I Need A Montage

Carnage.

The day is approaching to give it your best

You've got to reach your prime!

That's when you need to put yourself to the test

And show us the passage of time.

We're gonna need a montage. (Montage)

A sports-training montage! (Montage)

I'm alive in that picture. Just barely though. Gags doesn't know what Twitter is, and he's always asking me what the heck LinkedIn is (I don't know the answer to that)...but the one thing he has ever said to me about online rules, is not to say what our workouts are. So that's why you don't get many times on my blog, because some things are sacred; Gags workouts being one of them.

And just show a lot of things happenin' at once.

Remind everyone of what's goin' on. (What's goin' on?)

And with every shot, show a little improvement

To show it won't take too long.

That's called a montage. (Montage)

Even Rocky had a montage! (Montage)

What I can tell you though, is that the feeling I have in that picture has been commonplace lately. Either I'm going to be in really good shape, or my legs are going to fall off. I did this workout with John Maloy my 5th year at Gtown the week before Penn. We did 100 at 12.5, 200 at 26, 300 at 40, 400 at 51. That was all with a lot of recovery. THEN, we did a 300, 200, 100 cutdown. Problem was: only 30 seconds rest between each interval. We ran 38.1, 24.4, and 11.7. It was one of the hardest workouts I've ever done. I think I still have a headache from it. Then John split 1:48 and then I split 1:46 on a 7:16 4x8 the next weekend.

In any sport, if you want to go

From just a beginner to a pro

You'll need a montage. (Montage)

A simple little montage! (Montage)

That's why I sometimes wish that my life was like a movie (who am I kidding, I always wish that). Like the lyrics that have been making their way into this post from a "South Park" episode, life would be easier with a montage. Just throw on some awesome music, do a few exercises, and you're good to go!

Always fade out (Montage) into a montage... (Montage)

If you fade out it seems like a long time (Montage) has passed in a montage... (Montage)

Montage... (Montage)

Asspen
Tags: SOUTH
PARKmore...

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.

Last Chance Recap

Rutgers, NJ. The Outdoor Track

The Res Loop and Bridal Path are clear, the weather is decent, and all is good in the world. Because yes folks, it's finally outdoor season. And as we all know, Outdoor is the season that matters. That's where the races matter and the big bucks are made. And I am excited that it is here. First though, a recap of the 8 last weekend and the indoor season...

There were some good things and some bad things to take out of the 8 at Columbia's Last Chance Meet last weekend.

The Bad: I lost. Now I know you can't win them all, but it's still never fun to lose. Especially to a field that you can beat. I didn't feel like I raced that smart, and even though I felt good in the race, I'm still pissed I got beat.

The Good: I felt good in the race and had a pretty darn good kick. In replaying the race in my mind, I got out really well the first 50 and found myself in 4th behind the rabbit, the guy who won, and Gtown's Ulm (who I was on a 7:16 4x8 with). I thought it was perfect. But Ulm let the pace lag a little bit behind the front two and from 250 to 300 I had to make a surge to get back into the race. I was probably through in 53 high or so and had moved up into 3rd and was close to the leaders. 4-600 was pretty relaxed and I think since we all knew it wasn't a super fast race we were getting ready for our drives to the line and the end. A Dartmouth kid moved up on my outside and positioned himself in 2nd to the guy who won. On the backstretch with 120 to go I wanted to move, but The Dartmouth Kid was there, so I had to wait it out around the turn and then when I tried to slingshot my way into the lead, the leader was ready and held me off 1:49.11 to 1:49.16. I closed the final 200 in 26.8, but it wasn't quite good enough.

It was almost an indoor PR and that was a 1:49.07 that came last year in a perfectly set up race where I closed in probably 28high, so I have to be happy with the way this one ended...other than the fact that I got beat.

As has been the case since my first year at Columbia though, now comes the fun part. Indoor Season, as Gags puts it, is more like our exhibition season. It's a time to get into shape, and you definitely want to run well, but the most important part of indoors is getting ready for outdoors. My indoor season only had 3 races - a win in a 1:51.5 800, a 2nd place 3:43.6 1500 and a 2nd place 1:49.16 800...plus a few rabbiting gigs here and there. I'm in some good shape heading into outdoors. So, Let's Go!!

Last Chance

The only picture of me running this year that I know of. If you're looking to donate an awesome black singlet my way, let me know...

Armory. Saturday Night. 800-meters. Last indoor race of the season. Should be a fun one. Hopefully we run fast.

And that's really about it.

Although I do feel somewhat responsible for Charlie Sheen's acts of craziness after I rated his CBS show as the worst in my 2010 Recap. He did send me an email to let me know I was a [expletive deleted] idiot, and that he was winning!

But other than that, not much going on in NY. HEPS was a fun meet to watch as usual. A little disappointing with how much Princeton dominated the meet, but can't really complain about the atmosphere for a track meet.

The training has been going really well lately. I haven't raced since the New Balance 1500, but have gotten in a really good block of training. Hopefully I'm not too rusty for the race, but I dont' think that I will be. Although, jumping into an 800 for the first race in a while always hurts like hell.

After this race, we'll take another break from racing for a bit and gear up for the outdoor season. It is going to be a long one this year, and hopefully I do the European season right this year (three alright races doesn't cut it for a European season). Hopefully I'll start things up in early April to get the racing juices flowing.

If you're in NY, head up to the armory around 8:05 for the 8 on Saturday night.

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:

Uni-Watch: The Barefoot Revolution

stupid socks. short shorts.

Remember how my buddy Jonah complained about short shorts, claiming that at the greatest athletic achievement in his life had been tarnished by a pair of "doofy ass shorts"? I did. So when I was meeting him for the end of my run on Saturday morning I changed my outfit. Instead of short shorts and long socks, I went with a much manlier fashion of tights.

Much to my surprise, as I finished my tempo run (I had a 25 minute tempo in the middle of my long run...I met Jonah for my cooldown), I saw him prancing around Central Park in black short shorts and Nike Frees. Luckily, it was cold and windy, so I didn't mind having the tights on.

I hadn't run with Slowns in a while. He has been over in London doing real world stuff like his job. But we jogged for 5 and half miles together where I thought he was hammering and he thought I was hammering. We both staggered through some 6:30 miles before talking ourselves into slowing it down. But back to the Frees Jonah was wearing. They're Nike's version of the barefoot shoe. I've had a few pairs and liked them alright (but just for walking around). And to no surprise, he started wearing them very soon after reading "Born To Run."

I'll give "Born To Run" its due, because it is pretty sweet book. At one point it had me wanting to leave civilization and go run through the mountains. But the barefoot stuff that is going on because of the book is stupid. I'm all for minimalist running, I think it is great to have strong feet and everything, but when I see someone running through Central Park with no shoes on in the freezing cold weather, I get a little upset.

Those Vibram 5-Finger shoes look creepy, but at least they're going to cover your feet. If you're running barefoot in Central, you are pretty much asking to step on a piece of broken glass, horse droppings, or a drug needle. And when there's snow everywhere, what in the ham sandwich are you thinking?

But the main reason I hate barefoot running is because, in reference to his "frees", Slownah kept claiming how awesome it was to run once he "freed" himself.

He then told me how much his calves hurt.

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A few non-related updates:

--February has seen the highest viewership for runLBP...we are already at 899 visitors for the month...the highest month was this July when I was posting daily from Amsterdam. The Detroit piece saw the most action as the site saw over a 100 visitors for two straight days when it was posted.

--Look for a pre-HEPS post come Friday.

--Still getting ready for the Columbia Last Chance meet to close out the indoor season...Either running a 1k or an 800 on March 5th!

Energizer Bunny

Checking on Lukas. No headband since it wasn't a race for me!

I had my second rabbiting gig on Saturday night. It was a lot cooler than the Madison Square Garden one...because the talent in the race was unbelievable. It was an exciting day of running. Here's a blow by blow recap of the day. But we're going Memento on it so there can be a little surprise at the end:

11:30pm - walk into the bed room...pass out cold, sleep for 10 hours with only a few bathroom breaks.

9:30pm - after a nice cooldown and stretch, I watch some of the races with Columbia kids going on at the armory. I pop out and meet with Christine, Krisch and Delilah at Coogans for some post-race chili (terrible call, I was sweating profusely as I ate it), a beer, and a lot of complaining about how much my legs hurt. We finally finish up dinner and train home after a long day.

8:30pm - cooldown with Russell Brown (he won the Boston Indoor Mile last weekend in 3:54) and Mike Weisbuch through Washington Heights after the race. Lukas was happy with the pace job, I think he and his coach were a little too ambitious with the 4:15 first mile. Either way, the kid is going to be very, very good. He has his stuff together mentally. Zach, a coach at Columbia, asked me how mature he was mentally compared to me and I put it at a 24...I scored myself at a 2.

8:14pm - with the crowd the loudest I've ever seen it at the Armory (minus the time I won the Indoor Heps Mile in '07--at least that's what I keep telling myself), Bernard Lagat crosses the line in 8:10. He makes it look easy as he runs his last mile in 4:02. Lukas doesn't quite hold it together and runs 8:43...good enough for a 10 second PR and the third fastest indoor time for a high schooler ever.

8:03pm - in a rabbit situation, I get the coolest pre-race introduction I probably will ever receive. They get the whole thing, all my cool accomplishments, and play hard with the Columbia 4x8 at Penn to get me a nice ovation from the college kids watching the meet. Granted my intro is 4 minutes shorter than Lagat's, but still. Nerves settle down, gun goes up, crack!, it's go time. We immediately get in line: Robbie Andrews, Russell Brown, Bernard Lagat, Me, Lukas V, and then Harbert Okuti, a local runner. It's a little confusing getting the splits since we started 18 meters back of the finish line for the 2-mile. I stay what I think is the right distance behind Lagat and we start to get into a rhythm with the front pack pulling away ever so slightly. You can find Lukas's splits here and know that I'm anywhere from .2 to .7 seconds ahead of him throughout the rabbit job. Right before the race the director tells me that if I can stay longer I should, but as soon as I hit 1800-meters (my job is 2k), I know I only have 1 lap left. So I make it that lap and turn into spectator. The other two rabbits do the same and we watch from the inside of the track...up close and personal. Meanwhile I was sucking for air and my legs were HURTING.

7:05pm - Russell and I head out for a warm-up. We head north from the armory in Washington Heights. About 8 minutes in (we're planning on going out 10, 10 back for 20 minutes), I realize that this is the farthest north of the armory I've been on a warm-up...and it's dark. "Yo man," I say, "I could probably wait and tell you this, but I'm gonna throw it out there that I've never been up here before, so I'm not exactly sure how safe this is..." Russell immediately slows down, "Alright, we're good, let's turn back." So we only got in 19 minutes.

6:00pm - show up to the armory and we get to hang out in a room with just the 2-milers. It's pretty cool getting to hang out with Lagat and realize that before a race he gets a little nervous and likes to relax with his legs up just like you do. He is an extra nice guy, as is Lukas.

noon-4pm - A whole lot of nothing. I do some napping, eat some lunch, watch Wisconsin whoop up on Ohio State in the second half. It's a lazy day when you have a night workout.

11:00am - Mmmmm, mmmmm, a delicious breakfast burrito. You get yourself some corn tortilla, steam it up a bit, throw on some black beans, add in some scrambled eggs, don't forget the cheese, toss on a little salsa and top it off with some avocado...hot damn! You've got yourself a meal! Probably a little much for a day when I'm essentially rabbiting, but...

9:30am - head out for a shakeout...although it's not really a shakeout. Because you can't just rabbit and count it as a workout in my new running life. We had to make this a real day of training. I got my brother and my buddy English to meet me in the park and we rocked 4 miles at 5:30 pace through Central Park.
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So there you have it. A Saturday of running. Overall, it was a 15 mile day with a 4 mile tempo in the morning and a 2k in 5:20. I'm getting in shape, but a long ways to go 'til Outdoors.

And, as a plus, got paid, so a little will be going to ThinkDetroit again!

And, check out http://www.njnytc.com!