Mad Man

HamDel...it's good to be back.

“You’re only as good as your last 800.” That’s what we used to say as part of the Columbia Mid-D Crew. I liked the sentiment. It didn’t matter if you were a 1:48 guy, if you were dropping 1:51s, then it wasn’t quite cutting it. Sure it was nice that you had the faster one under your belt, but you couldn’t rest on your laurels. Sadly for me, my last 800 the summer before my 5th year was a 1:57 rig-fest that was one of the worst things I had ever been a part of.

According to our maxim, for almost a full year I was a 1:57 guy. It was discouraging to say the least. Surprisingly it ended up being my best year. I split 1:46.00 and didn’t lose an 8 all year (in retrospect I should have run the 8 at NCAAs and tried to do some damage there). But those parentheses are the problem right there and the problem with Columbia’s Mid-D Rule in general. I’m not looking back at the past anymore (unless I’m looking at the 2007 Penn 4x8 to get myself jacked up).

This year, I am changing that motto. Instead: “You’re only as good as your next 800.” Play with it if you please and insert your event here, but that’s what it’s gonna be for the upcoming track career of yours truly…time to get going and run your ass off.

My last year at Georgetown was a little stale, and now that I’m up in NY, the intensity is back and it’s going to be a fun year. There are real goals now, and I’m ready to make some noise again. You can also look out for me in quite a few more 800s…time to turn myself back into a sprinter type. Boo. Yah.

The move to New York went smoothly. I am packed into a tiny room in an apartment with two assistant coaches at Columbia on 118th and Amsterdam. It’s nice to be close to Columbia and as a volunteer assistant coach I get to use the gym for cross training and stuff like that.

I started up working a part time job on Madison Avenue. It is exactly like the show “Mad Men.” Well, except for the whiskey drinking and the infidelity. Plus, I probably smoke more cigarettes than Don Draper, so that’s a plus (maybe not actually).

I am getting some orthotics, and as soon as they come in I’ll be up and running. It’s still a lot of time on the elliptical machine and in the pool, but I’m feeling pretty in shape so I won’t be too far behind once I get out on the roads, trails and tracks.

And in terms of housekeeping, sorry for taking a week off from the posting...because of it, there will be a Wednesday post with a recap and state of the season report.

Let’s Go!

The Humbling of a Middle Distance Runner

The bikes in Amsterdam...

Yesterday was the first time I had exercised outside in about 3 weeks. It was a crisp, autumn-esque morning in Bath, and I took my Dad’s road bike out for a spin. My foot feels great, but going to avoid running on it until I see the Doc once I get back to New York. Enjoying the fresh air compared to my now accustomed to chlorine tainted oxygen, I approached the corner of Chandler and Clark to take a left and head back towards my Dad’s house to finish up the ride.

At the same time, a biker with some serious gear was taking a right onto Clark coming from the opposite way on Chandler. I beat him to the turn and settled into my 15mph tempo that I had gotten so used to. Then disaster struck.

The dude BLEW by me. I thought about trying to go with him, and picked up the tempo for a moment, but when I looked up he was already 50 meters ahead of me and drifting further away every second. I shook my head in disgust and settled into my tempo trying to avoid looking up to see how terribly I was being beaten.

I need to stick to running.

After getting my ass kicked daily in the pool I was biking my own pace and thought I was doing pretty well until this joker rocked my world. It is a humbling thing to get beaten so soundly so many days a week. Especially to women who are clearly just better swimmers than I am. I tell myself I’m staying in shape, but I am getting antsy to getting out and running so I can show the weekend warriors what’s up. Man it sucks.

The one glimpse of light I’ve seen has been the improvement of my swimming. If I was 10-years-old I would have the Haslett Community Pool records from 25 to 200-meters. Boo. Yah.

Moving up to New York on the 12th…can’t wait. Let’s Go!

Brand Spanking New!

Falmouth right before dropping out. I am sitting behind my new training partner, Rob Novak...

New Month, New City, New Look. Same old idea. As you can see, some changes have been made to runLBP.com, hopefully for the better. It was starting to look a little cluttered on here and it was confusing with what was the blog—err, I mean web journal—and what wasn’t. So now, it should be pretty easy to navigate and the blog is all at the blogspot site just because it’s easier to post there even if I don’t have my computer. The first paragraph of each new post will be on the front page of the site, but you’ll have to head to the blog to read the rest…

There’s the house cleaning. Sadly, there isn’t much else to report. I am at home in Bath still and enjoying my time with nothing to do. Boredom is setting in, but that’s part of it. I found out at the end of the season that I had a stress reaction, so I have been in a boot and getting healthy. I probably could start running now, but we’re making sure that I get as healthy as possible before I start training so that I can go un-interrupted the next two years.

I am going to be living near Columbia U. in NY, but it is going to be a lot different than when I was at school. It will be a different experience, but I am looking forward to what’s ahead. But what that means for the frequenters of “runLBP.com” is that there will be a new arena for more LBPjams! Boo. Yah.

Coach Gags keeps emailing me telling me to be patient, and lord knows I am, but I am starting to get antsy, I want to get out there and run again. Soon enough, I know. For now it is the swimming pool and getting worked by the same girl every day who is a much better swimmer than I. I work my balls off to swim 25 meters in 30 seconds. It’s awful.

I’m getting there. Let’s Go!

Start Spreading The News

Embarrassingly enough, when driving around town or watching vh1, there are a few songs that I leave on to get the full listen. While I don’t call myself a Pop music aficionado, I do find myself bobbing my head to some catchy tunes. Recently in Pop music, there has been a trend of making a song for your city. Jay-Z started things off with the classy “Empire State of Mind” and things seemed to be going in the right direction. Then, Katy Perry decided to make a response to Jay-Z by putting out “California Gurls.” While catchy as can be, California Gurls as a response to Jay-Z would be like Blink-182 writing a response to Tupac back in the 90s. It just doesn’t work that way. Tupac’s “California Love” ranks as one of the best “city songs” of all time. However, some white guy back in the 80s tops the standings.

So through Sinatra’s song, I’d like to announce that I will be moving back to New York, New York to pursue my running career under famed coach, Frank Gagliano.

After meeting with Coach Gags, as he is referred to by most, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to be coached by such a great mind. He has coached multiple Olympians and Team USA members, and I believe that he is my best chance to become exactly that.

I never thought that I would be moving back to New York unless I was done running, but Central Park and I have 2 more years left in us. I am going to be living near Columbia U. and will be living the life of a runner in the city that never sleeps.

I’m hoping the bright lights get brighter in 2011 and 2012, and I can’t wait to get out there and get training towards becoming the best middle distance runner that I can be.

Let’s Go!

Thanks to Dan Leyh for the pic...

Moving On

New York...

...or Michigan?

Falmouth was disappointing to say the least. The Friday shakeout for the Saturday race left my left foot feeling sore and flared up. I had a stress fracture on the 4th metatarsal of this foot as a senior at Columbia, so I have always been extremely careful with that area for the past 3 years. But I decided to ice it a bunch and figured that I could race one more mile on it and then call it a season. However, as soon as the spikes went on for the race on Saturday I knew I was in trouble.

The race had a money bonus if you got under 4, so the racers had decided to split up the pacing duties. I offered to take the first lap just for the chance that my foot wasn’t going to allow anymore. Turns out 600 meters was all that I would make it. The foot was getting worse so I decided to pull the plug, dropping out of a race for the first time since being a sophomore in high school trying to complete the 16, 8, 3200 double and not being ready for the heat and pace of the 2 mile. It’s not fun to drop out of a race, but hopefully I kept my foot from getting too bad. About to see a specialist to try to figure it all out as we speak.

The other big news in my little world is that I am leaving Washington, DC. I loved the city, loved the Georgetown team and really appreciated all that Coach Henner did for me both as a Georgetown runner and after. He has been an amazing coach and really will do anything for his athletes. However, we both decided that if I am going to run at the level that I want to, I needed a little bit more than a college coach.

I have narrowed down my choices to 2 different yet similar places/coaches/groups. I will either be moving back to my home state to train with Olympic Silver Medalist and his coach, Ron Warhurst, or will be moving back to New York City to train with Coach Gagliano. Both coaches are legends and really know how to coach middle distance runners.

I have been given a great opportunity and I am really excited about either group that I join. The next 2 years of my life are going to be all about running, and I am really looking forward to making a push towards my goal of making an Olympic Team (It is funny to say that out loud considering how long the odds are, but that’s the goal, and I’m going to make a run at it).

I was thinking of contacting ESPN to see if they wanted to show “The Decision Part II: LBP to Ann Arbor or NYC?” but I’m not sure they’re interested. Flotrack maybe?

Look out for the decision sometime this weekend or early next week….as always, Let’s Go!

Aunts and Trips

Halifax Track...Blue!

I think everyone has an Aunt Sue (I guess unless their Mom is Sue, then they have an Aunt Barb (I’m lucky enough to have both…boo yah, double parenthesis)). I bring this up, because this summer brought back a ton of my Aunt Sue memories.

I went on two long (there were plenty of other short ones that included her teaching us how to throw up on the tilt-a-whirl at Boblo Island and other amusement parks) trips with Aunt Sue. One was to Ireland and the other was to Nova Scotia.

On a kayaking/canoe trip in Ireland, Aunt Sue informed my brother and I that she had once been on a river excursion through Colorado with rock star Alice Cooper. On said trip, Cooper tried a backflip off a cliff and ended up with a serious concussion. Aunt Sue then stayed up with him to make sure he wouldn’t fall asleep. To this day I have no idea whether 0% or 100% of that story is true.

Then in Nova Scotia we found ourselves driving along some seriously steep cliffs along the ocean. Aunt Sue was a little afraid of heights. “LEAN!” she would yell at us as the rental van veered and steered along the curving road. Through the laughter, we would lean, as at that point we were 95% sure she was being serious.

The trips were a little different this year. When we were driving from the airport to Halifax for the race last Tuesday, I saw some cliffs near the ocean. I started chuckling. The other runners in the car with me looked at me. I almost told them to “LEAN!”
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The race in Nova Scotia was an odd one. I won 300 Canadian bucks. However, I only ran 3:47. It was an odd race where I got out pretty hard and by 800-meters in I was in 2nd place and ahead by about 25-meters from 3rd. We were out pretty quick but then both the leader and I started to rig. The problem for me was that he rigged less.

I didn’t live a great week leading up to the race, and I think it finally caught up to me with 300 to go. Having slept in the Atlanta airport the Wednesday before and then moving out of my apartment and missing a day of training didn’t equal a great race. But 300 bones, what can you do?

I am hoping for one more race this year. Still waiting to hear back from a few people to see if I can get into one. As always, Let’s Go!

ps - the meet was the Aileen Meagher Invitational. It was about a Canadian sprinter who was an Olympian in the 30s. I was reading the bio of her beforehand and started cracking up at this sentence... “By 1932 she was part of the Canadian contingent at the Los Angeles Olympics. Unfortunately, a leg injury (charley horse) prevented her from competing.”
AHAH...now injuries aren’t funny, but charley horse?? Come on.

Ireland and Ryan Shay Mile Recaps

Finishing up the Ryan Shay Mile.

A lot has happened since I left Dublin. Almost all of it has gone unreported on runLBP. What follows will be a lengthy (extremely lengthy…save it for work on Monday) recap of the end of my European racing season, a recap of the Ryan Shay Mile race, and what to expect coming up. Please excuse the lack of cohesiveness to the post…it will be in a bulleted format.

• The Dublin race left a lot to be desired. It was nice to know that breaking 4 wasn’t a fluke as I was able to get under the barrier for the second time. However, I once again didn’t race the way I would have liked. I found myself mid-pack the entire way in a slower race. Thus my 57point last lap didn’t help as I was too far away from the real race to really take care of business. Bumbi was half a second ahead of me and felt similar to me as we both realized we couldn’t be that upset with our races but couldn’t be that happy either. We resolved the issue by listening to Rage Against The Machine…
• Speaking of music. My newest jam is straight Euro. Bumbi and I were loving it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTJSt4wP2ME
• Got the hell out of Ireland the morning after the race. It’s funny how I get to travel the world, but a lot of times I stay at an airport hotel and run at a track near said hotel. Needless to say, I didn’t get to see much of Dublin. I did, however, make it back to the good ol’ USA. Not without a hitch though. The Chicago airport failed to get my bag to the Detroit airport with me. Thankfully, due to forgetting this on the way to USAs and getting a stern talking to from Coach Henner, I had my flats in my carry on luggage. Thus, the lack of clothing/actual running shoes wasn’t as big of a deal leading up to Ryan Shay as one would think. And thankfully Will is the same size and had some running shorts I could wear. Oddly, I don’t think he followed my “bring two extra pairs of underwear rule” as I was relegated to one pair for most of the weekend up north. It was nice to be back on Michigan soil and racing for only the second time in my home state since high school. Also, my uncles cabin that he let us stay in is an amazing house on Lake Michigan. So we had a star treatment for the race.
• Ryan Shay Mile: the race itself was awesome. I was singlet-less and was almost forced to wear a way too tight women’s jersey that Christine brought along, but thankfully Rob Novak came through with an extra NYAC singlet. (Rob ended up taking 3rd in the race for a big what would be PR, but road miles don’t count officially.) It was a pretty cool experience. They announced us in front of the finish line crowd and then drove all of the competitors up to the start line in the back of a truck. Crammed next to the rest of the runners the drive seemed to be taking a really long time. I made eye contact with a Kenyan runner and nervously said: “damn, this seems like more than a mile.” He nervously laughed.
• There was an arbitrary start line and they sent us off with the blow of a horn. There was a $250 bounty for being the leader at the half-mile. Some people were serious about getting that cash money. I didn’t see the quarter mile mark, but we were supposedly through in 55 seconds. Approaching the ½, I looked up at the clock and saw 1:47…I was sitting on Jeff See’s shoulder at this point and somehow calmly said, “if that time is true we’re f!*#ed.” Rumor has it we were through in 1:53 and I was in around 6th place (it is also worth mentioning that one of the runners was clearly trying to get the $250 bounty because he dropped out before the half realizing he wasn’t going to get it).
• The next quarter things slowed down. I started to relax and realized that I had a shot at this thing. The runners ahead of me had gone out a little too hard and were starting to come back to me. I remained on See’s shoulder. With 400 to go there was a hill. I straight sprinted down it. Flattening out, I found myself right next to the leader and decided I might as well make a run for it. I probably went too soon. But when you go you gotta go…so I started rolling.
• The finish line seemed like a ways away, so I was charging and trying to avoid locking up. It didn’t quite work. With probably 100 to go, See went by me. I tried to find an extra gear, but probably wasted it on the downhill. I still fought hard and See only barely pulled away from me. I crossed the finish line in 2nd, with a 3:56 to my name and 500 bones in my bank account. And I was happy with how I raced. One of my mantras that Coach Wood passed on to me (and bear with the language, Coach Wood even said he doesn’t like to swear while telling us) is sometimes you just have to say, “F-word it.” Nothing is ever going to go perfectly, so you have to go out there and run. And that’s what I did that weekend. No luggage, no problem. Don’t feel good on the warm up? Who cares. Leading up to Penn last year, John Maloy told me that he didn’t feel that good. I looked at him, told him, “you don’t have to feel good to run fast,” then smacked his but and did a strider. He split 1:48 twice that weekend and was on a 7:16 4x8 team.
• Also…it was great to run in the Ryan Shay Mile. For those of you who don’t know, Ryan was a legend in Michigan running. He is the only person who has ever won 4 individual state cross country championships (he even won as a freshman!). I ran against his younger brother Stephan in high school (Stephan is also trying to pursue a running career right now…we don’t race much any more as he is more of a distance guy) and always had to bring my A-game if he was going to be around. Tragically, Ryan Shay died while running the 2008 Olympic Trials Marathon in Central Park. I was watching in the park that day and was shocked to hear of the terrible news. This was the 3rd year of the Ryan Shay Mile and they really put on a great race. The Shay parents were in attendance and it was great to be part of a race that remembers a great competitor like Ryan.
• Since the mile, life has been a little hectic. My flight back to DC was less than ideal as I ended up staying the night in the Atlanta airport. I then moved out of my DC house and don’t really know where I’m going to live. That will all figure itself out soon enough. I head to Nova Scotia on Monday for a Tuesday night 1500…I am extremely excited. The end of the season is approaching and last week wasn’t perfect. But you don’t have to feel good to run fast.

Let’s Go!

Dublin Track for the Morton Mile.

Climbing up the Sleeping Bear Dune.

Shay Mile Awards Stand

Beautiful Lake Michigan...