (New Haven), and Sportsmans in Litchfield.

Clothes

You may not even think that the clothes that you wear matter, but trust me you will feel the diffence between running in heavy jeans or some heavy cargo shorts. I would recomend to you a pair of light shorts such as running shorts (short, shorts) or even a pair of basketball shorts if you’re not into the whole extremely short shorts thing. Next is your shirt, I would recomend a light tee shirt or if you really want you could pick up a running shirt. All these things you can find at your local Wal-Mart, Bob’s, or even a specialty running store.

Goals

The most important thing for your running is to set a goal for yourself, whether it’s simply just to finish a 5k or anything else of the sort. Just keep that goal in your mind or write it down and put it somewhere where you’ll see it and remember it. A goal will keep you motivated and will hopefully keep you from quitting, I know a goal always keeps me going strong.

Stretching

Streching is one of the most important things that you can do before you go out for a run, I would recomend doing a warm up first which could be anywhere from a walk down the street and back to a run around a couple of blocks and back. Then stretch, some stretches you can do are in the links section at the bottom of the page.

Going for Runs

The most important part of running, actuall training runs, these are moderatley paced runs that is at a challenging pace but not a very hard pace. If you’re just starting out I would try just to start with around 10 minutes and move up to as much as 30-60 minutes if you’re training for a 5k, you can exceed this but I wouldn’t necessarily recomend it. As a beginer I would stay down around the 30 minute mark. Some more workouts if you’re not quite ready to do a full fledged run can be found in the links section below.

Workouts

I would not go straight from not running to doing a hard workout such as the ones outlined below due the posibility of injury, put of hard workouts and races until you think you adapt to the strain of running. Probably everyones’ favorite pastime of running, workouts. These workouts can vary in intensity and are by no means easy, one example is track “quarters” which are 100 meters in length and are run at an almost all out pace but slow enough that you can complete the workout. You need hills in your workout, you can consider running up and down a hill at a fast pace in order to gain strength and power for hills. If you live in an area without hills you could consider running on a treadmill with and incline or running up and down stadium stairs.

Recovery from Workout

You are sure to be sore from a workout. Although the benefits are worth it. You will need at least one or two days of recovery from a run, this doesn’t mean not running at all. First after you finish your run have some Gatorade or Powerade within 30 minutes of finishing the workout to help replenish your energy and help you not be as sore the next day. The next day you will want to go for a light run, light meaning a pace that you can feel like you could run all day at that pace, do this for anywhere from a ten minute run to a 30 minute run.

Races

There are many types of races 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, triathalon, etc. You will want to pick the right one for you, and if you are just starting you will most likely want to do a 5k race. Everyone has their own style of running, my personal favorite is to start slow and pass people because it’s a great feeling to pass people. Before your race you want to warm up thouroghly enough wearing pants or a jacket even if it is summer or at least something more than just what you’re going to run in. You want to stretch at least once very thoroughly and for a good amount of time. You’ll notice that some people running the race are wearing specials shoes, in a road race these are called flats, they’re a much lighter shoe than a trainer although they are not meant to be run in for a very long period of time such as training, these shoes are not essential to a race as a beginer.

Recovery from Races

I find recovery from races very important, after a race you shoud warm down which is a slow jog for at least 15 minutes if you can, also do not sit down imediatley after a race, you will cramp up and regert sitting down. Also again within the 30 minute window I mentioned before I drink Endurox R4 which is a recovery drink that is like gatorade but it helps you recover faster and better, this is not entirely nescesarry. Some Gatorade is good enough. Then the next day you would have a recovery day like the one mentioned before after the workout.

Links

Cool Running’s Training Schedules & Workouts for beginer - advanced runners

Cool Running’s New Runners Section

Some Stretches for runners, once again from coolrunning.com

If there is anything you feel is missing please make a comment about it and I will address it.

Thank you for reading my post