Milesplit Arizona Cross Country Journals
Billy Orman returns this season as the top runner in Arizona with a National ranking of 9. Billy had a great cross country season last year, making it all the way to Foot Locker Nationals and finishing 2nd at the Nike SW Regionals. Billy also posted some great times in track finishing the season with a 4:19.50 1600 at the Chandler Rotary and a 9:04.97 3200 at the Meet of Champions. He is set for a great season. Keep checking back as Billy journals about his final prep cross country season.
Billy Orman
(Sr., Tuba City)
Journal Entry #4 (December 2, 2010)
Hello again everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holidays; I know I did.
I thought it would be nice to continue writing journals even though it seems most people have stopped. The cross-country post season, for me at least, is one of the most exciting times of the year so I’ll write a few more.
Since my last journal, which I wrote right after state, I have been continuing my training and gearing up for the post season meets, one of which, the Nike Southwest meet, I have already run. One thing I did differently this year than last is try not to taper too much for state since our season ends more than a month before the national meets. So I’ll write a little on the post season.
I ran the Nike Southwest regional meet at Toka Sticks golf course in Phoenix last weekend and it was great! I had been really looking forward to this race because it is run on the same course that the awesome Twilight Invite is run on and I hoped I could maybe run a new PR. But before the race my coach said that perhaps I should just run with the pack and try for the win, since running sub 15 might really take a lot out of me. So that is pretty much what I did and I managed to break away at around the second mile. The competition in this race was probably the toughest I’ve run against this whole year since the fastest Arizona runners were running in addition to the fastest runners from the other Southwestern states. I thought everyone ran well.
Some of you might be wondering why I chose to run the Foot Locker West and attempt to qualify for Foot Locker nationals instead of going on to Nike Nationals. Well, I really enjoyed the whole experience of Foot Locker last year and it just didn’t sit right with me to abandon it for Nike. I really wish there were a way for runners in the west to run both meets like the guys in the Midwest and South get to do.
Thanks to the NXN SW meet organizers for an excellent meet and congratulations to all who qualified for nationals. I hope you all have a great time in Portland!
After NXN SW I continued my training and now with a week until Foot Locker, I’m starting to cut back on my mileage. I’m hoping to peak for these two races, assuming I’m able to qualify for nationals.
I don’t know if any of the advice I’ve given in my previous journals has been helpful to anyone but I thought I would throw in a little more advice for anyone who wants it. Everyone always writes about training and workouts but equally important for me are all the “little things” that actually add up to quite a big thing in terms of performance. So here’s a list, in no particular order, of things I would consider important.
- Diet – I’ve been a vegetarian for years and it works for me. It may not be for you but you should at least avoid junk food. Before a lot of meets, I often see many runners eating chips, candy, or even a bacon sandwich. I actually think eating healthy food is the single most important thing you can do. Your weight will most certainly drop, which is always good for a distance runner.
- Pre-race meal – the night before a race I generally have the usual pasta dinner. The morning of a race I try to eat at least 3 hours before race time – no fatty foods. Oatmeal, a bagel, and a banana are good.
- Drink – I try to drink water most of the time and avoid soda.
- Recovery Drink – after a hard work out, I drink a glass of chocolate milk. This supposedly helps muscles repair more rapidly but it has to be done within 15 minutes of the end of the workout. And yes, I realize this sort of completely goes against what I said about diet.
- Running Log – I have kept a running log ever since 10th grade. It is a great way to go back and compare what you did with what you’re doing now so you can see what worked and what didn’t.
- GU – even though it tastes gross I always eat a GU 20 minutes before a race. I don’t really know if it works but I guess it doesn’t hurt. You can buy it at most running stores.
Okay, that’s all for now. For those of you who have post season races coming up, good luck and enjoy. For those of you who don’t, I’ll see you in spring on the track!
Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant.
~Billy.
