Thursday, October 4, 2007

East Coast meets West Coast

Whats up everyone...If you don't already know, Jeff Caron has one of these bad boys up already, but him and I are very competetive against one another, so this Blog will be better than his. Just dropping a little insight into my training thus far this year. I graduated from The University of Maine last year and I moved out to California to run with VS Athletics which are based in Santa Monica, CA. When I first came out here this summer, everything was as awesome as I thought it would be; the weather, the races, the coach. The coach, Skip Stolley, has been a great addition to my running life. He is very supportive and knows his way around a track, obviously not very hard, but you should understand what I mean. He is a great coach and has great knowledge and connections.
After my 7 weeks were up this summer, I took like 2 weeks off and then just did some long runs everyday. I also went to Europe with my friend from home Matt Ellis, I will put a picture up of him, for 3.5 weeks. We had a great time, and I had some great runs while I was over there.
I came back to California Sept. 2, and was enrolled at USC to finish my Masters in Exercise Physiology, only 2 classes to go. It has started off on a rocky start, very tough class with a ton of reading. Now back to the running aspect. When I first got back out here, everything was going great, I was back with my team, running, doing workouts and everything seemed to be rolling along. About 3 weeks into my time out here I began having doubts. Obviously I have to make the transition from college to the real world, but there is something about this place that is not sitting well with me. There is always a ton of traffic wherever you go, EVERYWHERE, the people have no personalities and suck in general, and my team isn't everything I thought it was gonna be. I constantly find myself training alone and not enjoying myself. I am supposed to have a training partner, but I never see him. About 6 days a week now I train alone in a place that I don't necessarily like anymore. There are really no trails around here besides up in the Santa Monica mts. which can take me up to an hour to get to cause of the traffic. So day in and day out I run the same trails down here in Redondo Beach, CA, where I live with my cousin, who is 32 and pretty much the only thing keeping me sane at the moment. He is awesome, he is pretty much an older, taller version of me. He used to be a runner in HS in Montgomery, NY, he is 6'7" and ran 4:30 in the mile in HS; not bad for 6'7".
So lately I have been talking to friends back home, who I miss dearly, and asking their advice. Those good friends are Jeff"JC Experience"Caron, Eric"gonna be living in my room with me for a few weeks"Libby, Ken"K Sav"Savary, Nuge...my old HS coach who I talk to about everything and am the Godfather to his daughter, and Mark"M Daddy"Lech, who was my college coach AKA"MANBEARPIG". They have been helping me out to decide what I want to do once Dec. rolls around, stay here or go home and run with the Westchester Track Club.
So pretty much I have been having a rough time dealing with my situation out here, and my running has also been affected by my struggles. For the past 2 weeks I have been having some stomach issues and have been having a hard time running and working out. Hopefully I can figure out how to manage it. I appreciate everyone who has been helping me lately, and all the other people who I try to talk to and never call me back or answer, thanks alot "FRIENDS" cause what goes around comes around. That did sound pretty angry huh, well thats the way it is supposed to sound, just cause I am outta sight doesn't mean you should forget who your friends are.
Anyways, since this is the first blog, this will be the longest, just as an introduction my situation. Also, I am trying to eat differently to test out the effects of cutting artificial sugars from my diet. When I do it I feel great, and when I eat artificial sugars, I feel terrible; its quite amazing.
So check back in another time to see how things are going. Also, not gonna lie, I couldn't be doing what I am doing without the help of my family, thank you for all the support, I love you guys. NIBBS HIGH FOOTBALL RULES!

1 comment:

mark said...

"Posted by Better than the JC Experience" ... hahahahaha!

I look forward to reading about your progress in CA. I have a vision of positive posts coming in the future because I have faith that things will get better!