Paul narrowly missed out on being an All-American last year. It's great to see that he broke the top-10 at the NCAA meet. He's been a much better runner this fall; More fit and a lot more competitive and his performances have indicated that.
Currently, I'm getting ready for Track. Doing a lot of core work, as well as lifting with many repetitions. The Cross Country season didn't pan out the way I would have liked it to have. I got "the flu" three times this fall. I don't know whether it was the flu, but from a period of early September to early November I got sick three times with symptoms being soar throat, a lot of coughing, and nose blowing.
It's a shame that being sick inhibited my performances this fall. I came into the season in the best shape of my life. I even managed to PR in the 8K by 30 seconds while being sick.
I'm trying to do the little things right now; like getting my sleep, eating healthy, doing core consistently, not going crazy on my runs. I think it will pay off for track... I also ran a lot of mileage this summer and early fall, a lot more than previous years.
After the UAA meet, I took 5 days off, then got sick again, so I decided to take some more time off. The past two weeks I've been running light just to get back into it slowly. The Winter track season is pretty long, and I want my best performances to come in February and early March.
Our first meet is the Northeastern Meet at Reggie Lewis in early December.
While I may not race in it, I think it will help get us all geared up for track.
In our locker room we have a white board where most of us try to put down our (serious and lofty) goals for the season. The XC season goals are whiped off, and are being replaced by track goals.
I'm curious to see what this track season will bring. We have a lot of talented track veterans returning, as well as some fresh newcomers. Mainly, Alex Kramer'13, a 9:17 high school 2-miler, who has not yet raced in a Brandeis Uniform due to injury this fall.
We return three runners who have broken 4:20 -- Ben Bray, Chris Brown, and Devon Holgate. Devon, a 4:14 miler as a sophomore, is looking to get under 4:10.
We also return 6 runners who have run 1:57 or better.
We have the talent to get a pretty solid DMR together. My goal for the team is to have an All American DMR this winter. Brandeis placed 7th in the DMR at the NCAA D3 Championship meet indoors three years ago, one spot off All American.
The season hasn't even begun, but I think it's good to have some goals in mind. My PRs for track and field are as follows:
400m - 52 seconds (Relay Split from High School)
600m - 1:25
800m - 1:57.4 (UAA indoor 09)
1000m - 2:36 (Tufts Meet 09)
1 mile - 4:22 (Brandeis Meet 09)
3k - N/A haven't run one yet
5k - N/A -- (16:10 FP high school)
My goal is to PR in every event I compete in.
