MileSplitCA visited with some of the returning CIF-State Track and Field champions for the purpose of filming a regular practice to produce a series of videos we are calling 'Workout of a State Champion'.
This is boys 1600 champion Liam Anderson, a senior at Redwood HS in Larkspur, a little town in Marin County just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
Anderson, who has signed with Stanford, is one of the elite distance runners in the country. During the fall cross country season, he won all five races he entered, including a second consecutive CIF-State Division 3 title, and the boys race at Nike Cross Nationals, setting a course record. That victory ultimately earned him recognition as the Gatorade Boys Cross Country National Runner of the Year.
On the track, Anderson has PRs of 4:09.31 for 1600m, set in winning the CIF-State Meet title last June, and 8:52.74 for 3200m, set last April at Arcadia.
Earlier this spring season, Anderson set an 800m PR of 1:57.02, had an epic 3200 battle with Jesuit junior Matt Strangio at the Dublin Distance Fiesta (running 8:56.88 for second to Strangio's 8:47.97), and won both the 1600 (4:13.49) and 3200 (8:59.77) at the Stanford Invitational, repeating as 3200 champ at The Farm.
This weekend, Anderson and Strangio are scheduled to meet again in the Invitational 3200 meter run Saturday night at Arcadia.
MileSplitCA visited a Redwood practice on Feb. 12, 2019 to film what was a Tuesday pre-season workout. In the video, we meet longtime Redwood coach Laura Schmitt, who along with her son Jake, runs the distance team practice.
In this workout, Anderson ran two 2 x 2400-meter at tempo with intermittent 200m change-pace to roughly 5K speed. He had a 90-second-to-two minute rest between sets. Following the second set, he had a one-lap jog before running a "hard" mile cutdown that started at 69 seconds. His final lap was 65 seconds.
Check out all the 'Workout of a State Champion' series features.