May 15, 16, 2010 (Pac 10 Champs)

I've been sick for the last week or so, but got back to exercising some this weekend. I did 1 hour on the stationary each day.

This weekend I watched the Pac-10 champs at Cal. I missed the marquee event (men's 1500), but the rest of the meet was very good.

The best story of meet was actually the men's long jump. I was standing right in front of it, but not knowing much about long jump I wasn't paying much attention until they announced that Ashton Eaton was passing his jump, and was currently in the lead. Then a USC jumper got a few inches past his mark on the next round, and Eaton had a sloppy-looking jump that did not improve his mark. In the last round there were no improvements until the last jump, and it was Eaton. Now I stopped to really pay attention, since one of the best athletes in track and field at the moment was standing right across the track from me trying to win the event on his last jump. He ran down and had a really big-looking jump, but I heard one of the Oregon coaches (I had unintentionally picked a spot right next to where Oregon was hanging out) say it was 7.75, an improvement, but too short to beat the 7.80 that was leading. Eaton himself was staring anxiously over the official's shoulder as he measured the jump. There was a moment of tension, and then Eaton leaped up in the air pumping his fist, and they announced 7.81. Even I broke into a smile seeing that.

The distance on the day was Chris Derrick and Luke Puskedra in the 10,000. The whole field ran 71/72 until Derrick took the lead and started pushing it with 6 to go. It quickly went down to 5 guys, then to 4 with a mile to go. Puskedra was following behind three Stanford guys (Derrick, Elliot Heath, Jake Riley). With 400 to go Puskedra moved to the front, but it wasn't a very serious challenge and Derrick passed him back easily on the back stretch, as did Heath. Riley came past him with 200 to go, and when the Stanford guys realized they were clear for 1-2-3 they pretty much cross together in 29:10 with Puskedra a few seconds back. The women's race wasn't very interesting - Blood waited behind the other top runners until 2 to go and won easily.

The second day I watched with Ryan. Eaton won the high hurdles easy before taking second in the 100. An Oregon woman ran sub 51 in the 400, and the men's 400H was very fast (2 under 49, I think). The 800 was a fairly easy win for Wheating, who started moving up on the back stretch of the second lap, but didn't take the lead until 100 to go, but moved away from the field pretty strongly on the homestretch. The women's 5000 was a really tight race. The early pace was not fast, but they started flying in the second half. Blood stayed at the back of the lead pack, and didn't cover every move immediately. Going into the last lap she was about 7m back of the leader (whose name I forget), who was still looking good in front. Blood made it up to come up on her shoulder entering homestretch, but they battled all the way to the line before Blood narrowly won. The men's 5000 was pretty much a repeat of the 10,000, except AJ Acosta and Michael Coe were in there. When the same 3 Stanford guys moved in the same way, Acosta hung on to take third in a hard, fast race, beating out Riley, and Puskedra again faded (low 13:40's for Derrick to win, and everyone was doubling).

The men's 4x400 was good too, until the USC stud anchor came from behind to win it over Arizona State.

Definitely fun to watch some good track again.

Thursday, May 6, 2010 (60 minutes stationary)

I was intending an AM/PM workout, but I wound up working until 12:30 AM. Did 60 minutes on the bike in the morning.

Saturday May 1, 2010 (60 minutes bike)

Up Claremont to Grizzly Peak. On the way up, I decided that the first reasonable "you're there" landmark would be where I turned around, but for some reason I don't understand at all, when I got to Grizzly Peak I turned left and kept going up a ways longer (to the stables).

My heart rate was in the high 180s the last few minutes approaching Grizzly Peak. I don't think Will's can even get that high.

PM - 15 min core, 15 min lifting, 30 min easy stationary bike