Toledo Bubble Buster 2012

The Toledo Bubble Buster was two days ago on Friday, September 21st in Toledo, Ohio.  It was a late afternoon race at 5:10 pm of 6400m on a fairly flat golf course in great running weather.  So with conditions so seemingly favorable I think its understandable for me to be a bit disappointed only running 20:18.  As a team, however, I think it went very well winning with 20 points.  Results can be found here.  

To get used to going out at a faster pace, our whole team went through the first mile in 4:45 (as opposed to something like 5:07 at Dartmouth two week ago) which was far too fast for me to go out in that day.  Maybe feeling my best I would have been fine with it but I was already feeling kind of sluggish after having a terrible workout Monday and just generally from racing later in the day.  The rest of the race I just felt really out of it – a world of difference (negatively) from how I felt the previous two races, so I’m going to back off the mileage again the week and try to get my legs back under my before training hard up through the Cornell race a month from now.

I consider myself a morning runner and I absolutely 100% prefer racing in the morning.  Noon is about the latest I’m ever really happy to have to race.  Furthermore, with my class schedule this semester I’ve been doing nearly all of my runs (including workouts) in the morning.  Doubles have been the only runs I’ve done in the pm practically since last spring’s track season.  I love it, but when it comes time to race in the late afternoon or even  work out on a schedule different than what I’m used to it really screws me over.

Colgate and Dartmouth Cross Country Meets

Colgate XC (photo uploaded by Corey Dowling)

It’s the beginning of the third week of the fall semester and I’ve already raced twice for cross country with very satisfying results.  Colgate’s 6400m race was last Saturday 9/1/12 was a good beginning.  On Colgate’s hilly course I ran 20:25 for 9th overall and 6th on our team.

I was also the last person of the race to dip under Steve Murdock’s previous course record of 20:28 set under much different race circumstances.  This year since our team declined to come to Colgate’s second meet, the second meet was cancelled and the first meet rose in importance.  Also adding to the faster tempo of the race was the fact that American and Navy both came to race on the course that their conference meet would be held on later this season.  Results can be found here.

Dartmouth Invite (photo from suathletics)

Our team’s first Dartmouth invite was yesterday on the golf course near the Dartmouth campus in Hanover, NH.  Dartmouth’s course was still somewhat hilly and I was very happy to run 25:07 for the 8k finishing 14th overall and 11th on our team.  Results can be found here.  25:07 is a 45 second PR (for what it matters in cross country) over last year’s very muddy Paul Short at Lehigh.

It was the first time I’d ever been to either New Hampshire or Vermont and a very nice trip.  Traveling overnight this early in the semester was a nice chance because I was able to get away with taking a break from school work during the trip.  We stayed in the old Coolidge Hotel in Vermont which was quite different from anywhere we’d ever stayed before.

Summer Running 2012 (so far)

I’m very happy with how running has gone so far this summer.  Today’s my first day off since June 1st and I have to say that I feel pretty good.  July was a HUGE month for me mileage-wise and I’m hoping it pays off when I need it to.

397 miles this July doing weeks of 85-92-101-95 (and then some left over days) was actually much easier than I expected.  Sure, I was tired this past week after coming back down to 65 but while running my highest mileage I felt great.  Two hour long runs slipped by faster than most 90 minute ones seem to during the season and doubling five times a week was just a perfect excuse to get into a good schedule.  For our longer run of the day we always knocked it out in the morning starting by 7:20 to beat the heat.  Most doubles I’d do after getting back from work (research) and eating a snack so I didn’t have to run after dinner.  I could be doing a better job with core but it’s not been bad averaging 2-3 times a week doing pretty much the same 14 minute routine we did the past track season.

Wednesday Tully runs have been much more controlled this year, which I think is for the best.  Reed and Andy Bennison have been my two main running partners and I think we’ve all benefitted from the consistency of pace.  Even Max is healthy and running a good bit for him.  He always sleeps in though so I only ever get to run with him at Tully and for the long run.

Princeton 10k 2012

PJ's Pancakes in Princeton

The 10k at Princeton last night was not such a super race for me but I can live with it I guess as a first 10k.  I ended up running 31:15 which is only 7 freaking seconds off the 31:08 I’d have needed for IC4A’s.  Results can be found here:  http://tumeytiming.com/mm/Princetonhowell/  Disclaimer:  All my memories of splits are approximate and possibly subject to fatigue induced memory modification.

The race started out pretty decently and a lap into the race I was nicely settled on the rail behind Jon Squeri in about 20th place.  The 10k (at least this 10k) was so much more friendly of a competition than the 5k.  Nobody had a problem with just settling into a long line and I only remember getting pushed a couple times in the initial positioning.  So on the rail we were running about 72 seconds per lap which is a bit faster than the 74 seconds per lap that I was planned to be running.  Squeri seemed okay with it though I definitely didn’t want to be running alone so I just tucked in behind him and cruised along at 72ish’s for the first two miles.  I think I went through 2 miles at 9:36 and while I wasn’t feeling totally out of it I was thinking about how I was only done a third of the race and didn’t want to be crawling my final mile(s) so I ended up falling off the big front group.  I don’t think this was really a mistake but I just got kind of caught between running with a group that was a bit too fast and running with the group I should have been a bit further back.

Spring Break 2012

Spring break of my sophomore year has come and gone as I write this Sunday evening before starting class again tomorrow morning.  It’s been a nice little break with equal amounts of academic laziness and high quality training here in Syracuse.  I’m excited for the coming summer after spending this past week with my teammates in the uncharacteristically warm weather.

Over spring break I was able to do quite a lot of work in the lab, failing to go in only on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday out of the past eleven days.  By the end of the week I needed a mental break more than anything since what I’ve been doing for what seems like forever hasn’t really worked.  I do think I know what needs to be changed in the procedure now so tomorrow will hopefully work out much better.

I had my first casino experience over spring break as well when we went to Turning Stone Casino.  My experience confirmed my belief that I’m not much of a gambler preferring to make my way through life slowly and steadily instead of with risky leaps and bounds of fortune.  Taking $80 I was never more than $15 down and ended up only losing $1.05 to the casino, which I doubt is a feat that many people can ever say they have managed.  I don’t really believe in luck (or rather fate) so it’s fitting that I didn’t win I guess.  Slot machines remain even more incomprehensible to me.  Roulette, a game of obvious chance where I can do the calculations of my losing in my head gave a much greater rush but mainly because the minimum bet was $5.  I couldn’t help thinking about the odds the whole time and the fact that with every play I could be losing $5.  So overall, while losing $2.05 on the slots I gained $1.00 at the roulette table.

For training, we did a good track workout on Wednesday and then actually went to Tully for a workout/longrun on Saturday.  Despite some troubles through this winter I think this spring will be the time when I finally have a breakthrough in my racing.

Boston University Terrier Invite 2012

It’s hard to convey how frustrated and I angry I am with myself at having another awful race.  I’ve let down my coaches, teammates and myself.  Running 15:24 on such a fast track is pathetic and I don’t think I’ve ever been so frustrated and disappointed in myself over racing.

I felt more prepared for this race than anything else I’ve ever run at SU.  Physically I’d done everything right.  I’ve been working out well, the best since I’ve been here I’d say.  I haven’t had a bad workout since being back.  Running 2:19′s on the Tuesday workout before racing felt easy that I thought running 2:20′s in spikes should feel very smooth.  I tapered the three days leading up fifty-three, forty, thirty with 6 strides.  I ate correctly for a 7:00 pm race.  Mentally I was as prepared as I could have been on the occasion.  I knew it was going to hurt.  It’s part of the sport, part of running fast.  I thought I was ready for it.

I felt great the day before doing strides.  I felt relaxed and ready to go on the warmup.  I like doing a little 3 minute tempo effort at 15 minutes into the warmup and felt good on that and during strides before the race.  Hell, I even thought I felt good through the first half of the race.

So for the life of me I still do not know what’s wrong.  The only thing that leaves me to conclude is that I’m weak – mentally weak.  And that’s probably the scariest solution because it’s not something you can just get better from like an injury.

Cross Country 2011

The 2011 cross country season ended for me a week ago at Van Cortlandt park with IC4A’s.  I was able to race 6 times this season, which is a happy medium compared to the 13+ races I’d run in high school and the sole race at Cornell I got to run last year.  The races I competed in this year included, 1st Colgate, 2nd Colgate, Paul Short at Lehigh, Wisconsin, Cornell and finally IC4A’s at Van Cortlandt park.

I can’t really say I’m happy with how I raced this season.  I’m happy with how I raced at Lehigh for Paul Short but not ecstatic or anything.  I still feel like I’m waiting to have a break out race.  It’s more than a matter of just having everything click leading up to race day.  I think it’s probably mental more than anything but the only race I’ve felt like I was truly racing so far was at Lehigh this year.  While I don’t expect to feel the same way racing in college as in high school considering how vastly different the competition is it’s been rare for me to even feel competitive in a race.  Maybe it’s inexperience or lack of confidence or just simply that I’m not good enough yet but I really feel like I’m going to have a break out race sometime – hopefully sooner rather than later.

IC4A’s in Van Cortlandt Park

The IC4A/ECAC championship was yesterday in Van Cortlandt Park, as always.  I was excited to get one final race in for the season and had been feeling really good lately.  I managed to get 9 hours of sleep both the night before and two nights before the race (which is usually difficult for me), I’d tapered effectively 50-40-30 the three days previously.  I was ready to go.

During the race, the first two miles went smoothly and I entered the woods in our pack of Syracuse guys as planned.  On the rolling back hills our group was told to push hard on the down hills.  I’ve always been kind of a cautious downhill runner.  I’ve found that running hard downhill often just causes my knees and shins to hurt afterward so I usually just take it kind of easy and try to run faster on the uphills instead.  So the first big downhill our pack got to I started falling back from Jonathan Aziz and Zach Rivers.  Not wanted to get separated from the group I decided to open up my stride and try to go a little faster.

Next thing I know, I’m on the ground.  I think someone clipped my right foot as it was in the air, causing me to spike my left calve and then land on my right hip hard.  I think I was more surprised than anything to find myself on the ground and remember Pat Goeghegan saying something like “Get up, get up” as he ran past me.  I got up as quick as I could and started running again but it wasn’t really easy to stay focussed and keep running.

Northeast XC Regionals 2011

Syracuse won both the men’s and women’s NCAA Northeast XC regional today in Buffalo, NY for the third year in a row!  We weren’t expected to win on either the men or women’s side and that made it so much more exciting.  This season has not been without some hardships and overcoming them to win the region looking great just in time for nationals makes it all the more sweet.

The men’s 10k race was incredibly windy and tactical seemingly to our benefit.  Seeing so many of our guys in the front pack for the majority of the race was so exhilarating.  We had nearly the entire team there cheering and it was a feeling like nothing else so far this season.  My favorite moment was seeing how happy coach Fox was after the guys’ race today.  When everything finally works out it must be a great feeling to have orchestrated it.

Cornell Race – John Reif Memorial 2011

Racing for what may be the final time (assuming we do not compete at IC4A’s this year) this 2011 cross country season really didn’t go so well.  It wasn’t much of a racing atmosphere compared to the previous two races but please, don’t treat that as an excuse; it’s simply an observation that should obviously have some bearing on the results.

This was one of the muddiest races I’ve ever been in and the mud certainly slowed everything down.  Martin Hehir won in 26:40 and I finished much further behind in 10th place in 27:29.  Even with the gorge having been eliminated that’s considerably slower than last year when the race was won in 26:05 and I finished in 27:02.  It would have been nice to have gotten a chance to race when the weather cooperated on a fast course this season but I guess that’s why cross country is about place and not about time.

The SUXC redshirt/unattached squad of Martin Hehir, Andy Bennison, Zach Rivers (simply running unattached), Juris Silenieks and Joseph Kush took the win over the elder SU squad composed of Reed Kamyszek, Pat Geoghegan, Jon Squeri, John Aziz and myself.  I guess that bodes well for the future even if it does make our non-big east older squad look a bit sad.  I’m glad the freshmen overall and especially Andy had good races considering his family was here from across the country.