MVXC ran one of Coach Flatow’s favorite workouts* on Wednesday, August 13–Dirty 400s. These are 400 m repeats on a trail in the Stevens Creek park. We love this because these are 400s for cross country runners–we are running on dirt, and the trail is not flat. It starts out flat, there is a bump that seems** to get steeper every rep, and then a rolling up and down to the finish. Excellent for cross country!
While this is a great introduction to MVXC training, Dirty Fours are a big jump into the pool–it can be intimidating. This year’s group, while very young, threw themselves into the workout, with no groans! It is super imporant to approach new experiences with an open mind; thinking, “I wonder what this is going to feel like,” or “hmm, how should I get started?” is a lot better than having your mind buzzing with “OMG this sounds hard!” You are more open to new experiences when you don’t prejudge, whether the task is a cross country workout an AP Bio lab, and you are more likely to be successful.
A couple workout tips as we go forward this season:
- In cross country, in most cases a little more volume is better than a little more speed. This axiom is not always true at the margins, but mostly it is accurate. What that means is in most cases you are better off running a couple more reps at a slightly slower pace than you are having a fast pace but have to drop out early. This doesn’t mean dogging it to get more volume, it’s more about being smart and push yourself the right amount. You will get better at finding the right balance as you gain experience.
- Getting faster over the course of the workout is a good thing–I’m a big believer in the “last one, best one” theory of reps. (I did a quick scan and it looks like you agree! I think Naomi, Eva, Myra, Taylor, Medha, Vishakha, Akshat, Lucas, Tarun, Ethan, Darren, Jimin, Oliver, Ritik, Aiden, Riu, Darin, and Zhengyin all made their last rep their fastest. Don’t hold back too much–if your last rep was 10 seconds faster than all your others, maybe you could have pushed the others a bit more. But digging deep a bit on the last one, if you can, is good practice.) (Also–if you are just ‘done’ and want to just jog another rep and record the time, that’s OK too–that is a different thing, you are not giving up. Running a little more is almost always something to be proud of, and “last one, best one” is more of an encouragement and not so much a rule.)
- Start out under control; if you get done with your first rep and think “Whoa that was too easy,” you can always add an extra rep at the end, but if you go out blazing and burn out after a couple reps, it can be hard to get back on track and have your best workout.
- Find a training buddy–in a team this big, there is probably someone at your pace and you can keep each other company and keep each other focused and accountable.
- It’s also a good idea to see who is slightly faster than you in a workout, and consider attaching yourself to them next time. That’s a good way to challenge yourself. Train with the people you want to race with.
- Workouts should be hard, but not too hard. I think you have run a good workout if you still have a little bit (but not too much) left. Like if I came to you and asked, “Can you give me one more rep at that pace?” you could say “Well, yes, but that is going to be tough, and I really don’t want to, Coach. But I could.” I do not believe workouts need to be soul-destroying to be effective. I want you to feel challenged, not wrecked.
- Consider bringing a water bottle!
- Having a snack for after, with protein and carbs, will help with recovery and with rebuilding your muscles. Having one of those little shelf-stable cartons of chocolate milk in your track bag is a good call (Nam used to keep hers on ice) or a half a peanut butter and jam sandwich is a good call. Eating a little bit within 30 minutes after you finish running and training is helpful, even if your big meal is later.
Great job, everyone! I am proud of every one of you, and I am so happy to be coaching this team.
I’m not going to post our quality workout log after every workout, but since the next couple days are going to be disjointed with so many freshmen at orientation tomorrow, and then with the team split on Friday as some of us are running on the coast and some of us staying here, I wanted to get this back to you–it is our first one. See many of you tomorrow, and many of you on Friday, and hopefully everyone on Saturday.
Have a good orientation, freshmen!
Quality Running Log |
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| Cross Country 2025 | |||||||
| 1 | Dirty 400s | ||||||
| Firstname | Lastname | WOs | % | 8/13/25 | |||
| 1 | Aanya | Dhua | 9 | G | 0 | 0% | |
| 2 | Zeynep | Dogan | 9 | G | 1 | 100% | 2:13-2:05-2:10-2:10-1:48-1:55-1:46-2:10 |
| 3 | Vaishnavi | Eranti | 9 | G | 0 | 0% | |
| 4 | Miranda | Hsu | 11 | G | 1 | 100% | 91-89-92-93-93-94-93-93-94-92-92 |
| 5 | Naomi | Hsu | 11 | G | 1 | 100% | 99-96-95-1:40-1:40-1:40-1:40-1:40-1:40-91 |
| 6 | Eva | Huang | 9 | G | 1 | 100% | 1:55-1:53-1:52-1:47-1:52-1:51-1:43 |
| 7 | Sarah | Kumar | 9 | G | 1 | 100% | Ankle |
| 8 | Caroline | Labudde | 9 | G | 0 | 0% | |
| 9 | Luna | Lee | 10 | G | 1 | 100% | 2:09-2:51-2:35-2:47-3:01-3:34-2:54-3:03 |
| 10 | Sophia | Li | 9 | G | 1 | 100% | 2:03-1:56-1:58-1:47-2:23-1:59 |
| 11 | Kaitlyn | Lum | 9 | G | 1 | 100% | 2:03-1:572:00-1:52-2:03-2:11-2:01-1:58 |
| 12 | Myra | Mishra | 10 | G | 1 | 100% | 2:01-1:55-1:54-1:57-1:55-2:01-2:05-1:59-2:03-2:00-1:57-1:53-1:51 |
| 13 | Chelsea | Nie | 9 | G | 0 | 0% | |
| 14 | Taylor | Orr | 9 | G | 1 | 100% | 2:00-1:53-89-1:49-1:53-1:55-1:53-1:52-1:54-1:48-1:51 |
| 15 | Suhani | Pahuja | 12 | G | 0 | 0% | |
| 16 | Ananya Vijay | Parakimeethal | 10 | G | 0 | 0% | |
| 17 | Alexandra | Qiu | 10 | G | 0 | 0% | |
| 18 | Elizabeth | Qui | 9 | G | 0 | 0% | |
| 19 | Medha | Rustagi | 10 | G | 1 | 100% | 2:01-1:55-1:54-1:54-1:55-1:57-2:00-2:00-2:05-2:00-1:53 |
| 20 | Vishakha | Shastri | 10 | G | 1 | 100% | 1:40-96-95-1:40-1:40-1:40-1:40-1:40-1:40-89 |
| 21 | Melinda | Zhao | 10 | G | 1 | 100% | 1:40-96-95-1:40-1:40-1:40-1:47 |
| 22 | Youheng | Zhong | 9 | G | 1 | 100% | 2:03-1:58-1:58-1:48-?-1:53 |
| 23 | Fahad | Ali | 9 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 24 | Akshat | Ambekar | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 86-94-90-87-89-91-90-87 |
| 25 | Shouki | Baba | 9 | B | 1 | 100% | 1:43-1:43-?-98-95-98-90-92 |
| 26 | Krishna | Batni | 9 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 27 | Raghuram | Chandramouli | 9 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 28 | Jonah | Chang | 11 | B | 1 | 100% | 83-83-81-83-84-89-88-86-89-90-87-86 |
| 29 | Constantine | Chua | 10 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 30 | Lucas | Chuang | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 2:00-1:56-1:54-1:53-1:53-1:42-98-98 |
| 31 | Aidan | Cushman-Kihnley | 11 | B | 1 | 100% | 86-85-84-86-90-90-82-90-85-86-85 |
| 32 | Oliver | D’Souza | 10 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 33 | Tarun | Gandhi | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 89-79-79-75-86-76-75-80-77-77-78-72 |
| 34 | Ethan | Ge | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 1:58-1:50-2:01-1:56-2:083-1:56-2:10-1:45 |
| 35 | Samuel | Heinonen | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 85-82-83-82-79-82-9=80-83-85-82 |
| 36 | Darren | Hsu | 12 | B | 1 | 100% | 1:43-1:44-1:44-1:43-1:46-1:50-1:44-1:44-1:47-99 |
| 37 | Pranshu | Jha | 9 | B | 1 | 100% | 2:08-2:09-2:01-2:02-1:53-2:02-2:00 |
| 38 | Abhi | Kotari | 12 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 39 | Josiah | Lim | 9 | B | 1 | 100% | 1:40-99-96-?-97-1:40-99-1:40 |
| 40 | John | Ling | 9 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 41 | shayan | mahajan | 9 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 42 | Vikram | Mallya | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 1:40-1:43-1:47-1:44-97-1:41-1:41-94-1:42 |
| 43 | Jayden | Mattekatt | 9 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 44 | Kento | Murase | 11 | B | 1 | 100% | 85-77-78-75-80-76-75-79-76-75-77-69-69-78 |
| 45 | Aric | Obaidur | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 1:42-1:45-2:44-1:55-2:05-1:55-1:59-2:00 |
| 46 | Rajit | Pandey | 9 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 47 | Jimin | Park | 9 | B | 1 | 100% | 1:48-1:49-1:50-2:10-1:54-1:54-1:52-1:49-1:46 |
| 48 | Oliver | Perrault | 9 | B | 1 | 100% | 1:43-1:49-99-99-1:43-1:41-1:41-97 |
| 49 | Soma | Pujara | 9 | B | 1 | 100% | 1:44-95-88-96-1:40 |
| 50 | Rishi | Salvi | 12 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 51 | Ritik | Shenoy | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 88-92-89-89-89-92-91-87-88-86-86-88-81 |
| 52 | Ashwanth | Sundaramoorthi | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 85-83-79-81-78-80-78-81-82 |
| 53 | Brandon | Wang | 12 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 54 | Eli | Wang | 9 | B | 1 | 100% | 2:08-2:08-2:01-1:56-1:52-1:54 |
| 55 | Ray | Wang | 9 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 56 | Yibo | Wang | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 89-89-90-99-88-89-1:40-91 |
| 57 | Aiden | White | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 99-98-1:42-1:41-99-1:43-1:46-1:45-1:48-1:41-85 |
| 58 | Riu | Yamada | 10 | B | 1 | 100% | 85-77-78-75-80-76-75-80-77-76-78-70 |
| 59 | Isaac | Yan | 11 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 60 | Ethan | Yang | 12 | B | 0 | 0% | |
| 61 | Darin | Young | 9 | B | 1 | 100% | 90-89-91-89-89-87-90-87 |
| 62 | Zhengyin | Zhu | 9 | B | 1 | 100% | 2:08-2:12-2:23-2:30-2:34-2:47-2:39-1:59 |
| 39 | |||||||
*Favorite because they are good for us, and favorite because I loved running this when I could.
**Just kidding, it doesn’t actually get steeper each time. That would be crazy. It is gravity that gets stronger.