Monday April 28 (60 minutes)

Ran on the North Field with Ian, but I have a poison oak rash that's making life difficult. By the end of the run I was seeping pus everywhere, so I'm going to be taking a couple days off until this subsides a bit.

Weekly Summary: April 2008, Week 4 (VO2 intervals, long run, reps)

I was pleased with my track work this week, which was also my biggest effort of the week. 5x1000 under 3:00 sounded daunting, but my fitness is good enough that 2:00 afforded a lot of recovery. I also pushed myself a bit harder than in previous work. I've got more of the track runner's intense mentality now, as opposed to the long-distance road runner's training plan of relaxed and gentle stress. I think things are going to come together well here over the next month or so.

Watching the team perform so well at SCIACs was inspiring, while watching the CMS guys tie my 5000 time from last week was inspiring in a different way. Now I want to go out and make sure I run faster than 15:13. I'm looking at the weather forecast now in the bottom corner of my browser window, and it says Tuesday and Wednesday will be cool. Of course, that probably means that next Saturday the cool spell will be over and it'll be blistering hot again. The 5000 is at 6:25PM, so it should at least be slightly cooler and slightly less direct sunlight than the heat of the day.

My plan for next week is:
Monday: long
Tuesday: 4x1600 under 4:55, lap jog
Wednesday: recover
Thursday: easy rep session on the track
Friday: easy
Sat: 5000m faster than anyone from CMS runs this year, and also faster than Arianna Lambie
Sun: 1500m see if I can PR

Sunday April 27 (medium)

Worked on stuff for the paper most of the day, and at night I went out for a run from the apartment. Went to Caltech, did some barefoot jogging, and then threw in 4x200 at cruising intensity. I'm working in a little more speed stuff that before in preparation for some 1500's. I felt much stronger and less strained than yesterday, but didn't clock anything.

I'll be running 5000 on May 3 at Steve Scott, but I noticed the 1500 was the next day, so I'll come back and run that on Sunday the 4th. I figure three 5000's makes for a good season worth of them, so I want to really nail this one and knock a good chunk of time off.

Saturday April 26 (a little speed)

Awesome day at the SCIAC champs. Matt and Katherine both had career days - especially Katherine who busted out an incredible 5:02 with huge negative splits, PR'd for 800m over the last 800 of the race, and nearly chased down a nationals qualifier. Matt won the 1500 to get the first conference championship by a Caltech distance runner since Cailin Henderson, I presume. He came back to take third in the 800 behind some strong performances from Jake and Clay as well. The 4x400's both had great days, and my fantasy team kicked some major butt. Unfortunately, Pat had Calderon, making him essentially invincible.

For a run, I went up to the botanical gardens north of Claremont and ran around there until I noticed a golf course off to the side. There was a barbed wire fence but since I cleared 5'10" back in high school I easily jumped it and ran the greens for a while. Then I noticed a track off to the side of the golf course. Since I used to work on a sapper squad back in the trenches of the Western Front I tunneled underneath the golf course fence and did a short workout of 3x300, 4x200.
I hit about 50, 49, 46, then 29, 28, 28, 27. I was feeling pretty tired, probably because it was scorchingly hot and I also hadn't eaten yet (I woke up around noon). I made it back in time to watch the entire meet go down. A good day.

Friday April 25 (long)

Longish arroyo-JPL run with Ian, about 80 minutes of total running and a few pit stops. Wasn't feeling my best, but nice to get something done before 10am.

PM: jogged about 20 minutes and did a little core. Mainly I did this just because it was workout o'clock, so it seemed like I better go work out.

Thursday April 24 (easy)

60 minutes and a few strides.

Let me preface what follows by apologizing to Ian for screwing around with this stuff, but I would like to prove that all numbers are equal to each other.

Consider the series:

S = 1 - 1/2 + 1/3 - 1/4 + 1/5 - 1/6 + 1/7 - ...

then by fiddling with the order a bit

S = 1 - 1/2 +1/3 + 1/5 - 1/4 + 1/7 + 1/9 - 1/6 + 1/11 + 1/13 - ... = 1

To choose what order to do the addition, I make a list of all the negative terms and all the positive terms. If my finite sum is currently more than one, I choose the first available term on the negative list and tack it on the end of my sum. If the sum is currently less than one, I choose the first positive term on that list and tack it on the end. If that's not clear, just go through the series above, computing the partial sums after each term, and notice how it's oscillating from above one to below one and back again. Every time the sum dips below one, I switch from subtracting terms to adding them, and it eventually goes back up above one again.
Every term in the original definition of S is also in the second version. Notice that I never skip a term. The negative terms all appear in order relative to each other, as do the positive terms.
Also, since both series (the series of positive terms and the series of negative terms) individually diverge, I can never get "stuck", for example at 1.1 and unable to bring myself all the way back to below 1.0 by adding more and more negative terms. Whichever side of 1.0 I'm on, I can always flipflop to the other side by adding enough terms of the appropriate sign.
Finally, notice that I flipflop infinitely many times, and therefore I use infinitely many terms of each sequence. That is, I use all of them.
Conclusion: all the terms in the original definition of S are also in the secondary definition of S, and so they are equivalent to each other.

Now I make a third definition:
S = 1 - 1/2 + 1/3 - 1/4 - 1/6 + 1/5 - 1/8 + 1/9 - 1/10 - 1/12 + ... = 1/2

This is done in just the same way as before, except this time I oscillate back and forth around 1/2 instead of one. But all the same terms are there. But if you take a bunch of numbers and add them all up, you get the same thing no matter the order, by the associative law of addition.
Evidently
1/2 = 1
Subtracting 1/2 from both sides
0 = 1/2
multiplying by A*2
0 = A
or instead multiplying by B*2
0 = B
And by the transitive property
A = B

there you have it. All numbers are equal to each other.

Wednesday April 23 (track work)

5x1000, 2:00 rest
2:59
2:56
2:58
2:57
2:55 (14:45 total)

It was windy again, as it has been for seemingly most of my track work this season. I started each repeat at the 200 start so that I'd get to run the homestretch, with the wind behind me, three times, but the backstretch, with the wind in my face, only twice.

I did a good long warmup, and then 2x300 at pace to make sure I was completely ready. I wanted the 300's at 54 (72 pace), and when the first one came out to 58 I got pretty worried. The next one was 54, but it felt much to fast to run a whole workout. I told myself I only needed to run 3:05 on these and got started.

The first one went fine, as I hit 2:59 splitting it about evenly. Then on the second, I was shocked when I checked my 400m split and saw a 68. I'm still not sure how I was jumping up and down four seconds a lap while feeling like the effort was the same. I guess it really took me that entire first interval to get completely primed for action.

I had to start working it just to finish that one, but I seem to recover very quickly in my rest periods, so I was feeling fine again by the start of number three. I again came through too fast, in 69, and made myself chill out for the rest of the interval.

During my rest before number four, I gave myself a little self-talk, since I was a bit upset at having misjudged my pace twice in a row. I was doing the exact opposite of what I wanted to do - get faster throughout each interval. It's difficult though. At the beginning of the interval you're worried about making sure you hit your time. At the end of the interval you're tired. Of course the beginning will be fast and the end will be slow. How could it be any other way?

I decided I wanted to come through in exactly 72 for the first lap of number 4, then accelerate just a tad. I actually came through in 71 and ran 2:57, which means I held about even.

Going into number five I was starting to get beat, but I'm happy to report that I kept better focus than I have in previous workouts, and fewer negative "let's see how we can get out of this" went through my head going into it. I hit 70 on the first lap, 1:45 for 600, and 2:55 for the thousand, so that my pace was very even throughout. At least twice I noticed my focus was starting to go and I was drifting back into "just finish" mode, like I have the last couple of races, but this time I was able to pull myself back and keep pressing all the way through. The time was nothing fantastic, but it was marginally faster than my other repeats, so I'll call this workout a success.

Finished with six strides on the infield, and some core after tutoring.

Monday and Tuesday April 21-22 (long, easy)

Monday: 90 minutes, then six striders

Tuesday: 60 minutes on the infield, then six striders, fast

Saturday April 19 (NFTC field trip)

NFTC field trip to the arroyo, attended by myself and Katherine. Nice and relaxing morning jog, about 45m. My anterior tibialis muscles (things in front of my shins, whatever they're called) were sore, especially the right one. I suspect this is because I wore spikes in the race yesterday, which I did because I couldn't find one of my flats, because it was at Matt and Katherine's flat. And by that I mean apartment.

In the afternoon I went to the gym to do some core, ran into Kiesz, and jogged an extra 20 or so with him before team dinner, thanks to Heather.

Friday April 18 (5000m 15:24 PR)

I improved this race. On the surface, things look very much the same as two weeks ago. My splits this time were:
4:50
4:56
5:00 = 38
15:24

So I improved one second by running the first mile faster. But I think the race was much better, because despite the slower time in the last mile, I actually was trying harder. On the "try hard" scale, calibrated to 5000m race efforts, I'd give myself about a three for Pomona, a five for today, and a seven for both of my SCIAC finals. I'm moving in the right direction. Ultimately, I want to be able to give an eight almost any race I choose to, and a nine on the big ones.

It was hot. I didn't get a reading, but I'd say 85 degrees, and sunny. It was also extremely dry. I had to breathe through my mouth, and for the duration of the race its entire interior felt parched, like a withered, dessicated gila monster's corpse, for example.

The entire race went out too fast. I was in the back of the second pack, putting me around ninth, in the first lap. I finished third, which meant I was moving up past people, trying to tuck in, realizing the guy was going too slow, and moving past again. I got to tuck in a bit more than in previous races. Maybe about half the time I was following in this race, but none of the last mile.

I feel like if I had a race where everyone was going to run a consistent pace in a pack the whole way, I'd hit a much faster time. But that's apparently not an option, so I have to learn to make the race happen for myself.

In the last mile, I was telling myself that I needed to work this harder. I could feel that I had slowed down, but I at least kept my head in it. There's still a lot more there. Also, over the last 600 or so I didn't even try to kick. In retrospect, this makes no sense. It's hard to remember exactly what I was thinking or feeling.

I was two or three seconds back from the leader. The thought definitely went through my head that I had a chance to win the race. I looked up at him, and told myself that I ought to be feeling a mad competitive fire right now. But I simply didn't. I honestly didn't care all that much whether this guy beat me. I can't decide why that is. Maybe I'm mellowing out, but I certainly hope not. Maybe it's because I was in the slow heat anyway, and so winning it wasn't really like winning. More like sandbagging. The instinct certainly kicked in at the 3000m at Pomona, so it's not gone. It just didn't fire today. I think I'm going to practice it. It sounds cheesy (at least to me), but in my hard workout next week, when I'm tired and hurting, I'm going to imagine a runner just in front of me who I have to chase down.

I hate it when people do the calculus of what their performance was "worth" under ideal conditions (you know, "if it hadn't been windy, if I had gotten more sleep last night, if I hadn't shit my pants in lap eight" etc.), but I found myself automatically doing it afterward. I think it's a worthless exercise. A time is a time. Mine was a PR today. That's good enough. It wasn't a great race, but it was a good one, and I'm happy with that. I'll try to improve it again in two weeks at Steve Scott.

Thursday April 17 (easy)

60 minutes on the infield in the heat. The weather didn't bother me so much this time, and I had to tell myself to slow down a few times. Feeling good about the race tomorrow. I'm in the second heat, so I should be able to run up near the front of the race. I'm thinking that if I come through two miles about the same as last time, I should be able to hit that last mile better and knock a good 10 seconds off at least.

Monday April 14 (70 + strides)

Seventy on the infield and six strides, including short bursts of all-out sprinting. I'm feeling sleepy in this heat. I had a burrito today at Broad and every bite of meat was so delicious, I can't even tell you. But I just did.

After practice Scott claimed he could answer any question with "yes" or "no", and repeatedly answered David's math questions/statements, and any other comments made to him with just "yes" or "no" (mostly no). So I asked, "Scott, will the next word out of your mouth be 'no'"?

Weekly Summary: April 2008, Week 2 (track work, long run, tempo)

I ran pretty well this week. The track work wasn't ideal, but at least it could have been a lot lamer if I had just left it alone after the 3000. Watching Chris Smith win the 5000 got me excited because I've beaten him both times we raced this year. I would love to be able to line up against the SCIAC, but instead I'll be lining up against all comers next Friday at APU.

My goal for the race is simply to blast the last mile. When I get to the two mile mark I want to be totally focused and ready to push all the way through that last bit. I need not to be scared of it, to trust my fitness, and to know that if I give it a shot I can hold that pace.

My plan for this week is:
Monday: Arroyo with Ian
Tuesday: Fartlek in Lacy
Wednesday: medium long
Thursday: easy
Friday: race 5000m APU
Saturday: celebrate my awesome new PR
Sunday: SNFTC, long

Hook's Law, Anthropic Principle, Cow Physics

this week's comics for the Tech:






Sunday April 13 (SNFTC)

Report on yesterday's meet.

"Unprintable" food review for the Tech.

Rather large SNFTC meeting, including Dennis, Sachith, Garrett, Kangway, Ian, and myself. Seeing six shadows bobbing up and down in a pack in front of us every time the sun was to our back was very cool. Short lifting session after.

Also, current update on SNFTC records:

300m: 41s Kangway Chuang, SNFTC Grand Prix Series, April 6 2008
400m: 57.3s Kangway Chuang, SNFTC Grand Prix Series, April 13 2008
3000m: 8:43 Mark Eichenlaub, PP All-Comers February 16, 2008
5000m: 15:25.25 Mark Eichenlaub, PP Invite, April 5 2008
10,000m: 32:39 Mark Eichenlaub, Oxy Distance Carnival, March 14, 2008
High Jump: 4'6" Mark Eichenlaub, Caltech Super-Special Bouncy Tournament, April 11 2008

Saturday April 12 (track work)

Before the running events at duals I wanted to get in a workout of 3000, 2000, 1000. My original intent was to run these at 74 pace, 73 pace, and 72 pace respectively, which I figured would be a challenging but manageable workload. It was rather unfortunately hot and dry. Ian suggested I wait until after the meet, but I didn't want to hold everyone up by working out, and besides by that time I expected to be sunburned, tired, and very hungry anyway. I decided to go in the heat and slow the pace to 75's on all of them.

I hit the 3000 in 9:17, which is actually 74's. It was pretty difficult, though, and I felt like I had little to no chance of running 2000 at 73's in the near future. So I called the workout quits because I would rather stop early than run crappy and disheartening times. Besides, I had an excuse! It was hot! That relieves me of all responsibility!

After about ten minutes of jogging on the grass (maybe twenty minutes since finishing the 3000), I realized that I was basically being a giant sissy, that I had just told myself last weekend that the main thing I needed to do to race faster was simply to try harder, and here I was giving up on a key workout just because I felt a little more tired than I had hoped. So eventually I convinced myself to go back to the track, and after a ridiculously-long rest in the neighborhood of 25 minutes, cranked out at 2000 going 5:56 (71's). After that I really was tired, and also had a new excuse in that the meet was about to start. So I got off the track and cooled down secure in the knowledge that I had just done a good job. Good boy, Mark. You almost finished something you started, but not quite. Good boy.

Anyway, I think it was a decent workout, and I'm glad I went back for the fast 2000. After, I took photos andvideos of the meet, some highlights of which included:

Firday, April 11 (high jump)

At the epic high jump practice, I simply hurdled 3'0", 3'6", and 4'0". I got 4'3" on the first (non-Western-roll) attempt, and 4'6" on the second attempt. Then I took six or seven jumps at 4'9" but couldn't quite get it. I think I was actually less effective using the flop, so I just tried to scissor-kick it. I got close a bunch of times but just don't have the hops quite yet.

Also jogged 45 and got some pizza with Kway and Kiesz.

Thursday April 10 (long)

I was going to do the workout today, but I didn't get a good night's sleep so I decided to move it to Saturday. Instead I went for a solid 90 on the infield, with the last 15 or so at tempo pace (and the last few minutes significantly faster than that). I enjoy these runs. It makes me feel truly fit to be able to run for an hour and a half getting faster and faster, and at the end clicking along at a really strong rate without feeling effortful. It feels like being a basketball player who can hit a shot from anywhere on the court in a game of HORSE. It's not your whole game, but it sure helps.

Wednesday April 9 (medium-long)

80 minutes at night, leaving from the apartment. Felt pretty good, but didn't have time for core stuff.

Tuesday April 8 (speed)

Yeah! Go Mom!

Jumped in to help Matt through his speed session. Didn't really warm up sufficiently before, hence I was too slow on the first 200, but I think the workout went extremely well. Matt did 1000, 700, 500, and I paced the first 600, 400, 300

On the thousand, I took us through 200 splits of 36, 34, 33, then dropped while Matt ran the last lap in 59.

After a good long break I went through 400 of the 700 in 33, 32, then Matt finished 300 in an impressive 43.

For the 500, I led through 250 or so, when Matt came up to pass. I started pushing so he'd have to actually work for it. He came past me and I hung about a meter back kicking about as hard as I could over the last 200. We both finished in 73 (running the last 30 with Julie).

I was certainly glad I didn't have to do that whole workout. My legs were tired coming in off the tempo yesterday, but I don't think I beat myself up too badly. Matt's workout was awesome, closing in some very fast times for his solo portions. He seems a lock for the conference 1500, and those blazing postseason times are in the works, too.

Monday April 7 (tempo)

6 mile tempo in Lacy, going about
5:40
5:29
5:27
5:23
5:09
5:07

But there was some picnic thing blocking my way through the picnic table area on the far western edge, so I was running just the "normal" loop the CIT boys do, rather than the "modified" loop that's closer to a true 800m. Either way, it's a pretty good day.

Also, my guess would be that the Astronomy Picture of the Day is basically showing what it's like when God has sex.

Then Matt gave me a bunch of "foot jobs", which actually means kicking me in the pelvis with his heel.

Weekly Summary: April 2008, Week 1 (5000m PR, steady state, fartlek)

My race this week was good, and instructive. Whereas Oxy taught me not to get too obsessive, PP taught me not to get too relaxed. After all, at some point it's going to have to start to hurt and then being chill simply won't cut it. I'm getting my mind a bit more into the speed mode now. My steady state and fartlek were good last week, but I haven't been doing striders or as much core work as I think I should. My plan for next week is:

Mon: tempo
Tue: recovery
Wed: medium-length run, a few reps
Thu: track workout (3000, 2000, 1000)
Fri: recovery
Sat: long
Sun: SFTC

My original thought was 5x1000 for track work, but Ian suggested 3-2-1 and I think I like that better. It should get me moving fast for long, continuous periods, and also allow me to work on pushing hard over the last bit at the end.

Sunday April 6 (SFTC)

The pace yesterday really didn't feel very fast to me, and jogging with Ian and Kangway and KB today I still think I can get down to 15:00 this year. I registered for the 5000 at APU under the auspices of the "Snorth Field Track Club". After that I'll have another shot at 5000 at Steve Scott.

Lifted after, doing 3 sets of 15x95 on the bench and probably about 50 total pullups, and a bit of core.

Saturday April 6 (5000m, 15:25.25)

Missed Dan Kleiman's #4 all-time mark by 0.10 seconds. Splits of
4:55, 9:48 (4:53), 14:48 (5:00), 15:25

I'm satisfied with the race, because after all I did PR and that's always satisfying. On the other hand, I wasn't tired at the end and 30 minutes later I was all pumped up about getting to run the 4x400 (it turned out they scratched and neglected to inform me of this).

I decided before that race that 4:55 would be a good pace for the first mile, because it was a little faster than PR pace but also sounded like something I could easily negative-split off of. I did just about that, constantly moving up past people. The second mile I accelerate a little, and was still feeling pretty good coming through in 9:48. My plan here was to accelerate again and rock a solid last 1800m, but it just didn't happen. I ran the next 800 in about 2:26, but then I got uncomfortable.

Not really in pain, or locking up, but just uncomfortable, and I simply stayed at "uncomfortable" level rather than making the effort to push the last 1000. I don't really know why I didn't gun it. I know I could have. I had plenty of juice left, but I simply didn't lay myself out when it was time.

I guess I've only had one time this entire year where I tried really hard at something (the PP 3000), and I just haven't been practicing it. It caught me unawares. My last mile was 5:00 and my last 200 was at just the same pace. There were a couple of guys I passed with about a mile to go, and they passed me back and ran 15:16 and 15:18. I really should have run about 15:15 in this race, as an estimate. It felt like the same effort level as the Caltech All-Comers 3000. So my plan for the future is to run some harder workouts, get used to speed on the track, and especially get used to just plain trying hard.

Friday April 4 (easy)

Lazy with the log. Nothing really notable to say here.

Thursday April 3 (fartlek)

tempo/fartlek at Lacy. 3on, 1off x 8. Kept it smooth, but still fairly quick. My legs felt very good after taking off yesterday. Afterwards I did core with my abs coach, but he just kept asking me what to do, which is really the opposite of how a relationship like that is supposed to go.

Wednesday, April 2 (off)

Hadn't taken off in a while, and I wanted to get some homework done. The April Fool's edition of the Tech came out a day late. My contributions:
Caltech Announces UPP 0.1 lecture series, etc
LIGO Detects The Wave
Wake Up, Frosh. It's Monday!

Plus the bare headlines:
Science
String theorist almost predicts winning lottery numbers
Libbrecht unlocks secrets of dandruff formation
God can't stop snickering at cosmology seminar
Geologists launch "one earthquake per child" program in third world nations
Nothing much comes out of black hole conference
Biology outreach program introducing underprivileged children to the joys of pipetting
Solid-state physics survivor tells all: his chilling experience with superconductors
Darpa Grand Challenge team's robotic MechE major almost understands ACM 95


Sports

Fencing team's new practice location - wherever you were trying to walk.
Ping-pong player switches to swimming, completes 100 laps of kiddie pool

News
Ricketts house just needed some vitamin D (apparently this is an old joke)
Caltech mourns loss of level-23 warrior
Less than 50% of senior turtles would recommend Throop pond to young turtles
Richard Dawkins' daughter doesn't believe in brushing her teeth
Goodstein runs out of gas on way to energy conference
Simple country hydrogen cloud heads to LA to become a star
Fleming House showing great spirit about something or other
New physics building works great in theory
Scandal on campus: quantum mechanics lab collapses under probe from FBI
Self-referential headline not witty enough to satisfy readers

Tuesday, April 1 (recovery)

I spent a good portion of the day thinking about various jokes to make in my blog post for April Fools day. I planned out a fairly elaborate post about revealing that I'm adopted, but hardly ever tell anyone about it (not even my own parents).

There was also the one about deciding to become a marathoner, because I want to get in the mindset of Celia Peterson when I attempt to travel the US and interview people about her life.

But in the end, I realized I'm just too mature and spiritually dead now for such juvenile pranks, and I will never, ever say or write anything intended to be facetious, deceptive, or satirical ever again ever. Nope.

Monday, March 31 (steady state)

Too late at night for the trails, so I did my steady state on the track. I thought twelve miles would be nice, but after I got two miles in I realized I might as well go for a clean 20K.

First 8000 was 29:30
Second 8000 27:52
Last 4000 13:33

So I accelerated throughout the run. I was glad I chose to go so long on this, because it was right around nine miles that I started to feel a little tired. Normally I stop these steady states at 8 or 10 miles, so going to twelve once in while is a nice new challenge.

Afterwards, the friendly old guy informed me that I was faster than Feldman, which is a bit of a stretch, but I didn't want to burst his bubble so I told him Dan got hit by a train and is paraplegic now, and just about everybody can beat him.

Weekly Summary: March 2008, week 4 (steady state, long)

I went from no workouts last week to one workout this week, my steady state on Monday. It was a good solid workout, but nothing special. The rest of the week I just did a lot of running. My body has been feeling sort of always-okay-never great, but I've also been really lax about the core training. I keep telling myself, "I just ran, so I'm tired now. I'll do it later when I get home." Then I get home and say, "oh, well, it's late now. I'll do it in the morning." Then I get up in the morning and say, "ah, I'm busy now. I'll do it after I run this afternoon..."

Next week I'll race 5000 at Pomona, but I'm kind of training through this one. The plan:

Mon: steady state
Tue: recovery
Wed: medium-long
Thu: some sort of light workout
Fri: easy
Sat: 5000m
Sun: SFTC

I don't want to pressure myself for this race. I just want to go into it with the attitude that I'm going to race the people around me. Also, I'm clearly in shape to PR, so I'll be disappointed if I don't do that. I want to get that calm, controlled feeling on the first mile, then the sort of focused-in but still relaxed mentality over mile two, and really push things in mile three.

Sunday March 30 (SFTC)

Pleasant SFTC with Garrett, Kangway, Ian, Ruby (by accident). Felt a little stronger in the weight room than I have any time recently. Body weight bench press and 20 pullups are coming by graduation time. Just wait and see.