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!

There's Just Something About Those Shapes

Rocked my world...

“Dude, what the hell kind of art is this? It looks like a lizard puking up skittles.” – Tom Haverford, Parks and Recreation.

I used to be an artist. I even went to art camp in 5th grade (worst experience ever at Mystic Lake Camp…I tried walking the 3 miles to my Uncle’s Bass Lake cabin at one point as my cousin Joe looked on helplessly). I wasn’t that bad of a drawer (see FishMan.jpg). I even painted some things in my day.

As I grew older, I strayed from my artsy side. Not that I didn’t like artistic things, I just moved onto different genres within the art world. Instead of an art connoisseur, I consider myself to be an expert in television watching (not an ideal artform to my mom, the librarian).

HOWEVER, yesterday we went to the Van Gogh Museum. I was walking through, enjoying everything. I thought the paintings were pretty amazing, and Van Gogh was pretty crazy so it was interesting to read up on him. I was writing down some of the paintings I liked so that I could look them up. And then. It hit me.

Holy hell. I felt like those kids must have felt walking into Willy Wonka’s Factory. It was “Wheatfields Under Thunderclouds” (http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=4596&collection=627〈=en). Those blues and greens were so rich and the clouds that were jumping out at me. Then that little splotch of red right in the middle of the field. I stared at that thing for at least 10 minutes straight. Looking. I set up shop front and center and gazed. I was entranced.

I started out with a Parks and Rec quote. This is because I felt like Tom Haverford when he had an emotional response to art for the first time. (check it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5l3C9zBGa0 ). He says, “There’s just something about those shapes!” I was thinking, “There’s just something about those clouds!”

I considered it a major breakthough in my art loving life. Then, I turned back into a Boylan and powered through the rest of the museum right to the café and got a hot coco to cure my low blood sugar and bad mood. But I keep thinking about that painting. It’s crazy.

Now I have to go do a workout, and I’ll probably think about that painting the rest of my time here. Good work Van Gogh. Now Let’s Go!

Superstitions

Yesterday was the official open to my 2010 track and field campaign. In all honesty, I was fairly nervous about how it would go. Training has been going fairly well, but jumping in to a fast 800 for an opening race can be a daunting thing (especially considering my training has been geared towards making me stronger and the only thing I had done faster than 60 pace all year was this past Monday when I did some 160 striders at 52 pace). However, the show must go on, and you've got to race to get better, so I got out there and went after it.

There were good and bad parts to the race. The good: thankfully the pace didn't feel unbearable. I was through in probably 52.8 and it didn't feel that terrible. The bad: I didn't position myself well enough in the first 200 meters and ended up tripping up over a runner I should have been in front of with 150 meters to go. I finished in 1:49.08 and had probably the best opening race to my season in recent memory (or ever, since all of my memories are fairly recent). I'm definitely upset that I didn't position myself, but pumped with the start to the season and knowing that I can pop a 1:48low right now. But, 1:49 will have to do for now, and definitely excited for what's about to go on the rest of the season.

While I was warming up for the race I had the newest Lady Gaga song stuck in my head (ra ra, ga ga ga-ah, ra ra, ga ga)...which brings me to the title of this journal entry, and a question that I pose to the reader. In terms of superstitions, when do we kick them and when do we keep them?

During my warmup I thought to myself: "What if I run really well? Does this mean that I need to have the Lady Gaga song stuck in my head for every race?"

And its a very interesting little conundrum. If something works for you even if you don't like it that much do you do it still?
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Training this week went well. Other than the snow that shortened my long run, I was pretty syked about how it went. Got in 68 miles and even with a race did a tough 4xmile workout on Tuesday. Ran 4:52, 4:47, 4:40, 4:37 with two and half minutes rest in between each one. Tough stuff for a guy like me, but got through it and then was ready for the race.

We also made a little progress on my racing schedule. It looks like I will be up at the Armory for a mile next weekend at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational and then will be heading to Boston for my last tune-up before USA Indoors to do an 8 Valentine's weekend. Pretty excited about what's to come....Let's Go!

(ps - enjoy yet another dunk as this week's picture)

Nerf Hoops

As I mentioned last week, pretty much everything that is cool in life has to do with basketball. And just today, my life got a LOT cooler. My roommate, Mike Krisch, bought a Nerf Basketball Hoop. Morale in the apartment is at an all time high (while our downstairs neighbor's is simultaneously dropping from the pounding of our jumps).

After suiting up in Bath High team shorts circa 2003 and my 24KOBE yellow headband I found myself on the losing end in the inaugural game of H-O-R-S-E to Krisch. Then, I put on a clinic in the dunking category (see above video: After a failed first attempt, I straight dominate the next dunk right in Krisch and Christine’s (she took last in Horse) laughing faces).

There is only one rule on our Nerf Hoop: if you don't break the rim at least once in a game, you haven't done your job.
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I also have been doing some running and getting pretty pumped for my first race next weekend at Penn State. It looks like its going to be a pretty quick 800 and even though I haven't really busted the rust off the old legs, they're going to have to be really ready to go come next weekend. Should be a fun time though as even though I hate the state of Pennsylvania (far too many drives across the extremely long state) I seem to run pretty well there.

Hit 67 miles on the week with some morning cross training as well. Ran some tempo miles on Tuesday and then some 500s and 300s at 3k pace and mile pace on Friday in what turned out to be an extremely hard workout.

Can't wait to spike up and race for the first time in 2010...Let's Go!

Let's Go!

So I ended up not racing this weekend. My calf was sore after Thursday's strides and the trainers told me I had a micro-tear on it, which led to some bruising and soreness. We decided that since it was only mid-January, there was really no point to test the thing and make me miss more than I needed to. So instead we decided to just go for easy runs and get in some elliptical running on the weekend. I'll be heading back up to Penn State in two weeks to get after an 800 again. Being at a meet all day is a boring thing when you're not running, and I definitely found some reasons to get moving and racing again (Penn State had a runner go 2:19 in the 1k, he'll hopefully be in the 800 in a couple of weeks as well).

This week we'll do things a little differently in that I'll go over my training for the week first (since I thankfully didn't miss that much by not racing) and then I'll explain what "Let's Go!" actually means since I have used it a few times on this site. The week was a good one of training even though I had to take a few lighter days. Tuesday we did some 5k type work. This is the kind of stuff that makes me cringe. It's in between the tempo pace and the fast pace, so it hurts like a B. We did 4x (400, 800, 400) and each set had the pace of the 400 move down starting at 69 and moving down to 65. This is the kind of stuff where not one interval gets you, but they all start adding up and you definitely question if you'll be able to finish it up. Thankfully for us, we hit the times pretty perfectly and would only go a little too quick on the 400s.

Then on Thursday we did the old double workout trick. This isn't the most fun trick in the book, but it is one that I had seen before. I had to wake up and go run a 20 minute tempo on the treadmill in the morning. Then, we came back to the track in the afternoon and did 8x150 meters at a pretty quick pace. Neither of these workouts really gets you, but then when you're sitting at home that night you realize that you are pretty tired indeed. I like the two workout days though, they make you feel blue collar. Then, we had to take a few easy days to let the calf heal, and its definitely feeling better. In total I hit 65 miles for the week with some cross training mixed in there as well. And after the meet i'm feeling ready to go. Which reminds me: "Let's Go!"

My Uncle sent out an email wondering where "Let's Go" came from. Its origins I do not know, but I do know that my cousins Joe and Dan got me hooked on it. I have a small theory that everything in life that I think is cool comes from basketball (much more on that in future posts), and "Let's Go" came from exactly that. I originally started saying it when my cousin Joe and I were about to street race in downtown Boston after USA Indoors last year and he kept on talking trash to me saying, "let's go." The word quickly became a staple in my lexicon. After winning an early season 1500 at ASU (see video page) I was quite excited and kept on shouting "Let's Go!" to my teammates. One of them said to me, "Dude, the race is over, there's nowhere to go anymore." Fair enough.

However, This is a thank you to my cousins for letting me take some of their basketball coolness and bring it to the short shorts and tight tights world of nerdy track and field. And as always: Let's Go!