SWULY

Cooling down at Olympic Stadium...

There are some things you hope live on when you leave a place. This being a running related web-journal, I always hope to leave a team better off than when I got there. However, this being an other-side-of-running-related-web-journal, I also hope to leave a team better off with awesome non-running characteristics as well.

I think at Columbia I did a pretty good job. When my brother left Columbia in ’05, he claimed that he wouldn’t have been able to make the team with the times he ran in high school. I had some stud times in high school, but I felt pretty similar when I left the campus. Now all my school records are gone, so my legacy has been left to remain in other ways (all I have running wise on the current team is my Penn Relays Title – hopefully they can get that on me too). Things like eating contests – Koronets anyone, bird rating scales, those are the thigns that remain. And now, the Columbia team is even cooler than when I left. They have names for each month with a way to live each one. While I often take part in a self-proclaimed Man Month, these kids do it every month. Currently we are in Swuly.

Swuly is all about getting jacked muscle wise. A lot of core is supposed to take place and a lot of picking up heavy things just to prove you can. While it isn’t ideal for me to be doing a ton of lifting at the tail end of the season, I salute the month, and have been doing some push-up wars by myself after my runs just to keep tone. Plus, I’m going to be heading to the beach in Michigan only a week from now so need to get my beach muscles ready.

Had a nice workout on the track yesterday…2x(4x300) at 45-43-41-39 with 90” rest and 9min rest between sets. It wasn’t easy, especially in some wind, but felt good to run 39 even though it was hard. Will be doing mini-workouts every other day leading up to the race in Dublin on the 21st.

Going to learn about Vincent Van Gough now. Let’s Go!

A-Train: my little sister's nickname.

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.
--
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!

MAN MONTH

December has been a great month for me. I don’t mind the cold (that’s what being a Michigan boy does for you), school is almost over (just a 20 page story about racing trains due this Wednesday), and it is MAN MONTH.

Man Month is something my brother, our buddy Kevin Verge, and I started about a year ago. At the risk of sounding like a misogynist pig, we do everything in these months as manly as possible. So that means I’m running hard, lifting hard, eating steak raw…you know, the basics.

Man Month is a way for us all to make sure that we are getting things done, and getting them done right. Say it was today and it was rainy and cold and I didn’t really feel like going for my run…Man Month makes you go for your runs.

This year, Alan Weeth joined in with Kevin, Will and I for Man Month, he has done nothing but act manly. The champion of his bowling league, he has continually sent out pictures of him eating skyline chili, there is even rumor that his arms no longer fit in his shirts, because his muscles have become too big.

The funny thing about Man Month for me is that it really got things rolling for me in its original installment. February of ‘09 was the original Man Month. However, I knew that I was running in a fast mile on January the 31st. I moved the month one day up, and for the first time in my life, a 3 was the first number listed in my mile time.
God, I love Man Month…
–
And now each week I’ll put a little bit more in there about my actual running life. Don’t worry, the completely non-running related topics (although in my life pretty much everything makes its way back to running in some way or another) will continue on, but there will be some more training oriented issues talked about.

This week was a pretty relaxed one, with some more strength based stuff that I have been working on as the main attraction. Tuesday we did a 6xmile workout that ended up being a pretty tough one. It was one of the times where coach had originally told me I would be doing 5, but then at the last second decided that 6 was better.

There’s no real secret to “by-mile” workouts, usually just 60 seconds rest in between each one. So my group clicked off miles of 4:56, 4:56, 4:56, 4:55, then instead of the 60 seconds, we were only given 45, and we ran 4:52 then were given only 30 seconds and ran a 4:49 final mile. The rest is what kills you on that one.

Hit my usual 70 miles for the week with a nice long run with the team down around the monuments. Let’s Go!