Milesplit Arizona Cross Country Journals
We begin our cross country season athlete journals with Catalina Foothills senior Rex Woodbury. Rex returns this season as one of the top distance runners in the state. His 3rd place finish at the 4A I State Meet helped his team to a State Championship, in fact, the team was the fastest at the State Meet with the fastest combined and average time. Rex also placed 2nd in the 3200 last spring and is the top returning 1600/mile runner for the upcoming track season. Keep checking back as we follow Rex during his final high school cross country season.
Rex Woodbury
(Sr., Catalina Foothills)
Journal Entry #1 (September 17, 2010)
Introduction
Hello, Milesplit! I hope everyone had a great summer of
training, and enjoyed a much-needed respite from school! I’m really
excited to have this opportunity to keep Arizona updated on my season,
as well as give everyone a little insight into myself and my life! My
full name is Rexford Rowen Woodbury, but I go by Rex! I was born June
10, 1993 in Hartford, Connecticut. When I was only one year old, my
mom passed away from cancer and it became just my dad, my brother, and
me. The three of us moved to Tucson when I was six, and have lived
here ever since! Growing up, I played soccer and basketball, but in
middle school I decided to go out for track and ran the 100m and 200m.
I went out for cross country “as a way of staying in shape for
sprinting,” and, well, one thing led to another, and soon enough I was
calling myself a distance runner!
I am now beginning my senior year at Catalina Foothills High School!
Last track season was a disappointment for me. I ran some decent
races, but I know I had much faster times in me and I was running
pretty horribly by the time State rolled around. My coach and I
decided to forgo the national meets in the summer and take a break
before gearing up for cross country. This has made me even more
excited for my senior season and to see what I can do in my last year!
I really want to prove that I am one of the best out there, and that
my Foothills team is one of the strongest teams as well!
After the Meet of Champions, I took two full weeks off. During my
second week off, I decided to do a plyometrics class, which involved a
lot of jumping and pounding on hard surfaces. Only a day or two after
I started to run again, I felt a sharp pain on the outside of my right
foot and couldn’t even walk on it! It turns out that I had peroneal
tendonitis, my first serious injury, and I was devastated. I tried to
stay positive and channel my frustration into cross training, spending
over a month building fitness with runs in the pool, swimming, biking,
and strength training. In mid-July I started to run again, and my
first solid week of training came with the first week of August. In
the past XC seasons, I’ve felt a little tired and run-down come
November, so I’m hoping that this year my legs are fresher as a result
of my late start!
Since coming back from the tendonitis, I’ve put in solid training and
am rounding into great shape! My team worked really hard over the
summer and I think we can do some serious damage this season. We had
our first race last Wednesday, a dual meet against Rincon and Cienega!
I was feeling a little run-down going into the race after a long Labor
Day weekend moving my brother into college out East and visiting a
couple of schools myself, but it was fun to race again. While running
faster than 6:30 pace was definitely a shock to the system, I was able
to pull away and win comfortably. Wednesday night and the rest of the
week I started to feel a little under the weather, but I stayed
focused on the race plan for Saturday and made sure to get lots of
sleep and take things easy. Come Saturday morning, we were excited as
a team to show everyone where we were at, and got after it!
Individually, I was pretty disappointed with my race and just didn’t
feel like myself that day, but I was able to keep everything together
and gut out a 3rd place finish. My teammate Dylan Souza ran a great
race and finished right beside me, and Mike Whetzel ran a brilliant
race to start in the back and work his way up to a 12th place finish!
We were able to defend our title, and I felt a little better after
realizing that even on an off day, I was able to beat my time from
last year, when I had a good race. Alejandro Montano and Alejandro
Valencia ran phenomenal races, and are going to have awesome seasons!
I'm looking forward to racing them again! And a shout out to Aeo
Bristow for destroying the girl’s course record! After the race, I
rested up over the weekend and felt good during our first session of
mile repeats on Monday! We had another dual meet against Salpointe and
Sabino on Wednesday, and I felt like myself and was able to win by a
minute and 4 seconds and help the team to a first place finish!
Our next big race is Twilight, October 1st. My team and I are SO
excited to run at night, mix it up with the best in Arizona, and see
friends from across the state! Hopefully I will see you all there, and
don't hesitate to add me on Facebook, talk to me, or say hi at races!
After Twilight we have Mt. Sac, Sectionals (not Regionals anymore!),
State, and Nike SW on our schedule. It’s shaping up to be a great XC
season!!!
Closing note....
When I began running, I didn’t train very hard. I soon realized,
however, that running is more than a two-hour-a-day commitment. I
firmly believe that there are two things that have been instrumental
in my success: consistency and the “little things.” There is no
substitute for putting in the work day after day, month after month,
year after year. Since I started taking running seriously my sophomore
year, I’ve made sure to stay consistent with a good recipe of long
runs, hard workouts, and recovery days. Also, I’ve found the “little
things” to go a long way. Getting 8+ hours of sleep a night is
crucial. My friends all make fun of me because I go to bed super
early, and I’ve definitely had to develop some great time management
skills, but that rest and recovery (especially as adolescents) is
vital to being able to perform at a high level. It’s hard to sacrifice
that extra Facebook time or to turn off the TV, but that’s part of
being an athlete! Eating right, stretching, core work, etc. also are
important and really go a long way in reaching the next level!
~ Rex Woodbury
Milesplit Arizona Cross Country Journals
We begin our cross country season athlete journals with Catalina Foothills senior Rex Woodbury. Rex returns this season as one of the top distance runners in the state. His 3rd place finish at the 4A I State Meet helped his team to a State Championship, in fact, the team was the fastest at the State Meet with the fastest combined and average time. Rex also placed 2nd in the 3200 last spring and is the top returning 1600/mile runner for the upcoming track season. Keep checking back as we follow Rex during his final high school cross country season.