Blogs : Calvin Abram

long week

Long week last week, I had my first child last week. Her name is Makayla Faith Abram, and it was the best day of my life, sometimes I don’t even want to leave home, its crazy. I did not practice any last week because I was at the hospital with my girl friend the whole time. The whole coaching staff and my team mates have been behind me 100% me this whole time. They knew it would be a very stressful semester for me dealing with a baby, track, and school. It isn’t that bad though I have learned to direct most of my attention to her and it has been great. BACK TO TRACK…… Monday was my fist day back at practice here at Arizona State. We did 6 x 300 meters with 100 meter walk rest. I did 4 and stopped because my right quad started to cramp up on me. I think it was because I missed almost a week of practice and I had to get back into the groove OR the lack of sleep I was getting when the baby first came. The trainer told me that I need to drink MORE THAN ENOUGH water because having less sleep would lead to me being more dehydrated. Yesterday, we was on the grass doing a lot of drills like high knees and things of that nature, then we did 6 x 100 meter form runs and 6 x 100 meter form runs and after each we would do exercise. I felt pretty good……till next time….

Dont Sleep On The National Champions

Hours b4 my race

            It has been a very long season filled with ups and downs for me. All those hills with me dying paid off in the end. I feel like I am in the best shape of my life and I have gotten more consistent in my races. I am in Iowa now at the NCAA championships just getting mentally prepared right now. Just sitting around being lazy giving my body as much rest as it needs. I have the 100 meters today and tomorrow I have the 200 meters. I feel really good right now, I feel as if I am going to go out there today and surprise a lot of people but I even don’t know what the outcome is going to be today. Today, I am going to really focus on the gun and try to concentrate on my drive phase. I hope that I will come out with a hot time. I am going to run as if a dog is chasing after me LOL. We will see what happens today.

From A terrible Season To A Great Season :-)

            Long time no see huh folks????? I know, but this has been a very up and down season for me. The indoor season was not a very good experience for me because although we won a national championship, I did not run as good as I thought I am capable. This fastest I ran this year was 6.83 and 21.6. Those are times I could cruise last year, but it really got to me that I could not run as fast as I wanted to. I do not know what was going on the indoor season, I was trying as hard as I can to give it all I got, but for some reason I could not get things going. The outdoor season started out terrible also. I opened up with a 10.7 and a 21.6. This was unacceptable for me to be running like this. I went home one day and prayed hard as I can and asked god to give me all the strength he could to push me out faster and to give the strength to go out there and execute my races. Something told me to cut off my 2 years worth of hair because I felt like I needed a change and I need to go to our next track meet, which was the Sun Angel Classic, with a different attitude. I finally, hit 10.48 at that meet and it was a big sigh of relief for me to do that. Since I have cut my hair, I went 10.4 five times, got runner up in the 200 meters at the Pac 10 championships and I went 20.96 two days ago at our regional championships. I have automatically qualified for the National Championship in 2 weeks for the 100 and 200 meters. No matter how good or bad I do at the meet, it will be a big accomplishment for me to go there and run just because I have come a long way this season. If someone would have asked me if I would be going to this meet in March, I would have told them that I seriously doubt it. My older brother and father are my main sources I go to for advice. They both told me that I have to believe that I am fast and everything will fall in place. They said that I have the talent but it will take more than that for me to go out and set my goals. There have been a couple key people on our team that have gotten hurt that really hurt both our 4x1 and our 4x4. These injuries came out of nowhere because we stay in the training room and we are getting the proper training, but there are some things that we cannot control. I am going to the National Championship with a focused attitude. I am going to really try to execute my races and hopefully everything will come out the way I wont to to.

Disappointment

These past couple of weeks has been pretty crazy….I have not ran well AND I DON’T KNOW WHY.  The 200 meters for example….. Last year I could cruise a 21.6 and I haven’t broken 21.7. My coach has been working on my 60 meters technique and it is has been a long hard road for me in that part of my running. We are working on opening up my stride length when I get out the blocks because I take short steps when I get out the blocks. I know changing my running style is not going to come over night but its something I am going to work hard at. I have been running a certain way all my life and it’s difficult for me to change it. I think its my mental aspect of my racing has to do a lot with everything because when I step to the line I am totally out of my races, just because of nervousness. I don’t know why I am nervous when I step up to the line, so I am going to try and work on just relaxing and just DO ME. I have been praying for a change in my times and I know I have to been patient. Our next meet is the Mountain Pacific championships. I am going to do a lot of praying and hoping for the best when we go to Washington. I am expecting good things out of that meet, most of the time when I am in a very important race, I run fast because of all the expectations. That’s why I believe I will do very good next week. I know it’s easier said than done. I have been visualizing my self running well and all I have to do is go out there and execute. Our team is ranked number 2 nationally and we have our eyes on the National Championship. I’m the type of person that lives day to day and I say we will cross that bridge when we get to it. So, we will see what happens

Week 1 in Review

Well it’s a new week and I have a lot more work to do. Last weekend we had a meet at Northern Arizona and I did the 60 and the 200 meters. I did OK that meet, I got 3^rd in the 60 and ran 6.83. In the 200 I won with a 21.87. The 60 I was kinda mad because I have problems with my start and I tend to short step my way through the race. My coach gave me an example of the race, he said that one our girls who won the 60 at that meet made 34 steps in her race and he said that I should be at 29 steps. The 200 time was an after affect of me taking one step out of the blocks and popping up. That is an easily correctable problem because I never did this before. These are the factors that were hurting me in that race, #1 I was nervous because it was my first collegiate meet at the division 1 level, #2 I was really anxious to hit a fast time and I wasn’t being patient, #3 I haven’t ran on a flat track AND  at altitude my first meet ever. I wasn’t discouraged at all because I know last year I started out my 200 meters with an 22.00 and came back the next week to go 21.54. I wasn’t really trying to mash the gas the last 150 meters because I just wonted to get a really good feel for that race and that track. I will have much more competition so I am pretty sure ill drop something hot because I always step up to the plate when its crunch time. Tomorrow, we go back to Northern Arizona and I am running those two races again. I am aiming for a 21.4 in the prelims of the 200 meters so we will see what happens. My coach has been working with me more than usual this week to work on my blocks because I need to make some corrections in that race. We will see what will happen this weekend. I am going to pray hard and hope for the best.

Its almost that time

The time is here people and I am starting to feel a bit nervous. Everyday I could picture my self running in my first race, I try to see my self doing wonderful and I ALSO have a picture in my mind of my self doing bad. That’s just my way of getting my self ready. I know I shouldn’t be nervous because I have been in much bigger meets and races besides this meet. I just am happy I have the opportunity to go out and do something special. HOPEFULLY, I could open up with at least 21.3 or 21.4 200 meters and 6.7 60 meters so I could get my confidence level up. Once I get the first meet out of the way I know every things going to be ok. One of the things my coach told me was, there is no way of simulating an actual race because I will be running against people other than my team mates and this will bring out the best in me. The meet will be at northern arizona on friday and this will be one of the LONGEST WEEKS OF MY LIFE.

Bored

Sup folks,

            I have been chillin these last couple of days, just getting mentally prepared for this season and school semester. The Christmas break was good for me because I could sit around and play my playstation3 all day. : - ) For our workout today we had 6 x 30 meters block starts and 2 x 60 meters block starts. I am getting much better and I feel like I could do some damage this year. Tomorrow we have 4 x 300 meters at 38 seconds. Saturday we have a intersquad meet on our 90% finished outdoor track. I will be running the 60 and the 4x300. It will be interesting to see how I do in that ran because I ran a 33.98 running by my self in a time trail. I know I will run faster trying to chase someone down or trying to run away from someone. Next week is our first indoor meet at Northern Arizona. My opening race in the 200 is all I can think about because I want to make this year special for myself and my team mates. I am setting the bar high for myself because no one is a bigger critic for myself than ME. I expect nothing but perfection and I am expecting nothing more than making a NCAA final, which would be a dream come true. I am going to work at it these next couple of weeks. Hopefully, God has special plans for me this year, so wish me luck.

December

Well these past couples of weeks have been pretty cool for me. Finally, we are out of school and I get to train when I feel like It hahahaha. Usually what I do is sleep all day, then around 3 or 4 I go and practice. Before we got out of school we tested in the weight room and on the track. I will tell yawl the most important stuff to me. In the 300 I ran 33.98(pretty good for someone who dies at 250), in the weight room I bench pressed 215, power cleaned 235, and squatted 335. I could have done MUCH MORE on the squat but our weight coach told me to chill out because he didn’t want me to risk getting hurt, he also said that I have next fall to “squat the world”. It’s almost track season time and I am so excited. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t lie down and envision myself running. It will be so exciting for me because this is my first year to run at the division 1 level. Our first track meet is at northern Arizona a 300 meter bank track. I have had a little success on 300 meter tracks. I am aiming my 200 for at least 21.3 and my 60 is PENDING because my start is very IF’Y you know what I mean. We have a practice meet on our new track (HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE FINISHED WHEN WE GET BACK). I will run my 3RD 4X4 in my life so I have to prepare mentally for that.

HELLO

Well, time is flying and I am feeling my speed coming back. In the past couple weeks, we have done things like the weighted sled and we are really getting into the blocks more. I feel so good right now and I feel like that I am in the best shape of my life. I think I have more confidence in more 200 coming in this year than my 100 because of the strength work we have been doing. I haven’t been doing anything lately, yawl know how it is, practice, video games and FOOD. That’s been pretty much it. I go home FINALLY, next week to visit my family for 2 days ß can you believe that. It’s going to be worth it though because I want my family to see how my physic has changed and give my mama and my daddy a couple shirts, because I know their proud. ALSO, I cant forget this good food I am going to get when I go home, its been a long time since i had a actual home cooked meal. I met with my adviser today and we went over how my grades should come out. He is predicting a 2.7 – 3.2 depending on how I do with my finals in a couple weeks. You all know how stressful it is when finals come around and it seems like your brain is caving in. Our team is growing closer and I can see the change in attitude towards each other. We are starting to see each others strengths and we are very focused on winning PAC-10’s with out addition in January J 

see ya til next time :-)

Second Phase Of Training

            We are into our second phase of training and are now getting into the sprints stuff. On Monday, it was our first day in the blocks and this was very exciting to me because I could really get a feel for the sprinting again. We had 5 x 20 meters and 5 x 40 meters. While everybody was running, Coach Winston video taped us so after practice we could see how we came out the blocks and he would tell us what we needed to work on. While we were watching the video, he put it in slow motion, and I really could see what the problem was in my start AND turn over. When I turn over, I never bend my right arm to make a “7” if you know what I mean. I have the habit of keeping it straight and this is affecting me dramatically. It’s going to be very hard for me to change it because I have been running this way all my life. Every time someone tells me that I am not bending my arm, I try so hard to change it, but it feels so natural to me running the way I am. That’s going to be one of my main goals for this season, to work on my technique. Also, weight room was after our work out, which is basically on Mondays, Weds, and Fridays. Yesterday, we had 4 x 300 meters. I felt really great running because I was working on bending my arms, and I was concentrating on staying strong the whole way. It was a very good workout for the whole team. I am really loving how focused our team is getting on getting better in our events, and we really are focusing on having a lot of depth in the sprint events. We have weight room only today, and tomorrow, we have 10 x hills (pray for me lol).

I Made it people

mid september

Sup folks,

The last couple of days have been going good for me. I just need to finish the homework that I have. I have a project due on Thursday, for the computer literacy class I am taking and in the same class, I have a group project that I have to do in like 2 weeks. Plus, I have a test tomorrow in my educational psychology class…..college is so stressful. Anyway, yesterday at practice, he upped our workout a little bit. We had 6X300 meters in the grass with 2 mins rest between each one. These past couple of weeks, I have been dead during our most intense work outs……but this time I was not dead. Everybody was noticing how out of shape I was and since I didn’t die this time, everybody was telling me how good of a job I did. I gained a couple of lbs during the summer and I trimmed up a little back to my normal size, which is good. After that workout we went to the weight room and did our workout…..too many exercises too go into detail about so I will not. The last thing we did was some very intense abs and hip exercises. After practice I should have got into the cold pool, but I didn’t because we can’t get into the pool of we have a blister on our feet. I went to church for the first time out here last Sunday, with a new friend of mine also. I really do not like going to any other churches besides the one I grew up in, but I don’t have a choice since I am 34524362536 miles away from home. I really needed to go though, because one of the main things I use church for, is spiritual guidance and even some motivation for track. I don’t know what it is, but something is telling me that this year will be a very special year for me. I am just going to pray about these next couple of months, and hopefully god gives me the strength and inner spirit I need to take my speed and motivation to the next level. Sometimes, I wish I could just TELEPORT myself or fly back to Louisiana for the weekend lol……I really miss being at home. I wish my family was here with me so I could have that extra push in the back to do things.

What are we doing in boot camp?

Hey folks,

                I’ve got the emails from a couple of you guys asking what are we doing this year and asking what do I expect out of myself and my team?

What did we do today???????????? First thing is Coach Winston blows the whistle and we all stop whatever we are doing and run to him and gather around him in a circle. He tells us what we are doing today and some business we have to handle this week. Every day, he talks about Pac-10’s and how hard it’s going to be to get the title. You can tell by how he looks and speaks about the meet,  that is is very important that we HAVE to win this meet. Our coach is the so cool, he’s like one of the guys and that’s the main reason I chose to come to this school. He says to us and I quote “you dudes aint going to let BLAH BLAH BLAH university come and punk you on the line like you a b1tch” and we all scream “BULL SH1T” you should hear it….it’s his way of motivating us. Today, the short sprinters and jumpers had 4x300 in the grass wit like 3 mins rest in between each. I actually wasn’t in the back today and I felt really good running those. Everybody really encourages each other this year because me and Darryl bring a different type of FAMILY vibe to the team. People always talk about how different the attitudes of our athletes are this year. Next, when we got done……we had to put our backpacks on and run ALL THE WAY to the weight room in a single file line of 2…..when we got to the weight room….we had to circle around coach because he had to leave early to go to the Arizona Cardinals game where our women’s team is being recognized as the national champions and they receive their rings. We had to do  4x10 squats, pull-ups, abs, and a bunch of more stuff I will not go into detail with. After practice, we gather around our weight room coach BEN and he tells us his thoughts on todays work out WHICH WAS PRETTY GOOD…..then  we clap it up as a team …. Clap clap clap clap clap ….. A-S-UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…..HAHAHAHA gets ya crunk huh? I almost forgot, I don’t know how im going to do this season……we will see when spring time comes……Anyway, until time PEACEEEEEEEEEEE.

Also – I thank you guys for your emails and reading my blog, I really appreciate your concern…..pray for my team mate Darryl Elston…he lost a aunte yesterday and he’s going home to mourn the death….pray for him

We talking about PRACTICE

Well, this week we have started training. Last year, the team did a 2 week boot camp and our coach really wants the PAC-10 win at home this year. So, instead of 2 weeks, we are doing a 4 week boot camp. I haven’t trained since mid April and I and feeling the worst of the worst pain that a person could feel while training. One of the things that I really have to adjust to is the heat. Yesterday, we went to our band field and did a pretty intense warm-up and then did like 8 x 30 meter starts in the grass. The weight room was pretty hard for me even though I love the weights. We had to hold a 40 lbs weight and lung 40 meter 5x’s. I barely finished but with my team mate’s encouragement, I actually finished. We also did shoulder shrugs, abs, and a couple more exercises I will not go into detail about. I have practice in like 30 minutes so, I am going to prepare myself mentally for this.  

New Start and A New Me

Sup folks,

                If you guys don’t know who I am, then I am “Tiger”Calvin Abram. I am from Shreveport, Louisiana. I previously had a blog on trackshark last year and it was nice to share to my fellow trackstars, some of my experiences on the junior college level. I am a Junior College transfer from Barton County Community College and I am a short sprinter. I currently am a scholarship athlete at Arizona State University. I have Pr’s of 10.47 100 meters, 20.91 200 meters, 21.45 200 meters (indoor), 6.77 60 meters (indoor). Last year was a year filled with ups and downs because of some of the things that was going on, on and off the track for me AND MY TEAM MATES. I really miss Barton but at the same time I don’t. I really miss being around my team mates and my coaches all the time. What people don’t know is that everybody on the team is very close because we are always around each other. The only thing I hated about that school is that I was in the middle of no where and the weather was STUPID. I was blessed with some of the greatest coaches and team mates up their and I would do it all over again if I could. I won a national championship their and I met friends that I have grown to love. Coach Kane was always on our back about our grades because he knows that if you struggle in the books on the junior college level, then we wouldn’t be able to function on the division 1 level. When I first got to Barton I struggled with my classes and it actually took me a YEAR to get focused in the books. What really got me focused was after outdoor nationals I started talking to a couple of schools and I had to start motivating myself to want to get to the next level. Last year, I was blessed to get some interest from some schools like Nebraska, Florida State, South Carolina to name a couple. What made me choose ASU some people ask? Well, when I came on my visit in the spring, I fell in love with the campus and I felt like I needed to be in a different environment. I haven’t been to the west coast states besides Oregon and I got tired of the south ESPCIALLY LOUISIANA. I wonted to be around different types of people and see and run at new places. I really got a really good vibe from the coaching staff here and my coaches at Barton really felt that the PAC-10 conference was a good fit for me. I got to Arizona like 2 weeks ago and I am still adjusting to the different type environment, mainly the HEAT and how spread out everything is. This past week we did a couple of tests like how high we could jump and flexibility. We started lifting weights also and this was a big wake up call to the D1 level of things. 80% of my team mates were sore to the point that we could barely walk to class. We did a mile run the other day and I couldn’t even finish it hahahahaha. I haven’t done anything since my last track meet at Barton in late April, so you can imagine how out of shape I am right now. I also did not come this school by my self. A team mate of mine Darryl Elston came with me, he is the outdoor JUCO 400 hurdle champion, and so I don’t feel alone up here. Our coaches here have really stressed to us how important winning the conference title this year and we should make it the main goal for our team. We lost the conference title by 3 points and they said it was not a good feeling to loose by such a small margin. So, we are focused on winning that title this year, which we will be hosting this year at Arizona State. So my coaches would like for the men and women and be taking a victory lap this year. Some goals I have set for my self, is for me to get my work ethic up and to try and do the little things right.  I know being a champion takes hard work and I am focused on being a better sprinter. I am going to work on my start a lot and try to increase my endurance for the end of my 200 meters. We have a very deep team on paper so hopefully we will make a little noise this year. By the way, my major will be Industrial design. I hope my blog will be a very good read for you guys this year. Comments would be appreciated.

Holla.......Go Sun Devils

                                Ps – if you ever are in the forums……my screen name is MOSTKNOWNUKNOWN and if you guys would every like to say something to me… my email address is calvin.abram@asu.edu