Sunday, May 12, 2013

Catching up with Redwood HS runner, Fred Huxham...

Today we chat with Redwood HS junior, Fred Huxham (picture to the left has coach Jake Schmitt, Fred and coach Laura Schmitt).  While the Sir Francis Drake duo of John Lawson and Clayton Hutchins may get most of the headlines in the MCAL, Huxham has done more than held his own in both cross country and track and field.  This past cross country season, Huxham finished in 2nd place at the NCS Division III race and followed that up with a 3rd place finish at the state meet.  During this track and field season, Huxham has established new personal records in the 3000m. (8:38.15) with his 3rd place finish at the Stanford Invitational and finished in a solid 6th place at the Mt. SAC relays behind an impressive group of national class runners in the mile (4:15.63)

1. How did you get your start in running?
I first started racing when I was five in Piper Park but I didn’t get into running until third grade. In third grade, my teacher Jed Tukman created an elementary school cross country team in addition to our middle school team. I raced all through elementary school and middle school, mostly competing in the school races, but also raced in the USA Track and Field and AAU cross country races.

2. What other sports have you played besides cross country and track and field?
I tried baseball for a year but didn’t enjoy it. In eighth grade I played soccer for a season, but didn’t continue playing because I wanted to run in high school.

3. What sports did you do during your freshman year? Highlights?
During my freshman year I ran cross country and track. Most of my highlights came from track because I got injured before the post-season of cross country. I ran a 4:26 1600 and 9:49 3200 at our MCAL championships. I also qualified for the 3200 finals at the NCS Meet of Championships.

4. What about your sophomore seasons in xc and track? Highlights? Track PRs?
During my sophomore year, the highlight of my cross country season was getting seventh at the Stanford Cross Country Invitational in 15:49 and also qualifying for the State Championships from NCS as a team. The highlight of my sophomore season in track was running the 4x1600 at the Mt. Sac Relays. My track PRs for that season were 4:22 in the 1600 and 9:33 for the 3200.

5. Did you do anything differently going into your junior cross country season in terms of training or mileage?
Going into my junior cross country season, I ran 6-7 days a week over the summer. The Redwood team also traveled up to Tahoe for a week of altitude training. Dedicating myself to that training really helped me throughout the season.

6. What were your highlights and proudest accomplishments from your junior xc season?
I had many successes during my junior xc season. I won the junior race at the Earlybird Invitational, I placed second at Mt. Sac in 15:06, and I placed third at the CIF State Cross Country Championships in 15:29.6. Another highlight, that’s not really about my racing but is very special to me, is that my grandfather drew and helped design our new Redwood uniforms. Even though I’m graduating next year I know that a part of me is staying behind with those uniforms.

7. What was your weekly mileage during your winter training? Typical long run distance? Any workouts?
Usually we base our runs off time but I believe I ran between the high forties and low fifties in weekly mileage. My typical long run distance is between eleven and twelve miles. The workouts in the winter consisted of tempo runs and other base work.

8. What does a typical week look like for you now? Typical workouts? When do you do your long runs? What is the pace of most of your easy runs?
Right now, I’m beginning my taper for the post-season so a lot of the runs I’m doing now are a little bit shorter. Typically throughout the season though, Monday is an easy day, Tuesday is almost always a hard day, generally on the track, Wednesday can be a longer day or an easy day depending on the meet the next day, Thursday is our dual meet day, Friday is an easy day, Saturday is a hard day, again usually on the track, and Sunday is our long day. Our pace varies depending on how the week has been or how it will be, but for the most part we run 6:20 or 6:30 mile pace.

9. Tell us a little about your coaches and how they have helped you develop into the runner you are today.
Laura Schmitt is my primary coach and her son Jake Schmitt volunteers as an assistant on the weekends and at most of our meets. During my sophomore track season, Laura and Jake talked a lot about our boys’ team’s potential, not only for that season, but for the upcoming season as well. Honestly, I think those talks are what made everything click in my mind. I remember after Meet of Champions, Laura told me to get a running journal to write down my runs and my thoughts. I got the journal that day and wrote down what my goals were for the next season. I think both the talks our boys’ team got and writing down what I actually wanted from running really helped to motivate me for the cross country season my junior year.

10. What are your current PRs in track? Where did you run those PRs?
This season I ran 4:15.63 in the full mile at Mt. Sac. I ran the 3000 at Stanford in 8:38.15, and most recently I ran an 800 in 1:57.4 at the Redwood, Drake, Tamalpais dual meet.

11. Favorite track invitational? Favorite track distance? Favorite track workout? Favorite opponents? Favorite place to run? Favorite xc course?
My favorite track invitational is the Mt. Sac Invitational. Right now, I’m not sure what my favorite track distance is. My favorite track workout consists of usually two sets of 300, 200, 100. We do this workout for speed “tune-up” before meet days. My favorite competitors are probably John Lawson, Clayton Hutchins and also Will Baker-Robinson who graduated last year. My favorite place to run is definitely Mt. Tamalpais. I really enjoy running up at Sky Oaks on Mt. Tam. My favorite xc course is Mt. Sac. After the track meet at Mt. Sac, I cooled down on part of the course.

12. Anything else you would like to add.
Shout out to Jack Bullock who moved to Australia last year and thank you so much for the interview!

Thank you very much for your time Fred!  AJC

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

15:06 at mt sac off of 40-50 miles per week?
thats pretty damn impressive

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