Blogs : Eric Simmons

And... That's a wrap.

I've been meaning to do this update for a while, but I got a tooth pulled, my gums got infected, and I spent 85% of the day high off of pain pills (prescription, mind you).

2 weeks ago I ran a the NCAA Division II Championships in Walnut, California. Without sugarcoating anything and getting overly sentimental about everything, I did not advance to the finals. I won't blame it on the 3 hour delay or the crappy weather either. I felt good going into the race, got a great warmup, and attempted to run the race in similar fashion to when I PR'd at Morehouse 3 weeks prior. I got to the 200 in about 21.6, which was what I hit at Morehouse. I was running with the leader for about 340, and the last 60 I did not have it, plain and simple. I ended my career with 47.9.

I could  sit here and say my 5 years at Clayton State were all disappointing, but they were not. Yes, there were several disappointments, most notably the middle 3 years where I missed considerable amounts of time due to hamstring injuries, but who goes through a career in anything without their fair share of highs and lows? I qualified for every national meet that I was eligible for and earned an All-American award in 2004. It might have only been one, but there are people who never even make it to the national meet.

Other than that, I hold 11 school records. Admittedly, some of our records were a bit soft when I came to Clayton, but the school had only been contesting track at the NCAA level for 6 years. When we (myself, Carlos, Brian, and Rother) earned All-American honors that first year, people started looking at our program. More kids filled out questionnaires and inquired about our training and such. Our program is not huge, but if one were to look at it in 2004 they would see a huge margin of improvement. I'm very happy and proud that I played a part in the growth of a program. Being that I had a little bit of respect or "pull" as you may call it, a lot of younger people came to me for advice and help as I had been around for a while. I always tried to help my teammates and others to the best of my ability and I hope that my advice helped or will help them as they pursue their goals. In a nutshell, I left Clayton State a better place than when I found it.

Track gave me a lot more than awards and such. I met a lot of friends through competing and writing my journal and they all helped grown as an athlete, person, and hopefully as a coach one day. I was able to share experiences about being a student, an athlete, and just general life lessons from people who lived in other places, therefore giving them each a different set of circumstances and allowing me to broaden my perspective on a lot of things. I was also able to travel to many different places to compete such as the Armory and Penn Relays, tracks I had often saw or heard about and always wanted to run on. The fact that I had been to all these places hit me the other day when Chris Webber made the comment on t.v. the other day that "Some kids don't even get to see half of their own city" when talking about athletes and benefits. Needless to say, I feel very privileged about the things I done.

In closing, I had a lot of successes, failures, made some damn good decisions and calls as well as my fair share of dumb decisions and horrible mistakes. In the end, I can look back and say I honestly feel I worked as hard as I could to be the best that I could. I hope everyone that took the time to read my journal these past few years found it enlightening, interesting, entertaining, or found some quality in it that made them enjoy it and look forward to reading it. I'll end it right here before I get too sentimental and start crying (jk) and just say thanks for all the comments and support that I received from the trackshark world.

Low key

Since running a personal best at Morehouse, I've done a whole lot of nothing outside of training. My day goes as such: Wake up, breakfast, Grand Theft Auto 4, practice, treatment, dinner, Grand Theft Auto 4, drink copious amounts of Gatorade, bed, rinse and repeat.

The training has been pretty good. Among the workouts I've done, in no particular order, are 2 300s in 34-35 with 6 mins rest, 3 x 350 at 48 seconds, 4 minutes rest, 4 200's with 5 min rest in 23, and just some speed work. The goal at this point of the season is to stay sharp, but not overwork myself so that I have the freshest legs as possible for nationals.

I graduated on May 10th, so I've been looking for some sort of employment opportunity to begin immediately after I return from nationals. College and track stops for me, but unfortunately Uncle Sam keeps going. The plan is to get a job just for now until I get my teaching certification, then join my brother down at Beach High School in Savannah, where he is a math teacher and head basketball coach. I would be there teaching English and assisting him in basketball as well as be in the hunt for the head track and field job there, where he would assist me. Together, we would try to take over the Savannah area prep sports world! (Insert evil laughter here). Nah, I'm just kidding. Other than that, I'm keeping all my options open.

Nationals is this week. The prelims for the 400 are Thursday. I'm aware that there is a big meet, one that happens to be my last meet of my career. I also realize just how huge the occasion is. For the most part though, I'm not consumed about it. Sure, I think about it from time to time, but I just don't want to get consumed and have a mental letdown before I even put on my tights. I'll  say I feel it's really reasonable for me to set my goals at running 46 something and making All-American.

I will update sometime after I recover from jet lag and all that wonderful stuff sometime next week. Best of luck to everyone entering Nationals, Regionals, Conference, Trial qualifiers, or any other event that you are readying yourself for.

And it was a great week.

Last week was indeed a pretty good week. I've been done with school for about 2 and half weeks, so last week was my first "track only" week. We were relatively light on monday with only a shakeout run and some weights due to the athletic banquet at 6:30 p.m. At the banquet, i received the track half of our MVP award as Ahmad took the honors for the field. I also received the team GPA award. To end the night, I took home the "Laker Award", which goes to the top student-athlete in the entire athletic department. I don't really get "giddy" for a lot of things, but to say I was happy was a bit of an understatement as I felt my 5 years of hard work on the track and in the class finally meant something all because I held a shiny trophy and shook some hands. The award really hit home when I was told by the assistant basketball coach that the vote selected me was unamimous. It made me feel respected and proud that the 5 years I spent representing this school was seen as having a positive impact.

Last week on the track, I pretty much did next to nothing. On tuesday, I did 1x150 in 15.7 and did a 2 mile run. On wednesday, I did blocks. Thursday, I did another 2 mile run and Friday, I did absolutely zero. Actually, on thursday, I filled my car up at a malfunctioning gas pump. This allowed me to fill my car up for the low low price of $13.82. Go ahead and be jealous people.

On Saturday, we ran at the Division II South Region track meet. The meet featured the likes of Fort Valley, Albany State, Morehouse, Harding, Alabama Huntsville, and Clark Atlanta. There were several people who are on the performance list in many different events, so this was kind of like a dress rehearsal for nationals. I ran the 4x1, the 4, the 2, and the 4x4. the 4x1 was the epitome of disaster as the stick never made it around the track. Right after the 4x1 was the 400. Up until this race, my fastest this year was 47.80 because I couldn't get the first 200 right. This race though, was different. I went in with the mentality that I would run fast to the 200 and see what happened after that. I got to the 200 in 21.6 and felt pretty good. A guy from Fort Valley pulled up to me, but I was able to pull away from him with about 50 meters left. I checked the results and my time read 47.03, which is an improvement over my personal best of 47.12. The time has me listed 9th on the performance list and that should get me into nationals. I felt great entering the race from the rest during the week, and although I did not get that 46 I've been gunning for, you will never hear me say anything bad about a PR.

Seeing as I had less than an hours rest between any of my events, the 200 was mediocre at best. I think I was the first person to ever catch the infamous "buttlock" before the race even began. I felt like a 2x4 in the blocks and never really got going, finishing with a time of 21.81 for 4th. In the 4x4, I felt the same way. I split 47.5 and felt like what I imagine a car would feel like with a malfunctioning transmission, sputtering and unable to shift gears at time.

Now, we begin to play the infamous waiting game to see who makes it to nationals. Right now, we have me, Ahmad, Kim, Allison, Keisha, and Jon all on the performance list, meaning we could potentially have our largest representation ever at a championship meet. Now, I'll just take these next 2 and half weeks to get in some solid training, some rest, and hopefully I can hit that 46 at nationals and earn some All-American honors. I think that would be a good way to end my career.

Oh, and I graduate Saturday. Guess I should start thinking about the real world huh?

Penn and our women.

Penn relays came, and Penn relays went, that's about all there is to say about that. We had flashes of brilliance on individual legs in certain relays, but there was some disappointing stick action and inconsistency on other parts. I'm lazy today, so I do not feel like typing very much. The place to go for the action is flotrack.com, which as usual did an excellent job covering the meet.

All in all though, Penn was a good experience. It was great to step away from individual events for a while and not overly stress out on them. USA vs. the world was also great as usual. Jamaica struck early with victories in the women's sprint medley and the men's 4x1, but United States came on strong with the 4x4's. The men's 4x4 looks as if it could be very domination, as any combination of members from the two teams (Wariner, Williamson, Jackson, Clement, Carter, Merritt, Taylor, and Spearmon) could blaze up the track.

The rest of our team was at the Coach O invite at Troy, and out girls straight up showed out. Keisha ran 61.7 to improve her provisional time, Jon jumped 5.60 (not sure how many feet that is, but it qualifies), and Kim autoed in the high jump at 5 feet, 8 inches. The girls relay team also dropped the school record from 4:04 to 3:56 and they could possibly make a run at hitting the provisional standard in the 4x4.

This week we will be at the "unofficial" Division II South Region championships hosted by Morehouse. There will be several good D2 teams there, such as  the hosts, Fort Valley, Albany State, Harding, and Stillman. From an individual standpoint, I am excited about facing some of the best D2 has to offer and love the prospect that it will help me to run a time that hopefully gets me into nationals, because hovering around at this 47.8 is not going to do it.  I finished up with school forever last week by demolishing my senior thesis paper and presentaion, so these next 2 weeks I can focus on just track, getting some solid training in and rest up to be prepared for these final 2 shots. Wish me luck this weekend people.

Florida State

This past weekend, we competed at the Seminole Invitational down at Florida State University. We left school at 6 a.m. for a 5 hour bus ride to the meet, which was horrible to say the least. I'm not good with long rides the day of meets. Add to that the bus constantly sounded like a tea kettle signaling for someone to take it off of the stove and the back spasms I had to and from the meet and it is obvious as to why the bus ride was thought to be horrible.

We got to the meet and the weather was beautiful. It was probably near 80 with nothing but sun. The weather changed for about 45 minutes with a quick thunderstorm and the track was soaked, but the FSU team did a good job getting everything back up to speed very quick, which makes me think they will do a great job hosting the region meet.

For me, this was the first meet I was to run the open 400 this outdoor season. I stepped away from it for 4 weeks after indoor, thinking it would be wise to do so after racing my life away every weekend in life or death situations (okay, maybe it wasn't that serious). I was in the heat with some burners like Ricardo Chambers, Erison Hurtault, and Charles Clark. Those dudes were not playing as they all ran 45 something. I, on the other hand, ran a comparitively modest 47.85. I felt strong through about 250 and looked as such through350, but with 50 remaining, once again I became wacky wild inflatable flailing arm man. I came through the 200 at 22. flat and immediately tried to make a move. I probably should have maintained a bit more and then tried to go with about 150 left.  Even though my goal for the race was 47 low, 47.85 is a D2 provisional mark. I know it will not get into nationals, but it is a solid opener and something I can build on as I try to join the sub 47 club here in the next 4 weeks.

In the 200, I ran a horrible curve and ran 21.81. There's not much else to elaborate on in regards to that. The 4x4 was the best we've run all year, which was 3:17, but then again it was the first time we've had all 4 legs as we were always missing someone due to injury or other shenanigans. I had about 35-40 minutes to recover after the 200, and Ahmad literally triple jumped, walked off the runway, changed shoes, and jogged to the blocks to run first leg for our relay. All things considering, I feel like it was a solid run and it gives us the confidence that in the near future we can make a strong run at hitting at least the provisional standard, which I believe is 3:14.50.

The bus ride home can be described as deplorable. I caught a back spasm immediately and spent most of the time lying on the floor, writhing in pain and wondering what I did to deserve the feeling that some sort of alien was about to burst out of my back. I got home around 2 a.m. and fell asleep at 3, then heard the doorknob jiggling to my room. I got up to potentially attack someone and saw my brother standing at the door for no apparent reason. I feel asleep again around 4 and then I got up at 5 to take Ahmad to the airport. I got home around 7, and fell asleep for another 2 hours or so until I was hit with a barrage of text messages and phone calls, of which 97% of them were unimportant. Needless to say, I'm very tired.

I'd also like to give a shoutout to Ahmad and Keisha for hitting provisional standards in the triple jump and the 400 hurdles. Ahmad jumped 14.64, and because I don't know the conversion and am too lazy to look, I can't comment on what that is or how it matches up against anyone else. Keisha ran 62.22 in the 4 hurdles, and I think that should get her into nationals. Then again, I may not be a reliable source in that field either.

Our next meet is the Penn Relays on April 25-26th. Hopefully, we can hit some provisional marks in the 4x1 and 4x4 and then I can come here and tell you guys about it.

At least that' s over with.

I debated even writing this week's blog because out of everything that happened this week, only 15% of it was good. Sadly, I'm not talking about just track  and school, I'm talking about life, but I don't think I'll get into it too much on here.

For the past two weeks, we have been training through meets. As most of you know, that means we're going into meets having been worked pretty hard and with dead legs, intentionally. Last week, our workout on monday consisted of 500 (64.1, 49.3 split), 100, 300 (36.1), 100, 200 (23.0), 100. On Tuesday, I had 6x50 meter starts off the curve, which may not sound like much but it takes a lot to keep firing out of the blocks. On wednesday, we had 3 600s (1:27, 1:25, and infinity, haha) with somewhere between 8-10 minutes rest. On Thursday, we did handoffs until we got them right. Unfortunately, we didn't get them right, and I ended up doing a speed workout of about 6 60s.

We got to Jacksonville State University and were greeted by the most depressing of conditions. Dark clouds, drizzle, and somewhat cool temperatures were not the ideal conditions for most people. We warmed up and ran the 4x1 first, where only me and Ahmad's first exchange could be classified as positive. The 2nd exchange was more of a 4x1600 meter handoff and the last one was just as bad. We ran 42.4 and won, which is not that great. We were once again running a leg down and the familiarity and timing  between the alternate and the regulars is poor.

Moving alone, I ran the 800. I absolutely hate the 800 and I had a heck of a time trying to get loose, but I refused to end my career on a 2:06 due to scheduling and weather shenanigans. The leader from Alabama State took the first 200 out in like 22/23 and ended up coming through the quarter in 52, and I didn't want any part of that. I got out around 24/25 and came through in 54, which is ahead of the 55 I came through when I ran 1:53 last year. With about 300 left, I passed a few guys and pulled up to about 5th place at the 200 meter mark. Coach Mead yelled out 1:23 when I passed, which is ahead of the 1:24 high or so I was during my pr race. Thoughts of 1:52 something entered my mind so I tried to surge that last 200, but my legs and my mind weren't on the same game plan. Mentally, I thought I could do it because I felt pretty darn good as far as cardio, wind, and all that fitness jazz goes. Physically, the last two weeks of grueling training told on me and I could not lift my legs at all. The dude in front of me looked catchable as he was fading, but I assume I looked like Wacky Wild Inflatable Flailing Arm Man from the Family Guy. I flailed my way to 1:55, which is better than last weeks 2 minute effort, but 2 seconds off my PR. I ran a strong 600 and I feel had I been fresh I could have bested my PR. Nevertheless, I feel a bit stronger. I also feel faster as I don't think in my wildest dreams I could have run 10.8 (even though that's slow for some people). Now, we just gotta put it altogether, which sometimes is as easy as when you were 3 years old and you just knew you would be able to fit that triangle inside of the square shape on that little toy, despite the fact that your parents insisted you could not.

After I ran the 800, Ahmad dropped his time in the 400 hurdles down to 53.45, which is .05 off of provisional. In my eyes, this was the end of the meet. Yes, other people competed in other events, and yes, the 4x400 meter relay was contested. The performances and times are not the issue as to why I'm saying the meet ended after Ahmad ran. After the hurdles, some personal issues from a variety of people seeped into the flow of the meet, and that combined with the weather led to some problems I just don't feel right addressing in this blog.

This saturday, we compete at the Seminole Invitational down at Florida State University where most of us will finally be able to open up in our specialty events. My hopes are that I have fresh legs going into it and that I can hit a solid qualifying mark in the 400 and possibly the 200 to set me up for the remainder of the season. Please stay tuned, hopefully I have some good news to share with you people next time.

I ran the 800 and the 100 in the same meet..... and did so within less that 10 minutes of each other

Hopefully this title made people click on my journal

We opened up our outdoor season at the Emory Invitational in Atlanta. It's a relatively low-key meet and it's close, so it was easy on the budget and hard on our legs. Several people on our team were loaded up with several events intentionally to prepare them for future meets, most specifically the Florida State Seminole Invitational where most of us will be open with our specialty events. Off the top of my head, I know kara had to the the 800, the 400 hurdles, and both relays, Keisha also had to the 400, 400 hurdles, and both relays. Some distance runners started running Friday and at this moment are probably still downtown somewhere finishing up. I was also one of those people who ran several races, but of significantly less distance. My workload for the week was 4x1, 100 (prelims/finals in the same day), 800, and 4x4. I felt appreciative as it could have been worse based on everyone else's day.

I said that before the meet, but after the meet, I don't think it could have gotten any worse. The prelims for the 100 were at 9:50 and personally I don't think anyone should be sprinting that early in the morning. I went through my usual warmup schtick and got ready to run. I had a great start, which was probably a flyer, but the guy in lane 2 false started. On the second go round, I did everything that a 100 meter runner is probably coached NOT to do and finished with the blazing time of 11.21. Yeah, I didn't break 11. Somehow, that display of pure sprint speed made it into the finals.

Next was the 4x1. We were crushing the field through 2 legs and after the 2nd and 3rd exchanges we found ourselves down to the host squad, getting 2nd with 42.2 Our original third leg was unable to compete, so we subbed Lawrence in at 3rd leg. I shouldn't say we subbed him in, but we actually stuck him. I don't say stuck in a negative sense, but because we found out a day before the meet we weren't running our original team, we stuck Lawrence at third, guesstimated some steps, and just prayed it all worked out. It wasn't great, but it could have been worse. If me and Lawrence, and Lawrence and Tim had steps, it would have been all good.

After the 4x1, I was feeling good about running the 100 finals, which were slated to begin at 1:55. The 4x1 was at 12:30, so I went to the stands for a Smartwater before the finals. I left the stands at 1, feeling I didn't need a full warmup because I had just run. I got down to the line and the meet director suddenly announces they are 30 minutes ahead and will stay that way. Actually, they weren't really ahead, but there was a storm approaching and they were rushing everything. So, I got the poorest warmup in life in and got in the blocks, at this time praying more for hamstring health and not for results. While in the blocks, I hear the final call for the 800m, which put me on the verge of tears. I got a better start than the prelims, and ran 10.80, which bettered the school record of a hand-timed 10.64, for 3rd place.

Immediately after the 100, I had to report to the line to run the 8. I only had enough time to switch spikes and make a half-hearted plea to my coaches to let me scratch the 8, which of course I was denied. My teammate Walid was in the race too and was somewhere getting treatment. He was not aware of the "schedule change" and showed up to the starting line in just shorts and changed at the starting line. When they announced the competitors, I was still bent over with my legs on fire, contemplating why I had to do this. The gun fired and I got boxed in within the first 100 meters. I came throught the 200 in 27 and felt my legs fading. I came through the quarter in 57 and several people passed me. I tried to pick up my legs to make a half way respectable showing but I couldn't even do it. As I came around the curve, Coach Toro just said "shut it down man, shut it down." I ran a time of 2:06, which would be good enough for 3rd at the Clayton County Jr. High Invite.

Then came the hour something storm delay, where several teams left. Of course, none of them were us. After the storm delay, I had 30 min to warm up for the 4x4. Ahmad split 48.5, Lawrence went 52, I went 48.1, and Walid went 52 something. I ran the kid down in front of me within the first 100, but after that my legs were non-existent when I called on them. Somebody recorded it, and I had the knee lift and arm action of a child who just started wallking.

Hopefully, doing things like 5 events and training hard up until Florida State will lead for some very productive 200/400 meter races. All in all, the meet was an overall success. There were a slew of records broken. The women's 200, 400, 400 hurdles, 4x4, the men's 110 hurdles, 400 hurdles, 100,and 10,000. I think there are more, but this is just off the top of my head. This weekend is the Jacksonville State invite, where I'm leaning toward asking to run the 800. I hate the 800 with a passion, but I'm not going to run the 400 this weekend. Also, after running 1:53 consecutive years, I can't let my 800 career end on a 2:06.

See you guys next week.

Again

First of all, I’d like to congratulate my teammate Ahmad Rolle for placing 4^th and earning All-American honors in the triple jump with a leap of 49 feet, 7 inches. He’s had a great season thus far and earned it, and we only look for better things to come from him during the outdoor season.

Second of all, I’d like to thank those who posted congratulatory comments after my race at the armory. I would have liked to respond to each person, but my senior thesis kept me rather occupied.

As far as Indoor Nationals goes for yours truly, it was another forgettable event. The build up for this year for me was far different than any other year. Instead of being in good standing in early February to earn a berth, I had to run up until the very last weekend in order to make it. On the plus side, I wasn’t as nicked up as I usually tend to be, and I was making improvements and tweaks to my race on a weekly basis. Long story short, I felt more confident than ever.

Without boring you with other minute details, I’ll get straight to the race. I felt like I got out well, but later found out it was 22 seconds high through the first lap. Nonetheless, I was first to the cut line, and first through the 200. I got around to about the 250 mark when the guy from UMass-Lowell pulled up beside me and bumped me. He made the first elbow contact, so we began elbows a little bit, but everything was right where judges are posted for such things. I figured since I had the inside position, and earned it by getting to the cut first, the consistent contact he gave me would be handle by the judges., as throwing a massive bow would have most likely resulted in a disqualification, being that these types of things are frowned upon, even more so at an event of this caliber. That didn’t happen, and I saw the official throw up the white flag quickly.

The contact didn’t throw me off that bad, but it was for him to pull ahead slightly. I still had the inside position as he was on the top of the lane, so I pulled up on him and then he cut me off pretty viciously. I got spiked and it made me stumble and caused my form to go completely to Hell. I flailed the last 150 or so in a desperate attempt to catch him, but I ran out of time. I looked at my time, a disappointing 49.26, and stood there trying to figure out what just happened. Then, someone told me I was bleeding, and I looked down to see I had blood running all down my leg from where I was spiked.

After the race, I talked to coaches and other athletes who saw what happened. They all saw the bump and agreed it slowed me down considerably. I agree with them wholeheartedly. However, I also wonder about other things. How about if I had gotten through the 200 .15 seconds faster? How about if I made my move a bit earlier? I found a good strategy at the Armory that yielded a considerable drop, where I get out for 150, overstride to the 200, and then go with about 150, 175 left. Maybe I should have just gone earlier?

Either way, the race is now in the past, and outdoor is upon us. I definitely do not need the “Super Bowl Hangover” type deal. Now, I have to look forward to running the 800 to open up the season. The actual event does not bother me, it’s the training that sucks. Monday, I ran 3 1000s and had to come through the 800 at 2:15, which may or may not have happened. Today, I had to do 3 500s where I had to come through the 4 at 52. I hit the time for the first 2, but I was too deadlegged and delirious to know or care what my last time was, as evident by the way I went to the training room and got treatment on my back, hamstring, and knee simultaneously and fell asleep within 5 minutes.

This is the last season of my collegiate career, and I intend to go out in a blaze of glory. I want the kind of last season where I can say something like “I gave em’ Hell while I was there”.

About time at the Armory

Entering the last weekend of qualifying for Division II Indoor Nationals, I had made the provisional standard, but was still too low to even think about going to Nationals. I ran last week at Virginia Tech and improved my time from 48.77 to 48.65. That was not a big improvement, but considering the technical difficulties I had on the bank the race was good in the sense that I felt fast. I knew I needed one more shot to run.

This week, I had one hard workout and just did rehab on Tuesday to Thursday. Fast forward to Friday. I went to the airport, flew to NYC to run at the Armory, ran, and flew back. This was indeed the epitome of a business trip. I must say the Armory is a great facility. Outside of the track being fast, there is a lot of other stuff going on inside of it. There are several stores and stands to shop at, the track meet is ran flawlessly by their event staff, they have a nice,giant "armorytron" with great display, and the national track and field hall of fame is there, which I'm kinda upset I didn't have the opportunity to take in.

Anyway, Coach Mead and I got off the plane at LaGuardia airport and caught a bus across the city to the train, which took us to the Armory. The whole ride took about an hour and I rode past such landmarks as the Apollo. I got to the Armory and chilled out for about an hour before I warmed up. I warmed up for about half and hour earlier than usual because my knee is bugging me and the cramped bus ride did not do anything to help. I checked in and saw that I was in heat 2 of 19 (There were 119 entries) in the quarter, and I had lane 3. The warmup time went by faster than ever it seems, and before I knew it I was setting my blocks on the track. When the gun was shot, I got out harder than I have the past few weeks and came through the 200 at about 22.1 according to Coach Mead. Unlike the past few weeks, I seemed to have a great deal of energy with about 150 left and broke out to lane 2 to make a move on the race leaders. I feel like I could have gone a bit faster, but I waited about 10 meters to make my move because I felt like I would have ran into the guy in front of me as he was kinda wild and wide for the last 100 and I had flashbacks of last year's nationals when I was tripped and missed the finals. The guy from Bethune-Cookman won with 47.55, and when I saw that on the screen I figured I had ran a good enough time to get me into nationals. When 47.94 popped up on the Armorytron, a feeling of happiness came over me that I haven't felt this whole indoor season. I felt like I had been building on something the past few weeks, and it all came to fruition.

I felt great leaving the Armory, except for the transportation parts. We got on the right bus in the wrong direction, saw a woman take shots on the bus, and got harassed by a woman on the plane who confided in us that she was on an acid trip. Anyway, the moral of the story is that I should be going to nationals, and it seems I finally got over whatever mental block was causing me to run poor. I'm sure most people reading this would like to hear more about the acid tripping woman as opposed to me finally running respectable, but the woman was completely trashed on the airplane and the type of language she was spewing to the passengers cannot be displayed on Trackshark. If you want those details, PM me or something. I

Now, we play the waiting game to see if Me, Ahmad in the triple, Lawrence in the hurdles, Jon in the long, and Allison in the 5000 all get in. Thanks for reading, and I'll keep you guys informed.

Hmmm...

Lately, I have not been running rather well and I'm not sure exactly what the "problem" is. This past week, we ran at the North Carolina Chik-Fil-A Invite at, you guessed right, North Carolina. I ran 49.30 in the 400 for 2nd, ran 22.35 in the 200 for 4th, which are times that I feel like I should be exceeding at this particular juncture of the season. After I saw the 200 time flash across the board, I admit I almost felt like crying. I'm not the type of person to make a public spectacle about a disappointing performance, so I refrained from throwing something or cussing. Instead, I went outside, cooled down, and just kinda laid on the pole vault pit and looked at the sky.

Fast forward to today, two days later, and I have a new outlook on the situation. Because I've run bad a few times doesn't mean I'm a bad runner, or that I've "lost it". It just means that I ran bad a few times. It can't be the training, because this same training over the past 4 years has helped me accomplish a lot of great things on the track. Perhaps I'm thinking too much about something that at this point in my college career, should be routine. The races are still 400 and 200 meters, and they will be far after my career is over with. I need to not let a bad race consume my life, and just be thankful for the fact that I have 2 more shots to improve my standing on the national list and see if I can make the most of these opportunities. This week, we're gonna try to scale it back a little bit and see if I can enter these meets with fresh legs, which I think will help.

Even though North Carolina was our last indoor meet as a team, Coach Mead is giving me chances to run the remaining two weekends as I am on the perfomance list, but not near where I need to be to have a shot to make it in. He explained to me that "I was a senior and all that good stuff" so I deserve it.  Sometimes, I'll admit, I have not seen eye to eye with some stuff that Coach Mead has done in the past, but I'm extremely greatful that he is giving me some more chances to qualify for nationals and I definitely cannot question the commitment he has to seeing his athletes succeed and I thank him for that.

Moving past all that emotional garbage, we had two girls qualify for nationals. Allison Kreutzer qualifed in the 5000, but right now the time she ran escapes me. I do know that her time is faster than the time that got her in last year, which means she improved, which is always a good thing. Jon Taylor also qualified in the long jump with an 18 ' 8, which has her in a good position to make it to her first national meet. Allison has always done great things as she is a 2 time XC All-American as well as a 2 time track All-American, but it's great to see Jon have a breakthrough. (No, I'm not saying Jon sucked and she got lucky, I'm not saying that at all. I'm actually saying she has the most natural athletic ability on the team and we're all happy that after working so hard, she's hit that major breakthrough). Congratulations ladies!

Well, that's it for this sort of different than normal journal entry. Let's see if I have some good stuff to write about regarding the Virginia Tech meet this weekend. 

I qualified for nationals but....

There still remains a great deal of work to be done. At the Indiana Relays, I ran 48.77 in the 400 and 21.89 in the 200, which both are provisional standards for the NCAA Division II Championships. While these marks are under the provisional standards, they are under by the smallest of margins, but that's okay. I feel like these races can be used as stepping stones to improve in the next 2 (hopefully 3) meets.

On Monday of last week, I purchased a Samsung digital camera for about $120 from Radio Shack, which turns out to be the only noteworthy thing I did last week. I only have one class, and no, I did not go to it. Not that I skipped it, but it was cancelled for some reason or another. So other than buying this camera, I spent a good majority of last week tracking down and reading Beowulf books that are more dry than the busted chicken they serve at the athletic banquet every year, and I'm sure those of you that actually take the time to read my journal every week do not want to hear about the significance of Beowulf giving money and riches to his fellow warriors, so I won't bore you with that.

Anyway, the camera was a great investment. I have spent a little while looking at my races of this past week and seeing what I can improve on them, and the good news is that they are all mistakes that can be corrected. In the 400, I let up for some odd reason between 250-325 meters. During the race, I couldn't tell, but it was painfully obvious on camera. In the 200, my blockwork can be tweaked a little bit to get more of a push off of the blocks. Also, my mom likes to see pictures, and she complained that in the 25 years I've been in college (okay, maybe 5), that I have brought home only one photo album in the nearly 50 meets I have ran in. In other words, she was not very happy. I love my mother, and I wish to make her happy, so I bought the camera.

Other than me qualifying, we bought home other stuff. Ahmad Rolle had the performance of the weekend, jumping 48'8 in the triple jump which should have him sitting quite nicely for a trip to Minnesota. We ran 3:24 in the relay, which is not that good, but damn good if you saw our race. We had a horrible handoff due to some minor contact between Lawrence and I's exchange, and our 3rd leg left the team for personal reasons so we ran with our 60 meter guy on anchor, who has never attempted an indoor quarter and who is nursing a hamstring injury so he sort of didn't push it as hard as he could have.  Our splits were 49.7, 52 something, 48.06, and 53 something. If we don't get bumped at the exchange zone, and everyone is healthy, and the planets are aligned in the proper manner (I'm kidding), then I  seriously think we can run the provisional time in the relay.

I also came away from Indiana with a massive cold/flu/whatever you want to call it. I hit the auto standard for cold chills in one hour and then feeling like I was on fire in the next. I've been on Tylenol cold and flu and all that jazz for the past few days, which has given me the sluggish, nonchalant feeling that has me wearing the same sweatsuit for the past three days at work. Now, I'm going to go hydrate myself before practice, which will be fun as I spend the rest time between reps spewing up all sorts of colorful garbage and praying for a swift, painless ending (Nah, I'm exaggerating).

The south doesn't see snow very often, and they go insane when they do.

After the first meet of the season, the coaches decided that we need to go back to some conditioning type stuff as some people were not in the level of conditioning that they wanted to see. Last monday, I did a 3 mile fartlek run in about 21 minutes or so on the treadmill (we were supposed to have the day off but I felt the need to run the 8 hour van ride off) and I hit the weights pretty hard. On tuesday, we did stadium steps. We start at the track starting line, run the curve, do 5 reps, go straight into the other curve, run 5 reps. We did 2 sets of those. On Wednesday, we did 8 200s with 2 min rest. My times were 28, 27, 27, 26, 27, 26 26 27. On Thursday, we did blocks and some 100s and Friday we did hills and weights. I also lifted legs on Wednesday and Friday and upper body on Tuesday and Thursday.

On Saturday, our team had to get up at 7 a.m. to work the Freedom Run road race that our coach organizes on campus. When I started up my car that morning, the display told me that it was 29 degrees. Nevertheless, the race had pretty good numbers and a fair share of people who ran in shorts or very little clothing who probably have some sort of sickness (pneumonia?) at this current time. I worked the clock at this finish line because my seniority allowed me to get a job where I could sit in the gym for a while and emerge for about 15 minutes to work, and I still managed to lose feelings in my thumb from having to push that button to record the times of everyone who finished. The thought crossed my mind that while I was getting up to stand outside in the freezing cold, there were others who had another 4 hours of sleep to get. Better yet, there were others who were waking up to begin a day of competing in the sport all of us on here love oh so much. Needless to say, I was not in a very good mood.

As I was leaving the road race, it began to snow. This made me angry because, number 1, people in the South go absolutely crazy when it snows. The driving becomes 10x worse, all the canned foods, bread, and water disappear from the shelves, gas prices go up, and the crime rate skyrockets (not really, but I typed that to exaggerate to get the full effect of the shenanigans that take place). Anyway, on to number 2, I realized it would be too cold and the roads would freeze over, meaning that my weekend was rendered null and void. I went home and realized I had no sort of breakfast food, which meant that I had to go to Kroger. I got to Kroger, and looked inside to find that there was not one shopping cart or basket. The polite lady at the door who looked nearly frozen told me that I could wait around for about 10 minutes before I could get anything to put my groceries in. I decided to enter the store and just carry a few breakfast items to the register but I saw that the lines were so far back that they extended to the ends of aisles, an in some cases all the way back to the meat section. Needless to say I left the store and went to Wal-Mart, which surprisingly was normal. I got back to my apartment around noon and did not leave it until Monday.

To start off this week, we did 5x300s in 40 the blazing temperature of 33 degrees.  We only got 4 minutes rest between reps. I ran 41.0 (Don't know how), 38.8, 40.1, 39.7, and 40.4. The air was dry as hell and cold and after practice the track looked like a deserted backfield littered with people who were moaning and wondering aloud why they ever decided to run track in the first place.

In looking forward to the remainder of the week, we are supposed to see the temperatures warm up a bit towards thursday and friday, which hopefully means we can get some quality training in. Other than that, I'll be getting some reading and research done for my Beowulf thesis which I probably should be getting serious about sometime soon, and getting ready for my next meet, which is the Indiana Relays on Feb. 2nd. Speaking of that weekend, the Patriots are going to bust the Giants up, so I look forward to seeing that.

Humble beginnings

I know it's been a while since I've updated my journal, but I was pretty busy over the break with training and visiting friends and family and just never got around to doing it. I had some quality workouts, some poor workouts dues to the cold front the swept through GA, I got thrown on the ground by some campus police officers during a hill workout during what they called " mistaken identity" and "necessary procedure", and I went to Philly and watched an Eagles game.

So, we had a two meets this past weekend. After spending a wonderful 6 hours in a van on Thursday and 2 on friday to make for a total of 8 hours of cramped activities, we did a low key meet on Friday, at Division III Rose-Hulman where the Division III nationals previously have been held (Very nice facilities I might add). There were only four teams there, so the meet basically functioned as a knock the rust off type deal. Originally, my goal was for me to run qualifying times in my events. I didn't think this was an unrealistic goal as I opened up last season with a qualifying time in the 400. On Monday, though, I tweaked my ham a little bit during a 500, 400, 300, 200, 100 workout. It was kinda odd that I felt a twinge running an 11.8 100 when I was slowing down at the end, but whatever. Anyway.... with the tweak, there was a change of plan. We now just wanted to make it through the weekend with my hamstring relatively intact. On Friday, I didn't get out very hard in the 400 because I was paranoid out of my mind about suffering a third right hamstring injury and heeded Clive's advice about just making sure I make it through the race. By the time I figured out I wasn't going to pull up in this particular race, the race was over and I finished first in 49.66. Everything we had a male entry in, we won. Ahmad won the long jump, Tim the 55, and Lawrence the hurdles. It was also cool that our female sprinter Jon Taylor ran the 55 with the men as there was an open lane and only one female entry. She was about .07 off of qualifying and I think 4 inches off in the long jump, so we're looking for big things out of her this year.

On Saturday, we were at the Indiana Open at, of course, the University of Indiana. My hamstring felt a little bit better, but I was still hesitant about it. In the 200, I drew the wonderful lane 2 where no bank is present. Lane 6 false started, and Lane 3 ran about 24 seconds which made me wish I was able to get one of those lanes even more. I finished with the wonderfully mediocre time of 22.36 for 3rd place in my heat, 4th place overall. After the 200, I felt kinda down, but I reached to the back of my leg and realized that my hamstring was still there, so I was okay.

Within an hour of the 200 was the 4x4, so I basically just stayed around the warmup area after my race and Flex-Alled myself to death. Once again, we drew lane 2, bringing our total of races in lane 2 to 75%. Ahmad popped off the relay with a 49.8, our freshman Chris ran 50.8, Lawrence went 53.3, and I anchored with 47.3, which is great in January considering my fastest indoor split ever is 47.1 and that was in Late February last year. We ran 3:21 something to finish 4th overall. After the relay, I felt pretty good, until I walked about 3 steps off of the track and caught a mean cramp.

During the 8 hour van ride on the way home directly after the track meet, I did a lot of thinking about the weekend. From a time standpoint, I didn't run all that well. However, I made it through the meet. I thought I had my start down pretty well, but I need to do some fine-tuning on that. My speed is good for this time of year and my recovery is good as well. Taking all this into consideration, I feel like I gained a good deal this weekend and set up some solid building blocks for the remainder of the season. As a team, I feel like there is the potential for a lot of good to happen and feel that there could be several National qualifiers. I feel like our relay team can qualify, but we're going to need another 50 point or so to do it. I also feel like there were some people who returned from the holiday break a bit out of shape and it showed during Monday's practice as well as in this weekend's meets.

Nevertheless, it was only the first meet of the season and there remains a lot of work to be done by everyone. The indoor season stretches until mid-March and anything can happen during the mean time. As I look back on this journal, I feel like I rambled on too much about some stuff and I probably left out even more stuff. I apologize, but the tightness of my hamstrings and the little bit of fatigue I'm suffering from due to the 8 hour van ride yesterday are responsible for what may be viewed as a lackluster journal effort. I'll try to do better next time.

Hmmmmm....

I meant to update this journal yesterday, but I was still sick and delirious from the taste of stomach acid after my workout, which was brought about by my oversleeping and not being able to eat ANYTHING before practice. Yesterday, we did a 500, 400, 300 with about 12 minutes rest between each. I did the 500 in 63.2 (49.1) through the quarter, the 400 in 52.2, and the 300 in 37.5. After that, the whole world collapsed upon me and I saw death (just kidding).  I was pleased with the workout because it shows that all the short rest, high rep workouts that we have been doing have made my recovery time great, which will help with my ability to run  quality rounds and multiple races.

Last week, our track workouts consisted of 4x150 on Monday, 8 200s on Wednesday, and 60, 60, 70, 90 on Friday. I ran the 150s in 16.7, 16.6, 17.0, and 16.5. The 200s were the same as they have always been, just a second faster, so I won't really waste too much space talking about that. On Friday, I ran 6.6, 6.7, 7.8(false start, haha) and 9.8 on the 90. Afterwards, we played around with a few 4x4 handoffs.

Besides my senior thesis, which took up a boatlad of time as usual, I spent a great deal of time helping to correct our indoor schedule. We were supposed to be opening up on January 5th at Tennessee State, just to shake the cobwebs off and ready ourselves for the rest of the season. However ,we have some people who claimed they made irreversible travel reservations months in advance and would not be able to make the meet. My thoughts on the situation at first were littered with profanity, which makes the fact that I didn't write this journal yesterday a good thing. Now, my thoughts are still pretty intense, but I feel I can type them without getting myself banned from Trackshark or being emailed about a team meeting where I will be tarred, feathered, and verbally berated by various members of the team. I feel that running track for a university, and having your education and most other basic needs paid for is a privilege and not a right. If the coach wants you to come back two days early in condition to compete respectably, you should have no problem coming back and doing something that the man who is helping to put you through school asks you to do. On top of that, I don't feel that something like this is negotiable, you should just have to come back. If you're mad, be mad, no one is really going to care. I look to the basketball team as an example. These guys will probably get to go home for about 2 days before embarking on Christmas tournaments and opening up their conference schedule. Basically, some individuals on our team should quit being so damn selfish and and do what's best for the team. I'm not really concerned about whether or not any of my teammates read this and feel offended or singled out about my "rant" because everything I just wrote is true, or "real talk" as the young kids say these days. All that can happen is that people can formulate more false opinions of my character to add to the list that has already been started this semester, which include "snitch" and "hater".

As far as recreational activity is concerned, last week was pretty dull. Tim and I attempted to take advantage of the Cici's pizza buffet in Riverdale, but when we got there we saw several angry people in the parking lot and in line. A family approached us, and the mother said that roaches were crawling out of the salad and the pizza and the people in line were all receiving their refunds. At that point in time, I didn't even want to eat anymore, so we went and watched our men's basketball team beat down Carver. On Thursday and Friday, we sat around and watched television and played Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 on the Xbox. On Saturday, Ahmad, Tim, Shaun and I drove to good ol' Carrollton to watch Clayton State beat West Georgia 75-64. While down there, my pops baked some chicken wings, made some peas, onion rings, and french fries. We pretty much demolished all of the food and raided the cabinets to go back to school.

Well, that was pretty much it. This week, I'm tackling finals and my thesis, so I will pretty much be holed up in the room studying and typing until the wrist I broke cramps up and dies.

After Thanksgiving....

This is actually the third time I've typed this journal because my computer is rebelling against me. Anyway, I came off of Thanksgiving not lazy or a few pounds overweight like some people get due to the festivities of the holidays, but with a nasty stomach virus that made me feel and sound like a dryer with 100 dollars worth of change in it that was turned on to permanent press. Imagine that.

With the stomach virus, I lacked the vitamins, minerals, nutrients, energy, or whatever other stuff is natural to train at an intense level. On Monday, we had to do 4 400s in 55-57 with 5 minutes rest. I gutted out 57, 56, 56, 55, but also gutted out myself in the form of the vomiting that took place immediately after the cooldown and while I was starting my car. After the second one, I knew the sickness was going to come when my stomach was turning and I could barely stand. On Wednesday, we did 8x200s with 2 mins rest from 27-29.  I went 29, 28, 28, and it dawned on me that I was very flat so I picked up the last 5 and went 27x4 and then 25 to end it. On Friday, I got in the blocks for the first time since the shenanigans known as "Eric limps into nationals again and misses the finals by the smallest of margins" '07. It all felt foreign to me, but I managed to get 4 quality starts in and called it a day. Tuesday and Thursday was nothing to write home about, as usual, as it was mileage and weights.

From a school standpoint, I don' t have as much work as I thought I would in the week before finals. I knocked out my second draft of my senior thesis which I hope they accept this time. I have to edit one more paper and type another, and then study for my finals which my teachers have already given us to prepare for. I also have a history exam, but I'm not a history major and the outcome of this final exam means nothing in terms of whether or not I graduate, so my effort in the class as of late can be classified as "N" for non-existent.

Instead of being on edge about my final exams, I'm on edge about our indoor season, which did not begin in December for the first time in two years. While December is not where indoor season is made or broken, there were several impressive marks laid down this past weekend that has our team itching to get out there. We're still ironing out the details of our schedule, and after having a meeting with our coach, consulting with some of the people I know in the collegiate track world (which I must thank the great world of Trackshark for because the people I've met through my blogging have helped me in many ways), and doing some research on the internet, we are about 95% sure about our indoor schedule. It looks like the men's team is going to open up January 5th at the Ed Temple Classic at Tennessee State. On January 11th, we are going to compete at the Rose-Hulman Open at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana, and turn around and run the following day at the Indiana Open on January 12. Then, we take a select men's squad to my favorite meet, the Indiana Relays, on February 1st and 2nd. Then, it's the UNC Invitational on February 16th. We're still looking for a meet on January 26th, so if any of you out there in Trackshark land know of a quality meet that will go down the weekend of January 26th, please inform me of such a thing.

This past weekend, from a personal standpoint, started off great and had the most sucktacular ending of all time. The shenanigans that Me, Tim, and Ahmad got into left me amazed for about a day or so. All I will say is, I got pulled over, and I was the victim of the most thinly veiled form of racial profiling that ever existed, as the first thing I was asked because I have a somewhat nice car was "Who's car is this?" The sad thing is, it's not the first time that it has happened to me, and it probably won't be the last, which is a sad reminder of some of the negative things that go on in the world. I would elaborate further on my weekend, but I know that a lot more people than I would care to let know the extent of what happened read my journal, so if I have not told you already, I may not plan on telling you. (No offense Trackshark world, I love ya'll  to death:) )

Well, I'm off to close down the weightroom and head home for the evening. I guess I'll catch ya'll next week.

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving break could not have come at a better time. Last week, I was pretty much to the point of having some sort of emotional breakdown, which I"m sure would have resulted in the destruction of some valuable property belong to either myself or someone else. Luckily, I made it to Wednesday without snapping.

The main cause of all my problems is my senior thesis proposal. It seems like everytime I feel like I accomplished something, I turn around and the rules have changed somehow. I handed in a rough draft of the proposal last week, and among other minor things that I was aware of, the errors that they told me I made was having outdated sources and that it was too long. Personally, I don't feel sources can be outdated, because the Bible is the oldest book and it's still very relevant to the world to say the last. On the length part, I feel like what they're asking for (2 essays and an annotated bibliography of 10 sources) simply can't be done in 5 pages or less. Add to the fact that it is impossible to get anything from our sorry library and that I have to travel to other campuses to get sources that are at the least remotely related to my topic.

As far as track life is concerned, we've been doing a lot more speed endurance stuff lately. It's all been stuff like 3x600 with 5 mins rest, 3x400 with 3 minutes rest, 8 200s with only a jog between, 6x150s with walkback recovery, 500, 400, 300 with only about 6 minutes rest. One day a week, we mix in some speed work, which usually ends up being 60s, 80s, or 100s, somewhere between 4 and 6 of them. With this stuff, we mix in the usually core work and weight lifting. I was reading through my old journals and looking at some of my old papers this past sunday, and was comparing the things I was doing during this time last year, and I'm much improved over last year. It doesn't take me as long to recover between reps, and I often feel like I have an extra gear that I can shift into (not going to try that just yet and blow my hamstring out). Bottom line is, that these things are positive.

Outside of school and track, my personal life has been nonexistant as usual. This senior thesis is taking up most of my time. As I said before, completing this proposal is the difference between me taking 4 classes next semester and graduating in the summer, or taking one official class, working on my senior thesis, and graduating in May. While all this is going on, I occasionally find the time to sneak in a little sleeping and leisure time, but not very much.

For the rest of Thanksgiving break, I'm just gonna be training hard, eating good, and being engulfed in critical analysis concerning Beowulf. It's not very fun, but it's something that has to be done. The sooner I get this proposal in, the sooner I can get my regular life back and turn my attention to accomplishing a few other very important things.

Do they want me to graduate?

Yeah, I'm behind once again on updating my journal, and I would like to take the opportunity to blame it squarely on my advisor. I went to my advisor on Monday and received a bit of good news, and a trashcan full of bad. The good news is, that instead of the nine hours I thought I have, I have just 3 hours left and my senior thesis. The bad news, is that my advisor mentioned nothing of the deadline of the senior thesis proposal, which was due LAST WEEK. So now, I spend about 4 hours a day digging through articles about Beowulf, not for the actual paper, but for the proposal. There is a chance the proposal could be denied, which would mean that I would have to take a full load next semester to run track and then do my thesis in the summer, delaying my graduation. My advice to those who have to do a senior thesis, please make the effort to find out as much about it as you can way before you undertake the journey, you'll do all the much better for it.

I've been so wrapped up in that senior thesis nonsense that I forgot I ran track and missed the entire last week of practice. Nah, I'm kidding, but I being mentally drained was not good for practice. On Monday, we had 3 400s in 59, but only with 3 mins rest. We went 58, 57, 55, and then had to get scraped off ofthe track. On Wednesday, we had a 4x4 time trial. It was the old relay team minus one of us versus all the new kids. Lawrence split 51 to lead off, which is a 2 second improvement over his time during the time trial last year. Our second leg split infinity, so I'm not going to go into specifics about that. When Ahmad got the stick, we were 45 meters behind the second team, and he ran 49.5 to run everyone else down. With the race pretty much decided when the baton was handed to me, I cruised a 49.6 for the victory. Deserving of a shoutout is our freshman Chris, who split 50. at lead off for the second team. After the 4x4, we got 20 mins to recover and had to run a 200. I went 22.2 and came in "first". I say "first" cause it's not really a race as no one wants to blow a hamstring in November. I didn't really attack the curve to hard because that very curve has been the site of some moments that led to poor finishes for my season. There is this little red box in the curve and it seems like everytime I get to it I pull up. I think over the weekend I'm gonna break into the track and set it on fire, then maybe I'll be able to finish a season. Today, we did 3x150 with 3 mins rest again. I went 17.03, 17.18, and 16.8. The whole time, that red box was talking to me, haha.

Yeah, it was a pretty uneventful week, and it's going to be a pretty uneventful weekend. I have a stack of books related to Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon myths and traditions that needs to be taken care of. I bet none of you out there have a weekend as promising as mine.

Oh gosh.

Yeah, I was delayed a little bit from my usual monday posting date because I had some tests, a paper, and have just been plain tired. Last week consisted of the usual shtick of mileage, weights, and hills on monday, wednesday. On tuesday, we had 4 400s with 4 min rest, in which I ran 54, 55, 56, and 57. On Friday, we ran 4x1000s, in 3:25, 3:15, 3:15, and 3:05. On Sunday, we came back with 4x200s, in which I ran 22.9, 23.0, 24.0, and 23.5. We only had about 4,5 min rest, and we were just focusing on getting out to the curve and maintaining form down the stretch.

To be honest, I didn't really wanna sit here and type what we did last week during practice. However, I would like to talk about practice habits. Myself and a good majority of the other people on the team all exhibit good habits. For example, we are always on time, we work as hard as we came, we keep the socializing and the other garbage that needs to be kept off the track to a minimum. I'm not saying we come to practice and are completely anti-social, but we tend to lean to the side where we come to practice, do our workout, and go home. We have some other people, however, who come to practice with some of that "other stuff" that needs to be left at home. I'm not naming any names, I'm just saying some more professional needs to be exhibited at practice. We all should just do our workouts to the best of our ability and try to get better both as a team and individually, go home, and then come back and do it again the next day. There's no need to bring all of life's distractions and other crap to practice, it should be a sort of escape from our regular life, even though we can hardly breathe at times.

Yeah, my journal was pretty short this week as I'm pretty pressed for time. This weekend though, Clayton State plays UGA in basketball in Athens and we're going up for that which should be a good time. Well, I guess I'll see you guys next time. 

At that point of the semester

I woke up today and realized it's that time of the semester, and by that time I mean the time where I really wish that school did not exist at all. I have a paper and a test due next week within a day of each other and a whole bunch of reading and researching that needs to be done. At to that the fact that my computer was eliminated in a rather pointless incident by someone other than me that I will not care to discuss and that I am typing on an ancient Compaq laptop and we have the makings for some sort of academic disaster here in the next few days.

Anyway, when we went to practice last monday no one could really lift their knees 2 inches up due to the 100s last Saturday. Because of that, we had a shakeout run of about 2 miles and just weights. Then, I went to class and watched some boring movie about Joseph Stalin. It wasn't that the content was not interesting, it's just that my attention span is poor and was elminated in the first 20 seconds when I saw that the movie was to be displayed in black and white. Tuesday, my first class was cancelled so I got to sleep in a little bit, which is always a plus. After class, we went to the track and did 4 300s with about 6 mins rest. They were supposed to be in 38-39, but the stupidity in me made me go 37.2 for the first one, which led to 38.1, 39.1, and 40.0 on the remaining three. Wednesday, same as monday, we had a recovery run and some weights. Thursday, I will say, was horrible. We were supposed to do 4 800s in 2:30 with 5 mins rest. On the first one, Ahmad got out like he was trying to go 2:15 for all of them. My dumbass let my competitive nature takeover as opposed to hitting the times to get something out of the workout. The first one ended up being 2:20 and the second ended up being 2:34. The third one we gutted out a 2:25 before running INFINITY (2:39) on the last one. On that last 800, my back locked up and my ankle started burning (?) and I have never wanted to quit anything more in my entire life. Friday, same as monday and wednesday, about 2.5 miles and weights. On Saturday, we were supposed to do 4x150 with 5 mins rest between 18-19, but I felt good so I went 17.4, 17.7, 17.7, and 17.7 again. I was just trying to get out hard through the curve and try to keep good form heading down the straightaway. What was really stupid is that only Ahmad, Sharod, and myself were the only people at practice. Seeing as no one really listens to me, but more people pay attention to my journal, I'll go ahead and say right now that you need to get your priorities in line and bring your ass to practice. But it's okay though, you're gonna get ran into to the ground this week, so I hope whatever caused you to miss practice is worth what's going to happen to you.

Outside of track, once again, I lived a pretty lackluster existence this week. We finally added wireless internet to our apartment, so now everyone pretty much lives in the living room in front of the three tv's we have there. I also re-upped the Xbox live membership, so we have that going along with our various franchise in NBA 2K7 and Madden 08. We've developed the greatest academic system in life in our apartment. If it's your turn to play the game, you play it while the other people sit around on their laptops and do homework. Then, we rotate as our video gaming schedules dictate. I'm sure it sounds pretty effing pathetic that we all just sit around in the living room like a bunch of technology junkies, but the lowest GPA in the house at midterms is a 2.8. The system works, and we're gonna stick to it.

I also manufactured 11 gallons of "Hunch Punch" for a party on campus. I don't think I'm very proud of the fact that I contributed to the shenanigans that took place as a result of concoction. I am proud of the fact that I sat behind the table with DJ Nate and, along with him, being one of two completely sober  people in the party and just observed people not being able to go out and drink responsibly. Yeah, I drink EXTREMELY rarely nowadays and am very far from the legend that I was when I was 19 years old. I gotta take full advantage of the time I have left to compete and be in school. Since I was 19, things like long alcoholic nights, lack of sleep, and greasy junk food  have been replaced with more and more weekends at home playing video games, making strong attempts to get adequate rest, and no longer eating pork or beef (Which is pretty damn hard by the way because McDonald's double cheeseburgers are inexpensive and good).  

Alright, that's it for this week. I'm about to head to practice, although it's been raining a little bit today. I hope the sky opens up and there is massive flooding. Not because I don't want to go to practice, but because Georgia is in the middle of a bad drought and they say we only have like 85 days of water use left before they restrict home usage. I love drinking Smartwater and Gatorade, but I'll be damned if I have to start bathing in them.

A pretty poor week

All I can really say about last week is that I'm pretty glad it's over and done with. Last week was midterm week. I only had two midterms last week as one was the week before and the other class is a continuous group project where only the final grade matters. The midterms I did have though were of both extremes. I made a 100 on the Romantic Literature class midterm, and the Shakespeare midterm I did not even finish, neither did 85% of the rest of the class. Unless the grade is curved, which it should be, I don't expect anything over a 65 on it. Other than that, I was bogged down with reading and writing for my nonprofit's organization class. This week promises to be similar to the last, with the exception of midterms. I'm not thrilled.

As far as practice for last week, it was pretty roller coaster. Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday were mostly mileage and weights, so I'm not gonna sit here and bore you about that because it is what it sounds like. We kicked off last week with 10 200s under 32 seconds with 3 mins rest in between. If one member didn't make the time, an extra one was added for the entire group. On top of that, we did it on the perimeter of the soccer field during practice which gave the feel of us sprinting around a sh*tty indoor track. The first group of Lawrence, Nate, Chris, and myself hit all the times. For myself, I ran 28, 29, 28, 28, 29, 28, 30, 30, 27, 26, which is not bad at all, buty my legs felt pretty effing horrible afterwards and I hopped in the whirlpool. After that, I went to class smelling like grass and a whirlpool and stared blankly at the professor while being annoyed by someone that sits beside me.

Wednesday was 4 600s with 3 mins rest. Clive really didn't give us a time to run, but when we ran the first 2 he wasn't too thrilled with consecutive 1:50s. The second two I ran 1:46 and 1:43, and Chris was up there with 1:46 and 1:46. With my ankle jacked up the way it is, it's hard for me to do the long workouts because it starts to get progressively sore as the workout goes on. So, to sum up this workout, it was good, it was beneficial, but I'll be damned if it didn't suck.

Saturday practice (yeah, I know, we actually have that nonsense) was a good workout, but bad in the sense that it was 6x100 at 85% with a walkback rest, which is the first day that we have remotely sprinted. I brought the spikes out from the depths of the region known as under my bed just to see how my ankle felt in them. The first 100 was untimed, but the second was 11.06 and the 3rd was 10.80. After the first three, I put back on my flats and ran 11.2, 11.3, and 11.3 again. It was good to see that I had a decent amount of speed, and that my hamstring didn't fold up and die after the workout. I was sore as hell later that day and am right now, but it'll go away.

After practice Saturday, I went home to Carrollton, which is only an hour away from my school. I hardly ever go home, which is pretty effing poor considering I only live an hour away. I got there, had some good ole home cooking (baked tilapia and rice) and chilled out with my parents and my cousin. After that, I went to watch West Georgia play West Alabama, which was actually a good game that came down to a last second field goal to give West Georgia the win. I took my "godkids" with me, two seven year old twins, because they don't really get to go anywhere other than outside in the neighborhood to play, and that they complained about how I seem to "leave and not come back for a long time sometimes". After the game, I saw someone who may have been the person I was the closest with my senior year in high school, so I hung out with her for a while. It had been so long since I had really had a conversation with her that it really dawned on me during that I suck at going home sometimes and keeping in touch with certain people. I guess I'm going to try and improve on that.

Well, that's about it for this journal. I apologize for not having anything interesting like a party where there were 21 girls for every guy or a high speed car chase. It's most likely because I was broke and still recovering from the psychological effects that the Shakespeare midterm had on me. I shall return next week, and as always, I hope something interesting happens that I can share with you all.