UniWatch

Alan Weeth, Columbia UniWatch Co-Creator

January 2006, the Columbia Track and Field Team receives some fresh new duds to wear to meets. Boathouse makes the uniform, and to the team who was split between Hind and Adidas singlet’s, they are happy to have the new singlet’s and short shorts.

The next weekend, my buddy Alan Weeth and I, who were obsessed with an ESPN column called “UniWatch”, decided to do our own Columbia version of “UniWatch.” Complete with a long analysis of why in the ham sandwich would Sarah Decker be running with a hot dog in her hand?

Now, Columbia has moved on to bigger and better unis…sick right? But that doesn’t mean there can’t be a runLBP mini version of "UniWatch". Where we look at all things track and field uniforms. Just two things to point out for now…

- So what’s the deal with arm warmers? I guess they kind of make sense in terms of not wanting to wear a long sleeve under your jersey, but just put some socks on your arms! Plus, it could lead you to looking like this… But then again, you could be Ritz, and anything you wear is cool, cause he’s from Michigan. Midwest boys have style.
- The other new trend popping up is compression socks. Chris Solinsky may have broken the American 10k Record in them, but if he thinks he looks as cool as Bill and Wilt he’s got another thing coming. If he pulls the Kerry Kittles, he may be onto something. Meanwhile, Columbia runner Tom Poland may have just qualified for NCAAs in XC (a big congrats to the first guy to do so in over 5 years!), he has quite the style going…

Times change, and soon enough, there will be a new compression sock or arm warmer out there…and I’ll probably be all over it. The original Columbia UniWatch is currently being searched for, but Alan Weeth is too busy making clothes for Ambercrombie and I am too busy worrying what my new uniform will look like (I’m thinking Empire State Buildings all over it). Until then, don’t wear anything that foolish, kids who wear headbands are losers.

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!