Alumni Track Gathering

This past weekend there was a gathering unlike any other in Umaine Track history. With the creative thinking of some of the Alumni, a new Alumni group has finally been started. The goal of the group is to keep relations with new and old alumni and in the process have get-togethers and raise money to benefit the team. Pretty sweet idea. I will soon post a picture of the first gathering, which was a bowlathon. I will also say that I had the high score of the day, 193. Now if I had my boy Ryan's ball which is back in NY, the score could have been quite a bit higher. There were probably about 25 people that showed up, which on short notice, is a great success. Afterwards, we all went out and partied throughout Portland.


We started at The Great Lost Bear, and apparently this place is ranked as one of the top 10 bars in the country. They did not have pitchers of beer, but they did have TOWERS of beer which stood around 3-4 feet high. Pretty sweet. Towards the end of the first bar experience, Lansing and Guerette decided that they were gonna drive back to Worcester, MA, and we were none too happy. So a deal was struck where I would drink the last 1 liter and something of a TOWER right out of the spigget without stopping. I kicked the towers ass, but did not take into consideration of how I would feel 2 minutes after finishing that much beer. Long story short, I sucked it up and soldiered on.

Other than that, it is business as normal here in Maine. Its snowing now, and I have a feeling that the snow is not going anywhere anytime soon. It does look cool though I do have to say, hopefully the temperature stays above 0 degrees this Winter though....not looking foward to that.

Sun Dec. 7 - 1 hour 45 min. Around Orono/Old Town....snowing all day....easy run
Sat Dec 6 - 3 mile warmup, 1 mile tempo, 800 in 2:10, hard 400 and 4xhills, 3 mile cooldown. (5:20, 2:10, 55) It was a pretty easy workout.
Fri Dec 5 - 1 hour 8 min around town, strides and drills
Thurs Dec 4 - 6 miles then 21 minutes of Diagonals then 2 miles back to the apt.
Wed Dec 3 - 3 miles in the AM, 7 miles in PM
Tues Dec 2 - 3 mile warmup, 4 x 800, 4 x 400, 3 mile cooldown
(2:15,2:18,2:17,2:17)(62,64,64,63)

BACK IN MAINE

I decided that leaving NY on Monday morning would be best at around 5:15 am. I was thinking to myself, yeah there will be no one on the roads, I will flyyyyy up to Maine. I also forgot that I live in NY and there are always a ton of people on the roads. I also hit a ton of traffic in Mass. The drive, which consisted of 2 pieces of Chapati (Kenyan Bread) and 3 pretty big cups of tea, took about 7 hours with 3 stops (to get rid of the tea). I also stopped at Whole Foods in Portland, ME and grabbed some good veggies and 2 Growlers of Beer that had the type of beer written on the cap in permanent marker....so thats how I know its gonna be good. Once I got back up here I took a sweet 3 hour nap, and woke up to the final fight scene of Karate Kid II. The one bad thing about the nap was that I woke up when it was dark out and had to run in the dark, which is what I was trying to avoid the whole time. Then ate dinner with Brenna and Steph and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall....which by the way was friggin hysterical.

In the previous couple of days I worked a ton at the Bronxville Running Company and did my training. Nothing crazy really happened. I think that I started getting a handle on my gambling issues, and started cutting out all the sweets. I am trying to make a good start to the indoor training.

I ran a race the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Bronxville. It was the Katie Welling Memorial race and I won the 2.5 mile race, which was pretty hilly in the beginning, in 12:17. I really couldn't get into a groove the first mile but after that I was all set. I did get a sweet Silver Plate for winning.


Also while I was home, I was playing manager for the Kenyans. They would ask me to book their plane tickets to their meets on my credit card, which gives me bonus miles, and they pay me in cash. No big deal right? Well, when there is a mistake and you book the flight one week early and you don't know if it was your mistake or theirs, thats where it gets fun. I had to pick one of the guys up at 5:45am and he was like ummmmmm the race is next week. I went home and had to make sure that i cancelled the flight and rebooked for the next week. This was very stressful because I had to change the flight before the actual fight took off. Then I had to pay a $150 fee to change the flight. Let's just say I had a rough morning. I guess everything worked out in the end.

Mon. Dec 01 - 8 miles easy, after traveling to Orono and napping.
Sun. Nov 30 - 13 miles with Joseph, Elijah and Beau. Relaxed first half and balls out second half
Sat. Nov 29 - 3 mile warmup, Bronxville's Katie Welling Memorial Run 2.5 miles, 3 mile cooldown (12:17, 1st place)
Fri. Nov 28 - 1 hour around Bronxville and on the BXR path
Thurs Nov 27 - 3 mile warmup, 15x1 min on 1 min off at Vanny, 3 mile cooldown....The second half felt like balls and I had to convince myself to keep working.
Wed. Nov 26 - 6 miles easy
Tues. Nov 25 - Off - not feeling too good
Mon. Nov 24 - Off - not feeling too good
Sun. Nov 23 - 11 miles with Abiyot, Stephen, Stanley and Elijah. I was dying after 45 min, and don't know if it was because I hadn't eaten anything or just because I wasn't feeling too good. We were going at a nice comfortable pace for a while too, and when they picked it up, I felt terrible so I ran by myself for the last 30 minutes and actually had to walk once or twice. I think alot of it was because I didn't eat in the morning.
Sat. Nov 22 - 3 mile warmup, 4x1200-1300, 3 mile cooldown. I ran this with Elijah and Stephen. We ran a pretty consistent workout at the Rockies and the intervals were somewhere between 1200 and 1300 meters. I led the first 3 and then Stephen pushed a little bit on the 4th which wasn't really anything that I worried about. Afterwards I did 4 x 150 meter hill strides.

Back in New York for a bit

One of the major issues for me right now up in Orono is a lack of money. So on last Thursday I decided that coming home to work at the Running Company would be the best best in order to pay rent. Having $40 in the bank account is not necessarily the best thing. Running has been getting better over the past few weeks as well. I have been somewhere between 70-80 miles a week I believe. Nothing crazy, just slowly increasing the miles, and started doing workouts about a week to a week and a half ago. More tempo and five minute pace right now than anything. I am gonna focus on Aerobic strength over the next few weeks to few months with an emphasis on hills. I believe that hills really make me, personally, stronger than any other workout. Jeff Caron is back in New England and look forward to beating him in the first thing that I can think of. Most likely will be drinking related but not guaranteed. OK I will guarantee that it is drinking related.

I also think that since I have been home I have developed a smaller than normal gambling problem. I also think that the way to get out of a gambling problem is to gamble more.

Fri 11/21 - 3 pm - 10 miles on Colonial Greenway, 1 hr 5 min. 6xstrides
Thurs 11/20 - 8 am - 5 miles on OCA. 4pm - 7 miles on Treadmill at store.
Wed. 11/19 - 9 miles on Bronx River Bike path
Tues 11/18 - 6:30pm - 2.5 warmup, drills, 4x1200 (2:37-2:41), 3.5 cooldown
Mon 11/17 - 7am - 10 miles w/ Joseph, Stanley and Mike at Rockies, Pretty dam fast
Sun 11/16 - 9am - 16 miles with Stephen, Richard Kiplagat, Aidan Walsh and some other 2:09 marathon guy at Rockies. First part was pretty relaxed but then we hammered the second half of the run.
Sat 11/15 - OFF - Watched NCAA DI Regionals at Vanny
Fri 11/14 - 1 hour at Vanny with the Maine team
Thur 11/13 10 miles at Colonial Greenway, felt pretty relaxed after 7 hour drive back to NY
Wed 11/12 - 9 miles from apt in Stillwater. 4 min faster than normal
Tues 11/11 - 3 mile warmup, 1 mile 4:55, 27 min of 2 min on 1 min off, 3 mile CD
Mon 11/10 - 7 miles in AM with Donny real easy, 5 miles PM with Jette
Sun 11/09 - 14+ miles at Eagle Lake, Bar Harbor with Goode and Judson Cake, ridiculously hilly run, but I really liked it. Jette and Bridget came with us and they did their own run. Ate a very expensive breakfast afterwards.
Sat 11/08 - 3 mile warmup, 5x1000 (3:06) on Bangor track with Goode and Brenna, 3 mile cooldown
Fri 11/07 - 9-10 miles

Total Recall.....Alas this will not have Arnold

I will attempt to recall all the things that have occured in the past 3 months in the shortest time possible. 1st, I continued to run for 3 weeks after the Beach to Beacon, ran the 5 mile Club Road Race Championships at Central Park...26:20. Pretty sweet time for not really training and running at like 8am, but I did end up with about 12 NASTY blisters on both feet that were there for literally a month. I'm pretty sure in the month of August I picked up a slight drinking problem, but countered that with a large eating and running problem. I wasn't taking anything too seriously in August because on Sept. 3rd I was having my Deviated Septum fixed. 2nd issue: I had my septum fixed from the time I broke it in 2nd grade. I will be pretty dam honest and say that this procedure SUCKED. I will also say that the doctor who did it was one of the best in New York and he said that within his 30 year career with this, I was the 2nd person to have the complications that I had. 3rd Issue: Because of how badly deviated my septum was, it caused a blood clot to form at the top of my septum. This caused more bleeding, longer recovery time and numerous/extremely painful visits to the doctor's office. Hopefully I can get one or two of my pictures up. Pretty much I had thick long Gauze pads shoved up towards my brain at all times and when I went to get the blood clot taken out, he had to inject my Septum with novacaine like 6 times, then sliced open the septum then sucked out the blood clot.....NOT COMFORTABLE. Now it is November 7th, and I have to go back next week with the high chance that he is going to have to remove scar tissue...pretty excited about that.


Next topic: Orono. So I am back in the ridiculously large and underpopulated state of Maine to finish the last part of my Masters. All I have to do left is finish a small internship with the Maine XC and Track team. As of right now I have not done too much because there are already 2 coaches and there is only so much you can do in XC. It is definitely weird being back up here. Everything is as I remember: Quiet, slow and wooded. I won't lie, the first couple weeks up here were pretty cool because I was just running and exploring again and it was pretty sweet, but that gets old quick when you really don't have anyone to do this with. I more or less just hangout all day, get my run in and then don't hang out with anyone. I do talk to one or two people on the team on a frequent basis but the age difference is very apparant and those peeps are doing their own thing, which is cool, but sucks for me. Whatever. I will finish my hours and then figure out what I am doing. (This is the typical Mainer by the way)


Next topic: Running. So all I have been doing for the past 2 months is running, no workouts. It has taken me a while to feel comfortable with my running that I am gonna start attempting to do workouts this week and from here on out. I also am going to get a nice little blood test to see where my iron levels are, because I have not been feeling that good for the past few weeks and I have had issues with Iron in the past. One plus is that I get to run with Adam Goode on frequent occasions. The only down side is that it is usually at 6:30 in the AM. Goode on the plus note was just elected to the Maine Legislature this past weekend. Now if you don't believe the strength of Flannel and a beard, that is all the kid wore when he campaigned and waited at the polls. Its amazing. He is one of the positives of being up here, getting to run with him has been fun.


So I have been running between 50-80 miles a week for the past 5 weeks and plan on being consistent around 80-85 for the next few weeks.

Oh yeah, plus I have not really been making money since I have been here...subbing is on the block but have not been called to frequently. I am gonna be heading back to NYC for 2 weeks to do some working and then come back up. That will be pretty sweet cause I can run with my old teammates back in NY and they can kick my ass into shape.

Beach to Beacon

So this past weekend I was up in the upper upper Northeast, Maine. This was the weekend of the great Beach to Beacon. I got to see so many people that I have not seen in so long and it was tough leaving. The weather was pretty good for the most part, a little rainy on the race day but that helped to keep it cool. Anyways, despite a quick poop break after Mile 4, and not running for 3 weeks, I ran as well as I had planned on going. After the race we went back to Jeff Caron's parents place in Auburn and took pretty sweet naps while Jeff prepared for his annual Jeffapalooza. I will quickly take you back to two years ago where the party was first initiated. The party was rainy and 55 degrees the entire day, I was partying EXTREMELY, first one naked in the pool and then yelled at Sean Steinhagen for about an hour at the top of my lungs. So there were some big expectations...

This years party started pretty early, roughly 5pm with the arrival of Tony Morgan, Troy Irvine, Pat Guerette and Donny Dizzle. They went at the beer early, which led to much more fun night in my eyes. Maybe an hour or so later more people showed up and then began the volleyball. Tony and I lost to Kaili and Dallas, Kaili being a former Umaine dominator in V-ball. So there were no hard feelings. We partied all night and I can truthfully say that it was the most fun I have had in months, maybe a year. I was very sad to leave Maine, but its all gravy cause it had to be for now. I also did get to see LV and she was my partner for all the games that we played throughout the night. With a combined height of 12'5" we dominated and set a new standard about what it takes to win.

The next day was a rough one, but getting woken up to eat is always a great way to start the day....after a long slow breakfast I took a nap and headed off back down to Worcester, MA to hang out with Pat for the night and play video games. The next morning I was awoken by Pat @ 7 am cause he had caught a bat in his bedroom. It must have taken skill so I don't know how he did it. Now I am back in NY and getting back into the training and trying to get myself to be happy again.

Tues. Aug 5, 2008
45 min - OCA

Mon. Aug 4, 2008
45 min - BXR bike path

Sun. Aug 3, 2008
OFF

Sat. Aug 2, 2008
Beach to Beacon
2.5 mile warmup, 10k, 2 mile cooldown
34:09

Fri. Aug 1, 2008
4 mile run with Jeff

Thurs. July 31, 2008
9.5 miles with Josh and Jeff - Fells

Running is now on a Break

SO I have had a long period where I have not taken more than 1 day in a row off, since August of 2007. My training has been steadily declining and I feel that now is a good time to call it quits for the season. I am most likely going to take like 10 days or so completely off and just relax and then get back into some easy running for a while. I can't say that I am completely or remotely happy with how my season went. I raced just about 2 times, 3rd time ending abruptly, and just trained more or less all year. The worst part was the fact that I did not run as fast as I wanted to in the season. I was very disappointed with myself, but such is life.

I will have to reconsider my goals for next year and I will make 2 nice scheduled breaks after the seasons, so hopefully I can make it further in the year feeling fresher. This was a little bit of a transition year for me, coming back to NY and training with the Westchester Track Club and all the crazy runners here.

Also from June 28th - July 7th I was out at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR with Jeff Caron, Lansing, Ira, Fenton, Brendan Carr and many many others that we knew. It was friggin sweet being out there. All we did was run, eat, sleep and watch track......and drink. I will also say that probably one of the coolest runs that I have ever done was at the McKenzie River National Park I believe. We went for an easy 10 miles along the river, and it felt like we were in the EWOK Forest from Star Wars, it was NUTS. The trail would go along the water for a while then go back inland and then back to the water and so forth. Everytime that we got near the water the air temp cooled about 10 degrees at least and it was really awesome. The Men's 800 was the race of the trials with the Men's 100 also being unreal. So in retrospect, I was so happy being out there with everyone and wish that it did not have to end.

I am going to try to recall what my running has been over the last 5 weeks, I can remember the workouts no prob but the running might be tough.

Thurs. July 17, 2008
Off

Wed. July 16, 2008
Off

Tues. July 15, 2008
Off

Mon. July 14, 2008
Off

Sun. July 13, 2008
Off

Sat. July 12, 2008
3 mile warmup, 2x mile, 7x40 sec hills, 2.5 mile cooldown
4:43, 4:34
Felt ok, not great, it was really hot and I have not been sleeping very well the past couple of nights since coming back from Oregon.

Fri. July 11, 2008

Who cares if I like gambling

Wed. June 11, 2008
20 min warmup, 2x Vanny flats, 15 min cool down
7:14, 6:53

Tues. June 10, 2008
48 min with Joseph at Vanny
(ran early cause it was 87 degrees at 7am, rough start to the day)

Mon. June 09, 2008
Got a late start to the day, no running, 101 degrees throughout the day

Sun. June 08, 2008
10 miles with Bo up @ Rockies. Riduculously hot and humid at 10 am, 94 degrees and humid. Bo was not used to the heat and we had to pack it in early, and I will admit it was a rough day with the heat

Sat. June 07, 2008
Ran 5 miles from the store after working 8am - 6:30pm (sidewalk sale, absolutely CRAZY.....also 97 degrees)

Fri. June 06, 2008
1 hour run