05.29.08

Youth vs. Age

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:30 pm by Joan

On a dark and stormy night …. (actually, it wasn’t stormy anymore or all that dark - I just wanted to start my post with that sentence) … John Hinton and Asher Hertzberg faced off in a battle of ages. The Old Man versus The Young Buck. 800m. Two laps around the oval. Asher’s PR is 2:06; John’s is 1:47 … but at age 46, he’s hoping to break 2:00. Four men toe the line in the final heat of the Godiva all-comers track meet (and it certainly was ALL comers …. as 25 multi-shaped Godivans ran 3 and 4 abreast around the track in the first heat, hoping to break the 3:30 mark). In the 4-man “fast” heat, one dude was wearing stone-washed blue jeans and black penny loafers … slap, slap, slap on Coach Craddock’s track. Asher was shirtless, accentuating his not-yet-a-man bird chest. Hinton was, as ever, impeccably attired in his slick black sweats, peeled down to a final singlet. if John had chosen to run shirtless, the title of this this bout could have been: The Incredible Hulk vs. Birdman.

Crack when the gun (no smoke, so I tried to time my stopwatch to a mili-second BEFORE the sound). John takes the reluctant lead, Asher rides his right shoulder, 28-29 at the 200 … John is relaxed, Asher is wide-eyed … around the 300 turn Asher no longer looks like a boy but a 6′1″ tall predator, ready to attack, casting a shadow over 5′9″ John. Hinton senses the heat, and applies some of his own. He surges into the bell lap. 59-60 at the 400, with no slowing into the turn. The normally staid Godivans are now cheering. You can feel the whirlpool of energy spinning counter-clockwise around the track as Young and Old are locked in battle. At 500m, the boy returns; weakened by his burst of animal pride, powerless to respond as the Master begins to pull away. There is no whoop whoop whoop-assing going on here. Just another day at the office for Mr. Hinton. At the exact moment when Asher slowed, John pressed. At the exact moment when Asher looked up to gauge what it would take to get back in the race, John surged - knowing a surge would break his opponent’s spirit. At the exact moment when Asher made one final, youthful push to close the gap … off the final turn, driving his weary wings arms, the Old Man marshaled his ancient strength (with a grimace only his coach could detect) to finish the job he set out to do. 1:59

Asher flew across in 2:04. PR !!

And, of course, they cooled down together, opponents no more, but father and son. As they jogged away, chatting, side by side, I had to blink back the tears … and I thought, “Time plays tricks on dark and stormy nights.”
John and Asher were the same age in this magical setting; for 2 minutes around that sacred oval, the boy was a man and the man was a boy.

vs

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05.27.08

Sacral Stress Fracture

Posted in The Blog of Jabaut at 8:58 pm by Jason

I cannot yet write about the pain-filled feelings I have concerning the latest findings of my aforementioned “mysterious back pain.”  But I can write the facts.  I have a stress fracture.  The radiology report from my MRI taken last Thursday, May 22 reads as follows: “Stress fracture of the right sacral ala with extensive adjacent osseous edema.”  I am taking a forced break from training and racing to allow the stress fracture to heal.    I cannot pinpoint the exact date and time that the stress fracture occurred, nor can I offer more than conjecture concerning how it happened. 

The timing of this event in my life is very unfortunate.  I look forward to being healthy again in the coming months.  Until then…

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Falling behind

Posted in Jeuland's Musings at 7:29 pm by Marc

It’s been that kind of spring. Two good races but mostly falling behind in workouts and in races. Today with Brent was another one of those days; I fear I was not much help to him in his marathon preparation this time… And yet I have not doubted my motivation to continue doing what I can in this sport, and I continue to look ahead to the fall.

In any case, I am off on another bout of travels starting Friday. My itinerary this time is insane. I go to Washington for meetings Friday and then a weekend with friends there. Then it’s off to Singapore with Shuwen to visit the inlaws. June 18 I fly to Cairo, with its searing summer heat. The following week I am off to Sweden to present a paper, and then back to Cairo for a little while, before concluding with a stop to work with my colleagues in Addis Ababa. I will finally return sometime around July 18-20.

I wonder how my running will hold up along the way. Maybe it will be good to step back a bit and prepare to run the fall, refreshed and just happy to be in Carrboro. See you all then, and bet of luck with your summer runs!

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05.24.08

Should I pop it?

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:15 pm by Brent

Marc and I enjoyed a 23 mile long run this morning at Umstead. It had been a long time since we had run out there, so the light rain and new environs were refreshing. What wasn’t refreshing was this blister. So my question is, should I pop it? (WARNING-This picture is not for the faint of heart!)

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05.22.08

Marathon or bust- Brent’s training update.

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:02 pm by Brent

So I am in the midst of training for a marathon in seven weeks. After Penn Relays, I took a few days off and started what will be a rather short build-up for Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, MN on June 21st. There will be long runs of 16, 18, 20, 23, and 22 before this race, as well as many tempo runs at or under marathon pace (which I hope is around 5:20/mile). This is an interesting experiment and so far it is going pretty well. I have put in two weeks at just under 90 miles (last week this was in 6 days, as travel and some knee tightness had me take a day off), but the most encouraging thing is that my long runs have been easier, faster and are quicker to recover from than ever before. I think this has a lot to do with the additive property of consistent training. Before tapering my mileage at the end of track, I had 13-14 weeks averaging over 80 miles a week and since returning to regular competition a year and a half ago, I have had only a total of about 4-5 weeks without running and those have almost all been planned breaks of recovery. The result of this is consistent improvement. Also, I am learning to be patient with results and not put too much importance on any particular weeks mileage or any one workout. 

Speaking of workouts, I had a good one last night, thanks to the great pacing efforts of Marc, Victor and John. I was never alone on any of my 10×1000s at ”Marc’s loop” and the pace was conistently between 3:00-3:03 per interval.  Joan’s classic 90sec-80-70-60-3:00(set break)-60-70-80-90 recovery intervals were enough to keep me from overdoing it as well.

 I have 4 weeks and two days before Grandma’s and a little more hay to put in the barn. Will it be enough? We shall see.

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05.20.08

favorite CAC quotes

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:56 am by Joan

Hey ya’ll,

I just put up a CAC records page in the right-hand column and now I’d like to add a favorite running quotes section.

So far, I have the following:

Kim Certain’s favorite:
“Don’t fear moving slowly forward … fear standing still.” - Kathleen Harris

John Hinton’s favorite:
“World records are only borrowed.”

- Sebastian Coe
(this was accompanied by John’s running goals … “to borrow world records”)

Joan Nesbit Mabe’s favorite:

“My hope is for the heart to strive forever.” - Joan Benoit Samuelson

Please add yours to the list!

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05.16.08

winners and losers

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:03 pm by Joan

One nice thing about being “elite athletes with full time jobs” (our identity, Marc?) is that no one will feel pressured to cheat. Your future livelihood does not depend on how fast you run. Although it’s natural to wonder just how good you could be with EPO blood or HGH muscles, thank goodness everyone in CAC has a bright, successful, CLEAN future awaiting them after sport. All those maggots that are going to be revealed when they finally turn over the Balco and Trevor Graham rocks will forever be losers. Their resumes will be stamped “cheater” forever and even if they do manage to find jobs or careers, they will never be fully trusted. In the same way we clean athletes wonder, “How fast could I have been if I’d tried drugs?” do you think dirty athletes wonder how good their lives  could have been if they hadn’t?

For those going to prison (or worse, dying of cancer or heart failure in 10 years), performance-enhancing drugs are no laughing matter … but this movie looks hilarious:

http://www.biggerstrongerfastermovie.com/

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05.14.08

5k

Posted in Uncategorized at 11:01 pm by Victor

I want to thank everyone who came out to the track on Friday night to watch the 5K at UNC! It was a great feeling to have so many people cheering me on…it was amazing. I came into the race with a goal of running sub 15min for 5K and fell short. I was on track through 3k and then started to lock up and fall apart. I ended up running 15:27. I was happy to run the CAC standard but was disappointed that I didn’t reach my goal. I didn’t leave the track with my head down though. I felt so amazing through 3k…running 8:58 and then 9:37 for 2 miles. I want to be there again next time but be prepared to hammer at that point and keep the same pace. I feel like I’m learning so much from racing on the track. I tend to just space out sometimes due to the nature of going around in circles for so long. Everyone has always told me that I run so much faster in cross-country and on the road. I do get intimidated by the track because I haven’t performed up to my potential. I felt the same way after running 31:40 for the 10K last year at Duke.

I learned something on Friday night though…running on the track is more mental than it is physical. You need to be fierce, hungry, and a little crazy to just stay focused for so many laps. I’m getting little more fierce, hungry, and I’m crazy about getting on the track and training for my sub 15 min performance. During workouts…when you hit that 12th 400 during your repeats…the workout has only started! Having that mind set will only translate to my races. I’m so lucky to have a wonderful coach and great teammates…it’s time to get this done! GO CAC

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05.12.08

innocence vs. experience

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:44 am by Joan

Marc wrote earlier about not understanding the marathon …. well, here’s a curiosity for you: Andrew Wheating, University of Oregon middle distance man. He just ran a blistering 3:38 1500m, blowing the field away at the Oregon Twilight meet, as if he’d been racing at this level for years. My 10-year theory is completely shot when I look at Wheating’s running trajectory. He didn’t even run track in high school. Cross-country, skiing, basketball, but no track. He’s 6′5″ tall (another Jim Ryun, maybe, but in high school Ryun ran 10 mile morning runs in addition to his after school training sessions) and fresh off the turnip truck when it comes to experience on the track. I always thought it was experience that mattered most, but maybe innocence is a necessary part of the equation for racing success. Marc went into Boston rather wide-eyed and open to “come what may” (the mono helped lower his expectations AND reduce the pressure) and Wheating is taking each race as it comes … with no preconceived notions - for success OR failure … just plain excited by the newness of it all.

Perhaps we can all learn a lesson from Wheating about fresh starts: http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2008/05/ducks_wheating_learns_as_he_go.html

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05.08.08

Back to earth…

Posted in Jeuland's Musings at 6:36 pm by Marc

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks; lots of people have complimented me on my run up in Boston. That has partly validated the difficult spring I have had with research, training, and getting healthy.

So it was also good to come back to earth a bit yesterday doing a tempo run with Brent and Devin. We went out to the unpaved part of the Tobacco Trail, down in Wake County. The trail was lightly sloping up and down, the breeze was strong, and I did everything I could to stay with those two…staying with Devin about 3 miles, and with Brent for a little less than 5.

We have some really talented runners in this club, and I need to try to get back up to speed.

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