A Great parting e-mail from Captain Jennings

"Dear Sam,

I never thought when you first beat me in that indoor two mile [In high school] by like 20 seconds that we would one day wind up as teammates and friends, but
I'm so glad that we did. I know that last two years have been tough
running-wise, but I think we have both learned a lot through the struggle.
For you, I really hope that knowledge will propel you to great happiness this year,
both in running and in the other more important part of life, everything
else. Just remember to trust in your training, trust in your coach and
trust in yourself. Only you know what great heights you can reach, and
only the belief in yourself will allow accomplishing your goals to
become a reality.

Have a good and (relatively) stress-free summer,
Matt "


While I was in the process of getting quotes for my last post, I decided to just make this e-mail its own post.

It's sad to see the seniors go, but they have done great things. Jennings was a very successful student-athlete at Brandeis.
Jennings has been a great leader, and I told him that he has given us (the underclassmen) the right tools to be successful. Individually, he has influenced me greatly.
He always believed in me, like John, even when I had my poor performances and struggles with injuries. He has always made sure that my head has been in the right place.

So,
Toast to you, Matt! Good luck in China!

2 weeks off, ready to go.

That time of year to start things up.

First off, I want to say congrats to Beth and Paul at Nationals.
Paul raced the 10k, the race seemed to go out pretty slow, but Paul kept his head up and finished 15th I believe.
Beth got 9th in the 1500,, very close to All American. She ran a 4:36 1500m earlier in the season to qualify for nationals (~4:55 mile).

Well, I'm ready to get things going.
I have been a ball of energy at home for the past two weeks, since I have not been running. It's a little unhealthy, I am too jittery and hyped up without getting a run in each day. I also tend to eat a lot less. Needless to say, I'm ready to start summer training.

For me, Summer running is a commitment all the way through and into the Fall Cross Country season. It's really easy to make excuses to not train during the summer.
For me, it's always good to remember what I want for the long term, not just what I immediately want.
So, I will be skipping appointments such as going to the beach, pool, out to boston, movies, hanging out with friends, parties, you name it just to get my runs in.
The guys on our team have a commitment to our training, and we think this year will turn out to be something special.

I want to share a few quotes that are somewhat motivating in terms of reminding myself that I can get a lot out of this as long as I keep my focus this summer.

(Coach) John Evans wrote this in an e-mail to the team:

" Now thoughts can turn to XC. It has the potential to be a awesome year, with both teams ready to do some great things. The little things will make the difference, and the foundation of the success will begin right now. Do the little things right during the summer -follow the schedule, listen to your body, stretch, keep hydrated, get enough rest and you will come back healthy and ready to go.

Paul sent this to the guys, but it is appropriate to both teams:

'As we've all heard over and over, the little things like sleep, diet, stretching and listening to your body will determine whether we get on that podium. Another thing I can't stress enough is to have confidence in your training. If you follow the schedule, making appropriate adjustments when necessary, you will come back in great shape. Focus on doing what's best for you and don't worry about what other people are doing, whether on our team or not. The process is 99% of our sport and what determines the end result, so make sure you enjoy it!' "

I agree with every single word.

It's gonna be a fun summer.

Figuring out where I'm at

I've been sitting at my computer for a few minutes after having come back from a 10 mile run. As I was sitting here listening to "Talk amongst yourselves" by Grand National, I remembered that I haven't updated my blog in a little while.

My outdoor season hasn't been that great, and I haven't performed nearly well enough to what I would have liked.

It's been an interesting season so far. I started off running some really solid workouts. I ran probably my best 4 mile tempo of college, ran a really solid 6,4,2,2,4,6,2,2 workout.. one that was close to what I ran in indoors when I ran 4:22, and before that when I felt I was in sub 4:20 shape.
I ran 60-65 miles per week every week, all in singles, with exceptions of a few down weeks.
I came off the 6,4,2 workout with a 4:09 1500m in my season opener. Wasn't pleased with it. After that race, ran a solid 400 repeat workout averaging 64 seconds for 400m.
Then I don't really know what happened afterwards, I took a few down weeks, ran a 1500m over 4:10, then ran a 2:01 800m going all out at CMU in Pittsburgh for the UAA Championship meet.

It was a tough time. For some reason I haven't been working out well after that meet.
The thing is, it is definitely me, something is going on.

My teammates are running superbly! The Guys ran a 7:47 4x800 at UAAs, and ran a 7:43 just yesterday at New Englands. We've had 3 guys run 4 minutes or better for 1500m. We've had 5 guys run 1:56 or better for 800 meters.
We have three girls who have run 4:42 or better for 1500m (5:00 mile equivilant)

So everyone is rocking! for some reason, my season hasn't been going the way I would've liked it.
John and I have been communicating well, after UAA's we talked about continuing to work out and trying to get a good race in at the Bentley High Performance Meets (May 20th, June 9th). I also started doubling once or twice a week and taking a day off on wednesdays maybe once a week or every other week to get my miles up to 70mpw.

So I'm at home now, school went pretty well this semester. Probably best GPA of my time at Brandeis.
The thing with my running now, is now that I'm at home I have a lot of time to rest up.
But for some reason I've been having hard times breathing on my runs this week.
Last week I took two days off, and ran a workout in which John made me stop early, and have now been feeling pretty cruddy on my runs at home.

I need to figure out what's the deal.
Maybe allergies are hitting me hard.

I'll be okay, only a little left before I take some down time (Probably in June) before Cross COuntry training.