DyeStatCal Male Athlete of Week September 9/23-9/27/02
Mike Hadden (Woodbridge, Irvine)

Pictured above during his 14:25 Class Record and fastest of day win at Woodbridge Invite this past weekend (Erik Pedersen photo) Michael Hadden (Woodbridge HS) is this week's DyeStatCal Athlete of the Week!!

After a super junior track season that had him run right at 1:51 in both the State Prelims and Finals in Track (1:51.02 prelims and 1:51.41 in Finals), along with a 4:15.32 1600 meter best, Michael Hadden is charging right into cross-country. He was active this summer, placing second in the USATF National JO 800 Meter Championships in the Intermediate Division in 1:52.90, and is in line to compete in the World "under-18" Championships in Track off that performance, a meet that will take place next summer in Canada.

He had a super race this past weekend at his school's Woodbridge Invite, taking down the old Course Record for Juniors of 14:45 set by Foot Locker Finalist Ryan Wilson (Agoura) with a big 14:25 run!! This is a significant improvement over his 14:55 (which set a soph class record in the same meet last year). Michael talks about his goals and running below, with this super eleventh grader worth keeping a close eye on!!!

Thanks Michael - Best of Luck - Doug Speck

1)Briefly describe your cross-country season so far.
I fell that my cross country season has started great.
My goal time for the year was met on the second race.
I would have never expected that since I have not done
as much mileage as I usually do for the beginning. I
think a combination of runing track through the
summer, to keep up speed, and running the distance
when school starts, really helped me out for the
beginning of the season.

2) You ran track fairly late in the summer, all the
way up to late July Junior Olympic Nationals -
breifly, what did you do for the next month between
that and the start of CC season?
I took about a week and a half off and then started
running again. I only started off with 20 minute runs
but eventually got up to 45-50 minutes. I kept
everything at a fast pace and I also did some 400 and
800 meter repeats.

3) What do you like better, track or cross-country?
I like them both for different reasons but my favorite
is definitely track. I like the fast races more than a
pacing run. I like getting out on the track and just
running all out and having lots of people watching.

4)Do you have any goals that revolve the next year
around the world "under 18" Championships in the 800
or 1500?
I am really excited about the Wolrd Championships but
I dont have any goals right now except for to keep
improving and to not get injured. I dont usually set
specific goals becasue I would much rather run my own
race and not think about a certain time I have to get.
As long as I keep improving, I am happy.

5)What are you favorite kind of workouts.
My favorite types of workouts are 400m repeats. I
like the fast pace of it and it really gets your
cardio vascular system working hard.

6) Briefly, what did you do the days on the week
before the recent Woodbridge Invite for workouts?
The week before the Woodbridge Invite I really didn't
do anything differently than I do during the rest of
the year. I did run a little less, but I ran it at a
hard pace like I usually do in workouts.

7) Any advice for beginning runners?
I think any new runners should start off slow and not
try to run too much too fast. In my experience, when
I start off a season, I try to start off slow and not
push the mileage right away. It helps slowly build up
endurance without injuries.

Thank you for choosing me as Althlete of the week.

=====
Mike Haddan

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