Rudyard Kipling was a 4:30 Miler

It is tough being at home when Penn Relays is going on. As you can see from my Penn Relays post earlier this week (and be sure to check that out), it is one of my favorite weekends of the year. However, sometimes you have to pay attention to the bigger plan and hope that you’ll be able to see Usain Bolt in person some other time.

Also turns out that I had some work to do this weekend. I am closing in on the end of the semester, which for me means the end of the line and hopefully a Master’s Degree at the finish. But I am working on my capstone project, and yes (surprise!) it is running based. I am doing a little piece on the mile and what it means to me and what it should mean to others. Part of it looks like it is going to be published so things are looking good on that front.

I bring this up because I have been reading any book I can find on distance running, and especially the mile. I would bore you with quotes that I found interesting, but then I was glancing back through Once A Runner, the book that many claim is the best running book ever written. In all honesty, it captures the essence of the sport and I think does a fantastic job. One section at the beginning of the book is introducing the protagonist, Quenton Cassidy.

On the third floor of Doobey Hall a battered oak door held two three-by-five index cards neatly thumbtacked one atop the other.

The top one said in Smith Corona pica:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
-Rudyard Kipling, 1892

The other card read:
Rudyard kipling was a 4:30 miler.
-Quenton Cassidy, 1969

Now I laugh at this quote because here I search long and hard for quotes that will help my piece out and then this Cassidy character tells me that they all mean nothing unless the guy who wrote it is fast.

But Cassidy is full of it, because Kipling can write. Sometimes that’s better than running fast.
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Had another good week of training and getting pumped to head out to Stanford to race this coming weekend. Should be a nice 1500 heat and hopefully I can get another good race in. It’s all still leading up to hopefully being ready to go come USAs…so just gotta keep on the grindstone and get in some races in the meantime.

Workouts this last week were strength based with some 800s on Tuesday and then some split 800s (5-3) on Friday at more 1500 pace effort. Probably wont back off too much this week and then pop a nice time out in some Cali weather…definitely looking forward to it.

Let’s Go!

Pay It Back

My perusing of Let’sRun.com’s “World Famous Message Board” depends on how well I have run. Yes, as vein as that is, it is true. I check the message boards if I’ve run well so that I can see what people are saying about me. If I’ve run poorly, I stay the hell away from it. It is not a confident booster to read that you don’t have what it takes. But I’m not solely self-centered, I actually check the message board if a teammate or friend has done well too.

So when Kyle Merber broke 4 last night in a race I rabbitted, I made sure to check out Let’sRun. While he was receiving his due praises, there were also some notes that mentioned breaking 4 doesn’t mean anything anymore. That too many Americans are doing it. That it has become too easy.

I beg to differ.

While the University of Washington may be excused, where sub-4 miles seem to come a dime a dozen, the mystique is still there. The problem with Washington is that no one races. Everyone sets one another up in a line and then runs accordingly to a really fast time. And don’t get me wrong, the fact that people run that fast is just amazing, I am jealous that I haven’t run a 3:57. But then watch Kyle Merber’s race from Friday night and tell me that it isn’t a little different running 3:58 for the win than running 3:59 to take 8th place in your race. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pitqexSNLcQ)

What happened at the Armory on Friday night was a sight to see. Kyle was able to accomplish a goal that he most likely set when he was in 6th grade when he first laced up his running shoes, and he was able to do it in front of and with people that mean the world to him. If he had run 3:58 at UW he would have been able to hug Coach Wood at the finish line and that would have been it. Instead, he was able to share it with his entire team.

So congrats Kyle, and congrats to anyone who ever breaks 4. A Syracuse coach came up to me after I rabbitted and thanked me. I asked him what Brad Miller ran. “4-flat,” he replied. I apologized. He said I didn’t need to, I did my job. I went on my way. But I hadn’t apologized because of my job, I apologized because I know what it feels like to break 4, and I wish that the Syracuse kid who I have talked to maybe twice in my life could have done the same.
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There are more stories from last night, but they are ones that may be kept secret for a while, ones to be told later when they make more sense. My training is going well. I am pretty excited to see what can happen this outdoor season. I have begun my training block and am discussing what my outdoor season will look like with coach. I’ll post up what I know as soon as I do. But I’m going to hit 73 miles this week and got in a nice tempo run of 7 miles on Tuesday before this pacing job last night. It’s going to be fun come April, May, June and July.

Let’s Go!!

Ps – check out two added LBPjams…BOO YAHHH.

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…
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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!