Ian Dobson's Journal

April 10, 2008 Entry (Posted April 11, 2008)

I just got back to Mammoth from running a 10K at the Stanford Invite. Even though I didn’t run great, it feels good to finally get the season started after having to delay a couple times. The objective was to run under the Olympic Trials auto standard of 28:15, but I ended up running 28:16, so that was frustrating. But overall the race was a good confirmation that things are on the right track and it also served as a good reminder of how it feels to race on the track. I have a bad habit of convincing myself that races like that are going to be easy. In reality they never are and I end up paying for it if I don’t prepare for a hard race. The Olympic Trials standard isn’t slow and even when you’re fit and ready to go it’s a hard run. I’ll be ready next time!

Now I’ve got another week or so up here in Mammoth before heading down to San Diego for the rest of the spring. That means right about the time all the snow melts I’ll be gone for the summer. Every day there’s less snow on the ground, but the trails near town are still covered which means driving to our runs every day. Kate and Julia and I tried to embrace the snow the other day by using it to make ice cream in coffee cans (which I’m not sure is possible in the best of circumstances). It was a total failure, unless you ask Kate who drank the chocolaty cream anyway, due mostly to the heated floor of their condo that we were rolling the cans around on. But it was still a good time. Maybe you had to be there. That reminds me of the Mentos and Diet Coke rockets we tried to make. Those didn’t work either.

Last night we all had a great Greek dinner over at Andrew and Deena’s. I guess it was sort of a send off for Kate and Deena before they head down to San Diego before the Marathon Trials. Although now that I think about it, I guess Deena shouldn’t have had to cook dinner for all of us if it was a send off for her but that’s what you get when you can cook like her. Anyway, I’m really excited about watching them in Boston and watching Ryan in London this weekend (yeah, I’ll be up at 2:00 am watching London on the internet!).

I’m getting ready to head down to San Diego next week for some sea level training until the Trials. In preparation I’ve been cleaning out my place, trying to throw away as much junk as possible, which really feels great! For the first time in a couple years it’s April and I’m fit and healthy and excited to train hard and race! Injuries and bad years are never a good thing but I’m excited to use those frustrations, combined with the excitement of the success of my teammates, as motivation to put together a really great year. I’m planning on running the 5K at Stanford in a month and then running some shorter races like the 3K at the adidas track classic and hopefully a 1500 or two before the Trials.

January 2008 Entry (Posted January 21, 2008)

This was meant to be a post Houston Half-Marathon blog, but unfortunately I got the flu the week of the race and wasn’t able to run. So I guess it’s just my January blog. But in accordance with my New Year’s Resolutions I’m going to be flexible, roll with it, and not gripe about bad luck. My other New Year’s Resolutions are to eat more organic food, watch less MTV, read more, write letters to some people I’ve lost touch with, and stretch at least 30 minutes a day. I’m not usually a big resolution person because I think people make themselves do too many things they don’t want to do already, but for some reason I felt like making resolutions this year. I didn’t include things like making the Olympic Team or running fast because those are goals, not resolutions.

The holidays or Christmas or whatever you want to call it was good. I spent some time with my Dad’s side of the family for Christmas and then headed down to San Diego where my mom’s side is and where Kylie lives. I was going to head back up here to Mammoth right after New Year’s, but there was a big storm in the mountains and I decided to run Houston so it made more sense to stay down there where the weather was good. So now, after changing my plans every three or four days for like two weeks, I’m back up at home in Mammoth. I’ve spent enough time in San Diego now that it’s starting to feel like home which is good because it makes the transition between training here in Mammoth and down there easy. It’s nice to be feeling familiar with the city and with all the different places to run in the area.

So my plan now is to run a couple races indoors, maybe even world indoors if things are going well, and then just figure out what schedule of races in the spring sets me up best to run fast at the trials. I’d like to run the 8K championships in New York and I’d like to run a fast 5K at Stanford, but at this point I want to just keep an open mind and stay flexible with the schedule. I think I’ve gotten in trouble in the past from planning way out to do a race and then doing it no matter what even if I wasn’t really ready to go. So this year I’m going to make sure I’m ready to run fast every time out even if it means skipping races that sound fun.

Not much else is going on right now, but after a few years of being totally disinterested in politics I’m actually getting pretty excited about this fall’s presidential election. I’m not sure why my attitude towards politics is changing, but I think it’s partly because of my experiences traveling the last few years. Everywhere I go it seems like people expect to not like Americans. I’m sick of feeling so self-conscious about being an American, like I have to prove that I don’t think I can just do whatever I want. I’m not naïve enough to think the new president will totally change the world’s perception of us, but hopefully we’ll elect someone who isn’t just interested in proving our power and taking advantage of other countries and people. We have a great opportunity to prove to ourselves and to the rest of the world that we’re not dumb enough to be jerked around by corporate interests and that we really are concerned about the future and the rest of the world. Happy New Year!

November 2007 Entry (Posted November 29, 2007)

I’m driving back up to Mammoth today after what has seemed like a really busy fall.  I think I’ve been away from Mammoth more than I’ve been home, but now I’ll get in a good chunk of time up there with just a short time away for Christmas.  Despite a lot of traveling the fall has been productive; along with the rest of the group I’m working on fixing some basic biomechanical problems in the hope that it will set me up to do some good training in the winter ad spring and more importantly race fast at the Olympic Trials and all next summer! 

A few highlights of the fall for me were seeing the results of  both Kate and Ryan’s marathons, seeing my friends Missy and Lauren get married, and trying (unsuccessfully) to learn how to surf. 

The low point was Ryan Shay’s death.  A lot has been said about him since then and there’s not much I can add.  He was a good friend who inspired and frustrated me with his work ethic.  I still remember the night he called to say he was going to propose to Alicia the next day. I could tell he was nervous, and I could picture him at home so excited he just had to call somebody!  I hope while he was alive he knew how much I admired him; if there’s one thing I take from his death it’s the lesson that I need to make sure people who I care about know how I feel. 

My latest trip was to Manchester for the Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving (I’m not even going to try to explain why I’m driving from San Diego after going to Manchester).  Last year I won which was great, but I got a later start on training this fall and haven’t been doing much in the way of workouts, so I knew it would be a stretch to run as well as last year.  Nonetheless, I wanted to win (although I think my 11-year-old host brother wanted me to win more than I did!) so it was a bit of a disappointment to finish fourth.  But it was still a great trip.  I got to catch up with friends from college and  some who I met last year. I spent the afternoon after the race with Andrew Letherby, who was the winner, and really enjoyed it.  I never met him before, and it was interesting to hear his take on things since he’s been around for a while.  We’re lucky to be in a sport with so many good people!

So now it’s back to the mountains for some work!  I had some 2Ks  this morning which I did at the beach, soaking up every ounce of sun and warmth I could and if I can get in a run this evening I’ll be able to say I executed the running equivalent of the surf/ski double.  Have a great December!

Summer 2007 Entry (Posted August 9, 2007)

I think optimism is way overrated. Too much optimism means you’re going to be disappointed. But enough pessimism ensures that more often than not you’re going to be pleasantly surprised. Take the other day for example; a whole bus load of us arrived at the track at Braschaatt, Belgium. We were about four hours early for the meet, so we had the whole afternoon to kill, just hanging around at the track. It was pretty nice out, but there were a few clouds brewing and I figured that in an hour or two it was probably going to rain on us. Everyone else saw the blue sky and thought I was crazy. Sure enough, an hour later dark clouds filled the sky and we felt a couple drops. I was ok with it because I thought my prediction of rain was coming true and everyone else was disappointed because now they thought it would rain. But within a few minutes the clouds started to blow away and the sun came back out and we all enjoyed the rest of a sunny afternoon. So at the end of the day I was wrong. But as consolation for being wrong I got to enjoy a beautiful day. It was a win-win situation! If it rained I would be right and if it didn’t I would enjoy the weather and be happy to have been wrong!

The highlight of the meet was of course Alan’s awesome run in the mile, but even without that it would have been great. It wasn’t any sort of big time meet, in fact it was the opposite. It reminded me a lot of the meets at Stanford. Great conditions, lot’s of athletes supporting each other, and a few hardcore fans. All that and a trackside beer garden!

After the meet we all got back on the bus and rode an hour back home to Leuven, bringing back memories of high school and college road trips for everyone. It was probably close to midnight when we got back, but Sara decided to fill up the ice bath anyway, and since it’s always tough to sleep after a race, a group of us sat around in our kitchen and took turns icing. It must have been an odd sight because our ice bath is actually a rubber raft that our coach bought, which we fill with water and dump tupperware containers full of ice into. I was a little skeptical at first, but it actually works great! The two students who were trying to enjoy some wine together in the kitchen probably think Americans are pretty weird.

After Braschatt, my next meet was Heusden where I ended up running 13:18. Next I’m running a 2-mile in London on Friday night and then hopefully a 3K in Stockholm. After finally getting in a good 5K I’m really excited to get in another one and take a bigger chance.

May 13, 2007 Entry (Posted May 15, 2007)

I finally got my season started last weekend at the Cardinal Invitational at Stanford. I ran the 5000 and ran pretty much just like I thought I would. I was a little nervous going in because I was pretty short on actual 5K work, but figured it wouldn’t be too fast and that I could probably just sit in and get pulled along. I ran 13:31 but the last 600 showed that I’m not quite back to being ready to really race yet. But it was a lot better than anything I did last year and I feel good about being able to race with good runners again. Plus it was fun to race at my home track and see a bunch of friends from college.

After the Cardinal Invitational I came back up to Mammoth (most of us were in San Diego during April) to get in a couple more weeks at altitude to get ready for the last push before nationals. My next race will be next weekend at the Adidas Track Classic in Carson. I’m gong to run a 1500 there, which I’m really excited about. My 1500 PR is 3:43 so I’m looking forward to lowering that to something a little better.

It might seem counterintuitive to come up to 8000’ for the two weeks before a fast 1500, but I think it’s going to work pretty well. I think there’s a misconception about the sort of training that you can do at altitude. From my experience, the only type of training that’s really hard to do up here is pure 5K pace workouts. For example it would be very hard to run 3 or 4 times a mile at 5K pace. But it’s not hard to get in some really good quality workouts at mile pace or faster up here. For example, I had 6-8 times 400 meters last week and they were all faster than mile pace and I finished in 52, which is moving pretty good for me. Of course, there was a big tailwind which helped a lot, but my body didn’t know that, so it tried to adapt to running fast 400s. Besides using the wind to help us run fast sometimes we run intervals on a slight downhill in order to make sure we hit fast paces like we would at sea level. In fact, on Thursday I ran 1:49 for 800 meters! (Maybe it was a little short and a bit downhill, but it was still fast)! My point isn’t to try to impress anyone with the workouts I’ve been doing up here, it’s just to say that next time somebody tries to tell you they’re not ready to race because they’ve been at altitude you can call BS on that.

Despite what I just said, after the adidas meet I’ll be back down in San Diego until nationals. The reality is that I need to be on a track and get in some 5K specific workouts that are hard to do in Mammoth. Maybe I can even talk Ryan into jumping in some workouts with me, if he didn’t get too slow from the marathon training!

April 5, 2007 Entry (Posted May 11, 2007)

I got to go to a fun dinner last night. Some of the Ethiopian women who were in the area for Carlsbad stayed a few extra days and the folks from Elite Racing invited our group to join them for dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant here in San Diego. The food was great and I got to meet some neat people. When we finished dinner the owners of the restaurant gave flowers to some of the women and thanked us all for coming, saying it was an honor to have all these fast runners in their restaurant. Then they turned on some Ethiopian music and Defar and the other Ethiopians started doing this crazy shoulder shake dance that you must have to be Ethiopian to be able to do. It was great to get to see how much the Ethiopian community supports their runners even here in San Diego

That experience along with some others, like watching the Carlsbad 5K, traveling to San Diego for some sea level training, and hearing all about Ryan’s 10K up at Stanford have gotten me really excited about running again. I’m coming off a tough couple months because of an injury, but being part of this team and being around runners who are running great and having fun helped me get through it. My leg hurt all of January and after racing a mile up in Washington at the end of the month I decided I needed to go to the doctor. He took an X-ray and it turned out I had a stress fracture in my shin, so I had to take all of February off from running.

I don’t know how I would have gotten through that month without the team in Mammoth Lakes supporting me. I know injuries are part of this job, but it was especially tough this time because I had such a rough year last year and felt like I had gotten myself back on track in the fall and early winter. My coach and I decided to be aggressive with cross training and with the transition back into running, so as it turned out I didn’t have too much time or energy to just sit around feeling sorry for myself. I bought some Nordic skis and spent some time out on the ski trails which is such great training that I think I might do some skiing every winter, even when I’m not hurt. In addition I took some spin classes, swam in the pool, and thanks to the nice people at the Mammoth Hospital, got to use their underwater treadmill a few times every week.

Now I’m about a month back into running and things are going great. I can’t tell you how good it feels to have some urgency to my training. I’ve spent most of the last couple years worrying that I might be fit too early, but that’s not going to be the case this year. Every workout is super important when there’s not a lot of time, so I’m not taking anything for granted anymore. For example this afternoon I just have a short run and some fast 200s. 2006 Ian wouldn’t have started thinking about the afternoon session until after the morning run, and then it would be to wonder if maybe I should just run easy instead. But 2007 Ian has been thinking about these 200s for the last three days and is going to be buzzing with caffeine and ready to go! On Tuesday I had a set of 10 x 1k and was pushing hard right from the start to hit the times. In the past I might have asked to cut the workout short or slowed up a bit or at least been pissed that the workout was so hard, but now I’m just so happy to be healthy and running that the difficulty of a workout seems insignificant!

The lessons we learn when we’re hurt are easy to forget when things start going well again, so my resolution for this year is to keep the intensity and excitement that I feel right now going all year long. My first race is going to be the 5000 at Stanford at the end of April, so I’m looking forward to getting things kicked off right at my favorite track!

December 8, 2006 Entry (Posted December 14, 2006)

I don’t know too much about science or anything like that, but I’m pretty sure there’s something to all this global warming talk since it is December 5 and we worked out in shorts and t-shirts this morning in Mammoth.  Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all. .  .

Since my last blog entry my life has improved. First I bought a condo, then I started being able to burp, and then I started running fast again.

I needed a place to store all my junk and feel at home in, so buying the condo was priority number one when I got up to Mammoth in August. I got a nice small place that needs some painting and fixing up, so working on that has become a good hobby. I think there’s a lot to be said for how being settled and happy will effect a person’s running. Just look at all the people who get engaged or married and then run fast. Since marriage isn’t on my horizon, I thought a home would be the next best thing. So far it’s been a great feeling to actually be able to go home everyday after running. Plus no one gets mad if I screw things up or make a mess.

Learning to burp sounds trivial, but it actually made my life a lot better. I used to get this crazy pressure in my chest when I ran and the only way to get rid of it was to stick my finger down my throat like I was making myself puke. Not having to do that anymore is nice. Before I couldn’t take fluids on long runs or tempo’s, but now that I can burp I can!

Running fast again is pretty much just a result of not doing the same dumb things I did last year. I’ve started actually running the workouts that my coach writes, instead of trying to run them all faster. So far it’s working.

I ran two races this fall. The first was the Big Sur Half-Marathon, and the second was the Manchester Road Race. I felt pretty good since getting back to training after my break earlier this fall, so I knew that I’d run pretty well at Big Sur. However, a half-marathon is so much farther than I’d raced before and I didn’t know exactly what to expect for the pace. I couldn’t even run 5-minute-per-mile pace for 8 miles up here in Mammoth, so the thought of a faster pace for 13 miles made me nervous. As it turned out, the pace didn’t feel too bad and by 10 miles, I knew I wasn’t going to fall apart. I ended up getting away from Fernando Cabada and the Kenyan runner in the last mile or so and was excited to get my first win in a long time.

In between Big Sur and Manchester I was invited by the New York Road Runners to go watch the ING New York City Marathon. In typical NYRR fashion, they made it an awesome weekend for the dozen or so of us they were hosting. The idea was that we would get a taste of New York on marathon weekend and get to see the course that the Olympic Trials will be held on next fall. I’d never been to a big marathon before so everything was exciting. I got to watch the marathon from Tavern on the Green, right at the finish line. Before this weekend, it would heave been easy to say no to the marathon trials, but after seeing all the things New York has set up to make the trials awesome it’s going to be a tough decision. While I was in New York, I got to visit with Mark Carroll on a run. He’s a guy who’s had a great career and ran some pretty fast times, so it was good to visit with him and learn about what things have worked for him over the years and what things haven’t.

After New York I was back in Mammoth for a couple weeks before going out to Manchester. In that time, Ryan and Sara came up after being away for a while on a break from running. It was great to have them back, and I thought for once that I might be able to keep up with Ryan, for at least a couple weeks. But no; after letting me hang on in his first workout back, Ryan dropped me in our next two workouts. A year ago this would have really bothered me, but in the last year I’ve learned to deal with not running everything together. When I start comparing myself in training to Ryan, or anyone else for that matter, I lose control of the workouts. It’s important to evaluate a workout based on how I feel, not how far ahead or behind someone else I am. I know that if I can run my tempos at 5-minute-per-mile pace up here in Mammoth, then I’m in good shape, even though it’s not fast compared to what Ryan and Meb run, or what I might do at sea level.

Just about everything at Manchester was good except the weather, which was terrible! The course is a loop and has a big hill in the second mile and a big downhill on the third mile. Everyone told me not to make any big moves on the uphill, so when Simon Bairu pushed up the hill I let him go. To give you an idea of the hill, my first mile was 4:27 and my second was 5:08, and they were about the same effort. The race really got going when we got to the bottom of the hill with a mile and a half or so left and Simon was still ahead. I was running with Alistair Cragg and a Kenyan competitor, and the three of us took turns pushing the pace. We eventually caught Simon with about half a mile to go. Fortunately I felt good and managed to get around him near the end. Winning that race was a huge boost for my confidence. I respect Simon and Alistair a lot, so any time I can come out on top when they’re in the race I feel like I’ve really accomplished something.

Last weekend I went to Indiana for the USATF annual convention. It was my second year and even though there are a ton of boring meetings, on the whole, I think it is worth attending. There aren’t too many distance runners there, so those of us who go really get to say what’s on our minds. One important thing that happened at the convention on the distance side of things was that a resolution was passed (I think that’s what you call it) to start an athlete registry for road races. Once it’s in place, an athlete will have to be registered before he can win money in any US road race. Being on the registry will make the athlete eligible for out-of-competition drug testing, the way US athletes already are. It’s basically a way to make sure that athletes on drugs aren’t coming to the US and running all the races that don’t test, and taking the money away from clean athletes. I think this is going to be a really good thing, but in order for it to operate on a realistic budget, I don’t think they should make the tests random. I think athletes should be targeted, either because they’re training with a group that has produced dirty athletes, or they have suspicious performances, or even just because they’re running really well. I’m happy to have a few extra drug tests when I’m running well and I hope other people are too. If you’re clean, you can just take it as a compliment.

Now it’s back to the grind, just getting in some training and getting ready for cross country in Boulder in February.

Introductory Entry regarding Worlds in Fukuoka, Japan

The first day we arrived in Japan, about two and a half weeks before World Cross, Jorge Torres and I vowed to learn two Japanese words each day for the entire trip. This, we reasoned, would leave us with a basic but practical Japanese vocabulary. We were right on pace until about noon, having repeated the word "mizu," which means "water," about a hundred times. Sadly, besides what I already knew from listening to the Styx, that's pretty much where it ended. But even without any Japanese words to help us along, we managed to get around without looking like complete idiots (I think).

We (Mr. and Mrs. Hall, Jorge Torres and I) went over to Japan early in order to run a tune up race beforehand and to get used to the time difference, food and all that stuff. The tune up race was a 12k and as far as I could tell was also the selection race for the Japanese team. It took place about two weeks before Worlds. We had no idea what to expect from how the Japanese would race or what the quality of the field would be. It turned out that the race wasn't too competitive; Ryan ran away from everybody and I got third behind him and a Kenyan who's going to high school (I think?) in Japan. There were a bunch of age group races too, and we were all impressed by how many young people were involved in cross country. Japan has produced good runners, but considering the level of participation and organization of young kids I'm surprised they don't have more success.

One thing of note I learned about running in Japan is that it turns out that going for a run in Japan means running circles, rather than actually finding a road or trail that goes somewhere. So in the two weeks we spent at the Nihon Aerobics Center before going to Fukuoka for worlds, I must have run at least 100 miles around the 1000m loop they had and that was normal for the Japanese runners who were training there.

We traveled to Fukuoka (the World XC race location) from near Tokyo where we were staying the same day the rest of the US team traveled from the states. We got to Fukuoka after a short flight and felt great; it was nice to have turned what normally would have been at least a 10hour flight to Fukuoka into one that only took an hour and a half. Another nice thing about going over early was that I got my fill of sightseeing and touring before the week of the race. I think sometimes the US group puts too much emphasis on having a fun trip; there are always optional sightseeing trips planned for the week of the race, and I think this is distracting. Of course I think we should take advantage of the opportunity to travel, but until we start treating these trips as business and not pleasure we're going to continue to lose. Because I had been in Japan for a while already, I wasn't tempted to go on any adventures once we got to Fukuoka.

The race at worlds was a little different than I expected; it went out super fast for the first few hundred meters, of course, but it actually slowed down quite a bit in the second kilometer, which was into the wind. This allowed us to all be in the huge front pack with 2k to go. I just tried to stay close to Jorge and Dan, because I know they always run smart and would probably finish about where I wanted to. With the exception of Adam, I think we all should have placed a bit higher, but I felt like I ran well and gave it what I had. It's funny to think placing in the 30s in a race could give anyone confidence, but it did. It gave me confidence because although there were a lot of good runners ahead of me there were also a lot behind; I passed Abebe Dinkessa near the end and it made me realize that all these guys are beatable. They all have their bad days like the rest of us and there's nothing different about a guy whose run 26:40 and myself.

I think it was worth going over early not only from an athletic perspective, but for other reasons too. Simply spending a few weeks in a country allowed me to soak up information about the culture that I couldn't get any other way. After worlds I spent a couple days in Hita, which is a town outside Fukuoka, where one of my best friends from high school happens to teach English. I stayed with him and hung around with him and his girlfriend and some of their friends. Like everyone I encountered in Japan they were great hosts and got me to try all the crazy Japanese food like horse, raw chicken and blow fish that will supposedly kill you if it's cut wrong. The best thing that they introduced me to was a Japanese alcohol called "shochu" which is made from potatoes and is so clean that it doesn't leave you with any sort of hangover at all!

I took about a week easy after worlds in order to recharge and make sure my calf, which had been bothering me for a while, was better, and then I headed up to Mammoth Lakes for training. It's kind of a relief to get up here and get back into a routine of just training hard and not worrying about anything else. We spent most of the winter in Palo Alto, which was nice, but there's something about being up here at Mammoth that you just can't beat anywhere else. There's no excuse for not doing things right up here; the trails are great, there's no distractions, and we're all living together and holding each other accountable. I'm starting to learn how to fly fish with Ryan, but so far, besides all the fishermen, I haven't seen any evidence that fish live here at all. We've got a couple more weeks up here and if I don't catch a fish by the time we leave then Ryan's going to have to fish by himself next fall.