Feats of Strength. Fab Five. Five Guys. Guy Fieri. Minute To Win It. Buzzer Beater. Bryce Drew. Valpo. IUPUI. Hoosiers. Greatest Movie Ever. Greatest Documentary Ever. Fab Five.

Pull-Ups on a Subway.

Slownah and I once had a Feats of Strength competition. It was supposed to be first one to 5 wins. We counted races, games, anything of the sort. It was before we high jumped in our living room senior year. He beat me in basketball. He beat me at Pomona in the pouring rain. Then I rocked him in some 8s. We never made it to 5, but I'm still up 3-2. We're supposed to race a 100. Right now, I could definitely beat him in a pull-up war. I dominated Erison in the Subway Pull Up War 22-20. I dominated him just like a certain group of Freshman in Ann Arbor dominated college basketball in the early 90s. I loved the Fab Five. Want a delicious burger? 110 and B'Way just opened up a Five Guys. Guy Fieri is a tool. Fricken "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" is an alright show, but he always has sunglasses behind his head. And now "Minute To Win It" is everywhere. But a minute to win it can be sweet when a Buzzer Beater is involved. Bryce Drew hit one of the greatest Buzzer Beaters ever. He went to Valpo. Valpo has a sweet name, but IUPUI (pronounced eewy peewy) has a sweeter one. IUPUI is in Indiana, that's where Hoosiers takes place. Hoosiers is the Greatest Movie Ever (behind "The Naked Gun" of course). The Greatest Documentary Ever? THE FAB FIVE
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Follow that stream of conscious? Me neither really. The tourney starts tomorrow. Look for a basketball related post to go up Thursday morning.

We're starting to get ready for outdoors, which means we have been working out outside again. This weather needs to step its game up. A 4-mile tempo on a Wednesday morning isn't usually that bad of a thing...but when it's 38 and rainy...show's over. See ya later.

HEPS Preview: The Art of Celebration

They interviewed my buddy Erison on HepsTrack.com (an extremely thorough "all things Heps" website) a while back. He's an Olympian and all, so it was pretty warranted. This question and answer, however, was a little more out of left field:

Q: The headband-wearing anchor on that Championship of America team was a guy who we hear had never beaten you in a head-to-head matchup. Is it true that in practice Liam Boylan-Pett would conclude his training runs with a wild celebration?

A: I don’t know about all that, but I think he practices them in the mirror before races.

In the mirror before races, Erison? It's true, but why tell the public?

Irregardless, HEPS is one hell of a day to win a race. I was lucky enough to do it three times. Each time had a little bit different celebration, and, to be honest, each one was in all likelihood subconsciously planned.

Indoor HEPS at the Armory 2007. No one from Columbia had ever won the mile. So when I won, I decided to rep the school:

Pop!

Subconsciously this one started with the 2006 NCAA BBall tourney when the Jersey-Pop became commonplace. (Please check out that link, its a bayd-ass pic. I only didn't put it in the body of this post because it makes my jersey-pop look extremely weak.)

Indoor HEPS at Cornell 2008. I had a stress fracture that winter. Winning wasn't going to be the most easy thing in the world. I ended up bombing in the 4x8 later that day, so I still have somewhat of a sour taste in my mouth about the whole meet, but rocking that mile win was fricken awesome. Plus, there was a great Columbia Cheering section so I had to point at them to thank them as I crossed the line:

That was a fun/intense race.

The crowd in that one was the subconscious planning. It was one of the most intense races I have been a part of. I'll be the first to admit that I don't like Cornell, but they packed their gym and it was raucous in there. The first turn was one of the loudest turns I've ever run around. Plus, the mini-dog pile the us Columbia kids formed was awesome.

Outdoor HEPS 2008 at Yale. It was my first outdoor title. I don't have a picture of the win. Ben True was pretty much untouchable my junior and sophomore year outdoors (although I fought valiantly with him for 2 second places in the 1500). He wasn't his normal self senior year, but that didn't mean I couldn't be jacked with the win. I took the lead with 300 to go. By the homestretch I was clear:

Don't ever look back.

It was pretty much relief down the homestretch. I smiled, raised my arms, and was genuinely happy. If I wouldn't have won an outdoor title I would have been pretty upset.

So there you have it. College Basketball, Intensity, and Relief were the reasons I celebrated. And practicing in the mirror never yielded results as good as the actual race.

And to end this pat-myself-on-the-back-for-winning-a-few-races post, I'll say that HEPS is going to be sweet. My entire HEPS preview almost read like this: "IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!" It's back in the Armory, kids are ready to run fast, and the Columbia Women have a shot at winning the team title. HEPS is a fantastic meet where times don't matter, but you sure as hell better run fast if you want to win...

Here's my favorite post-race HEPS pic. This one wasn't planned at all. And that's why it's my favorite. It's Coach Wood and I pumped we got a win at HEPS:

Orange Shirts for a Red, White and Blue Flag?

Ireland wasn’t bad, but why not head to Amsterdam for a bit? I have no idea why they wear orange jerseys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_national_football_team#Colours, a quick wikipedia search can answer that for us), but I like them. And I love the fact that the town is painted in orange – not literally, but there are flags everywhere and blow up soccer balls hanging above the streets. And now I’m pumped up for the game tomorrow evening, where I’ll definitely try to visit a pub to check it out.

The first race wasn’t a great one, but it was a good rust buster (the common term used by runners when they’re not so sharp, or maybe its just an excuse for not running great), and I’m pretty excited about the possibilities of the rest of the races I could be running in. I ran 3:44.2 and took 8/9th place (still no official results online). I didn’t feel terrible, especially considering that I thought I was going to feel terrible after flying in the day before, but also didn’t feel that sharp and ready to roll. It wasn’t that quick of a pace—probably through 1200 in 3:01—which should have been nice for me, but couldn’t get the gears going once every one else in the race did.

Overall, the experience of the race was great. I got to hang out with my teammate from Columbia, Erison, who won the 400 at the race in 45.9 into a stiff headwind. We enjoyed a Guinness after the race (Erison hated it) while we watched the Spain/Paraguay soccer game.

Now, I’m sitting in our apartment in Amsterdam, and the place is NICE. Its small, but has a kitchen and is right near everything we could ever need (grocery store, all that jazz). I’ll post some of the pictures from Ireland right now (including the girls signing shirts – those girls then proceeded to make fun of me for calling a Lolli-Pop a Sucker, and even if that is the way 12-year-olds flirt, it was disheartening to say the least. Those will be on the blog’s page...) And then tomorrow I’ll probably post TWO times with some Amsterdam updates…the track we go to is real cool.

Let’s Go!

Elizabeth and Maggie: Irish Celebs

Murph-Dogg...

Irish Highs

It’s noon Ireland time. I’m on a bus from Dublin to Cork. I’m running on 2 hours of restless sleep and fumes from the cup of coffee I just gulped down. And like my Dad says: “I have to pee like a racehorse.” (Without fail on every drive home from Fraser to Bath after a trip to my Granny’s he’d be in the driver seat squirming around like a fish out of water situating himself to subdue the urge of the bathroom break he so desperately needed.) I writhe some, but then decide to sit still, thinking that if I move, my bladder will act in the wrong way.

Finally, the bus comes to a stop in a town center to pick up some more passengers. One of my travel partners and I rush through the aisle and ask the bus driver where we can go to the bathroom. He looks around hopelessly, then tells us to try the black door of the pub to our left. I racewalk to the door. I rush through and a man at the jukebox can tell exactly what I need and points me in the direction of the bathroom. The urinal is the wall, one of those ones with water rushing down at all times like a trough. I start going to the bathroom and then hear the music playing over the speakers.

I figured my first experience in an Irish Pub would include sipping on a Guinness and listening to Dropkick Murphy’s. Instead…it’s peeing against a wall while listening to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”

And with that, welcome to “runLBP’s EuroTrip 2k10”! Posts will start appearing daily (given Internet cooperation) and you can follow me all around Ireland and Amsterdam and Belgium. I’m pretty excited about it, and definitely pumped to get some more races in.

I’m traveling with two Georgetown girls: Elizabeth Maloy and Maggie Infeld, and we’re going to hopefully have some fun while running fast. I’ll be around until the 22nd and they’re staying over until the 28th or so.

We start out our European season with a 1500 tonight in Cork, Ireland. They have been plenty kind to us so far by putting us up in dorms and feeding us our every meal. They like my name, and hopefully will cheer for me tonight. You can check out results here: http://www.corkcitysports.ie/viewpage.php?memid=133&parent=133

I go off at 3:05pm Irish Time (10:05 EST). Let’s Go!

4x4s

I have been reading Bill Simmon's The Book of Basketball. It has been an entertaining read, especially in his ranking of the top 96 NBA basketball players of all time (even if it was completely Boston skewed and he either berates a really good player for his fallbacks - Kobe doesn't seem all that great - or praises him as the greatest ever - Kevin McHale is written as being astoundingly good). One thing that Simmons keeps on bringing up is his Mt. Rushmore's. So, as Mt. Rushmore is home to the faces of four of our nations greatest presidents, Simmons has Mt. Rushmore's for fast food, sports movies, and so on.

The track world has an equivalent to a Mt. Rushmore hypothetical game, only way better. Ours is the 4x4.

The 4x4 is the most exciting race in track. Even back in middle school people loved the 4x4. I remember lining the fence to watch the high schoolers run the 4x4 when I was in middle school. And in hypothetical games (of which runners are very familiar due to spending hours with one another on trails, roads and tracks), it adds a fun layer.

The great part of your very own 4x4 is that it also allows you to analyze your four favorites of something by the order you run them in your relay. So say I was going to do a 4x4 of my favorite fast food chains, it would go as follows:
Lead-off: Wendy's
Second: Taco Bell
Third: In N' Out Burger
Anchor: McDonalds
An analysis: Wendy's leads off my relay because it is a reliable fast food chain that isn't going to knock you out of the park but it always going to produce some nice solid food (no one can complain with a 5 piece chicken nugg and a frosty). As with a lead-off leg, your team is just looking for a solid racer who isn't going to mess up, but just hand off near the front of the pack. The second leg is when things usually heat up, most of the time the legs are going to be fast, and you have to be able to put a fast runner out there for the sake of staying in the race. Taco Bell is your second leg due to its ability to put forth fast times (crunchwrap supremes) and go. Then you go In N' Out, even though I have only been there a few times, because it is going to do pretty much the same thing for you every time, which is exactly what you want out of a third leg. It is going to keep you in position leading into your anchor leg. And the anchor leg is where you definitely put your big gun. Some teams put their big-gun second, but that is a way of hiding your strongest runner, and it ultimately means that you're a little frightened of what to do with that fast leg. McDonalds never backs down. The place is fast food royalty. It can run a race any way (McDonalds reference: cheeseburgers, big macs, chicken sandwiches, McNuggs, fries, salads and fruit for healthy options) and it closes hard no matter what the case (McFlurrys).

So, next time you're out for a run (or just bored sitting around) try to develop some of your own 4x4s. And for those of you new to the site, I usually end each article and then do a summary of my training for the week, here is that summary.
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Had a nice week with my first day off where I didn't actually feel like I needed a day off on Saturday. It was nice being back in DC with some higher quality weather and got in some good training for the week. I put up 65 miles in 6 days with a long run of 13. The workouts worked both some aerobic and anaerobic capacities as Tuesday I did some 1ks and then Friday saw Bumbi, Krisch and I running some hills and then 400s and 200s on a snow covered track. 9x1k is not a fun workout, even if it isn't super fast, but its one of those things I need to work on. And then the 400s were at a faster 3k pace while I got to run some 200s at mile pace on the hills and track combined workout. I like that stuff so much more than 1ks.

The racing schedule is still up in the air, but I do know that I am going to be opening up next weekend at Penn State! Not exactly sure what I will be racing, but definitely looking forward to getting out there and getting the competitive juices flowing again.

I hope you enjoy the site, check everything out and email me if you have any comments or suggestions. Let's Go!

Running Shorts

I think that most runners go through phases with running shorts. When you first go out for middle school track, you look for ways to hide the fact that your thighs are as white as a ghost and force your parents to buy you spandex half tights to wear under your way too small running shorts. There is inevitably one kid who’s spandex don’t fit him because his legs are too skinny and he decides to go with the look of one baggier pair of spandex atop the other, more snuggly fitting pair. He thinks he has hidden his small legs, but instead he has drawn more attention to how stilt-like they are. Most kids disregard the school issued drawers and rock shorts of the basketball variety, which is probably the best call.

By the time you make it to high school, you have accepted the fact that running shorts are a little too small, and because you are sick of the football and baseball players calling you a homo for your shorts, you overcompensate. So you get the shortest shorts you can find, preferably of the American Flag variety and any other hideous design that running stores sell. A runner often embraces the shortness of his shorts at this time. You’re like the John Stockton of your high school track team. And because of this comes scenes like the one in “Juno” with the short shorts (side note: best part of that movie is when Michael Cerra is running through the hospital and you can hear the spikes of his shoes scratching against the tiled floor). I think in high school, the shorter the shorts, the more confidence you have in your running. If you’re fast, no ones going to make fun of the shorts you wear.

As you start to age and perhaps one day join a collegiate team, you find yourself surrounded by a lot of runners who are cocky and willing to wear shorts of the itsy bitsy, teeny weeny variety. And in seeing all of these short shorts, you realize what a fool you liked like in your dainty little things, and decide to go back to some normal running shorts, ones that won’t impede your ability to run quickly, but also not show too much. The perfect balance.

Sometimes, you can’t really help it though. The race day shorts issued by Columbia were not the longest things in the world, in fact they were extremely minute. It didn’t help that they rode up once you started running. The main problem with short shorts is that you look like a goof in them. Case in point: Jonah Rathbun. He was aware of this, and has been quoted as saying, in regards to Penn Relays ’07: “Greatest athletic accomplishment of my life, and every single picture of me has me in those doofy ass shorts.” (Pictured below, it also did not help that Jonah was making the face of a complete “doof,” I imagine him saying, “derrr, we’re number one, derrr,” and then snorting and pushing his glasses back up on his nose while the picture was being snapped.)

Eventually, your days of running extremely fast without care come to an end; whether it is age, injury, or inability to perform. It is at this point that you hang up the normal pair and move to a more basketball styled short. Not gangster style b-ball shorts, but the ones that end a little above the knees. Every once in a while you’ll pull the shorter ones over the legs and do a stride or two on the local track, but that’s just to relive the glory days. And you stay in the normal sized shorts for the rest of your running life. And as far as half tights go, I have no idea how those factor in, all I know is that I don’t like wearing them unless its really cold.
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Had a nice day in Belgium. Talked to coach on the phone and I may be running another 8, but we’ll see. I would like to if its possible, but they are a little tougher to get into since lanes are at a premium, unlike the 15 where you can throw a bunch of people in there.

I did have to travel to the coffee shop twice since as I sat down the first time I realized that I had forgotten my computer. One hour later I was back at it drinking some coffee and writing up some emails trying to figure out my life. Oh, and had my first Belgian beer of the trip. I liked that it came in a fancy glass. Duvel was the brand, and it wasn’t too bad. I wish I was a beer connoisseur so I could explain why it was good, but to me, beer is either good or bad.

Only a week left in the trip, and excited for the races to come.

No Racing Allowed

July 15, 2009 (part I)
Forgot to write one up last night, wish I could say I was trying to concentrate on the race, but when I concentrate too much I end up running poorly, I’m the kind of guy who needs to have fun racing…however, when I woke up this morning, I found out that I was not. There were some misread texts and as it turns out, I am in the HEUSDEN 800 this coming Saturday, which is both scarier and cooler. It is a much bigger meet, called the “KBC Night of Athletics” (I imagine it being said in a big boisterous voice), and it is going to be fast and fun. (Flotrack will also have someone there taping the races.)

I am still going to try to make it to Liege because my good friend from Columbia, Erison, is racing there. He’s a 400 runner and ran at Beijing last summer for is secondary country, Dominica. Ever since we roomed together at NCAAs his senior year, when he took 3rd in the 400-meters in 45.40 seconds, he has hated me. Spending a week with someone can do that…and I think I am only kind of joking when I say he hates me. But it should be good to see him, he has been based out of the UK for a good month now, so I think he needs to see some familiar faces.

But now I have to go do a workout since this race thing didn’t work. I have an 800 in 2’30”, 5×200 in 30, 29, 28, 27, 26 with 2’ rest and then a 400 in 75 to get the lactic acid out of my legs. Won’t be easy, but not something I haven’t done a tone of times. Finishing up my coffee then will be on my way.

July 15, 2009 (part II)
A day of not racing. So as stated earlier, I thought that I was going to race today. Lo and behold, I was not. But, as it turns out the Heusden race is probably the biggest meet in Belgium, so I am pretty syked for it.

I did go up to the meet today. Got to hang out with Delilah and watch Erison race. Erison ended up winning his race, a 300 in 32.8, and supposedly won some serious prize money along with it, although he wasn’t sure how much. He hadn’t seen anyone he really knew in about six weeks, so he was glad to see us.

Delilah and I were standing on the railing to the track watching a race, and some guy comes up behind us and says: “Yo, did you see that guy who won that 300? He was rooooolllling.” It was Erison.

He’s going to take a little bit of time off from racing now since he is running at the World Championships in Berlin…he also said that he will be overseas racing until September, pretty crazy.

It is kind of fun being at a meet with Delilah. There was a group of runner nerds (and runner nerds are one of my least favorite types of people…they constantly compare workouts, diets, but mainly talk about other runners as if they are gods and most likely post on message boards about what Alan Webb should be doing differently) and they were trying extremely hard to hang out with Delilah, but she is pretty content just chilling on her own, or in this case, with me. I felt as though I was pretty cool, although I am pretty sure that most people thought I was just her personal assistant.

The meets are also really cool. They have a huge bar/café where a lot of people sit and watch the races. The beer flows and a lot of people actually show up to watch us run. It’s a little different than your average invitational with family and friends showing up…although its not nearly as cool as Penn where for some reason 46,000 Jamaicans show up and scream their heads off. But the weather was perfect for running and now I’m looking forward to finally getting my feet wet on Saturday…boo yah.
In one sad piece of news, they do not have Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in Belgium (at least I have not found any so far)…more on that in my next post.