Final Indoor Meet, First Outdoor Endeavor

Yesterday was the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon, the first race on Montreat College's outdoor track and field schedule. I tagged along simply as a pacer, while Andrew Hege, Jed Edwards, and Ben Hall all attempted to hit the qualifying standard for nationals. Nobody qualified, but it was a great learning experience I think for everyone involved, including those of us who paced.

Personally, I learned a lot about pushing oneself to the limits in a long race like that. I know that I am as fit as everyone else on the team, and so there is no reason, on March 7, for me to fall off pace from the rest of them. I must push myself to stay in there, because I can certainly do it. It won't be easy, but I am fit enough.

I wrote a blog entry on Friday night before the race. The hotel we stayed in (which was a very nice hotel--right on the beach!) oddly did not have free WiFi, and I was unable to find any before going to bed, so below is that post.

We arrived in Myrtle Beach about 4 o’clock this afternoon, after having left Montreat at 9 this morning. The weather today was beautiful—a bit windy, but hopefully that will not be a factor tomorrow morning. Race time is 6:30 AM. We went for a 25 minute shakeout jog after arriving at the hotel and then headed over to the official race hotel so that the guys could pick up their bib numbers. We have three guys—Jed Edwards, Ben Hall and Andrew Hege—and two girls—Talisa Bishop and Kayla Suitor—lining up tomorrow morning. The rest of us (Luke Copeland, Jarod Neilson, Elizabeth Elliot, Artie Adkins, myself) are along for the ride and to help with pacing. I’m not sure what the girls’ plans are, but on the guys side, the three of us will be jumping into the race around mile 6 and going to about mile 13 with our boys, hopefully pulling them along to a quality 1:16:00 or so. All three of them will get a second chance in Albany, GA on March 7 (the same day I’m going for it), so they’re just trying to get a guaranteed B tomorrow, so that in Albany they can go for the A Standard and if they fall off, they fall off, because at least they already have a B.

I really appreciate Coach Larios allowing me to tag along on this trip so that I can start to get a feel for the whole half marathon scene. It’s a really good experience because it allows me to know a little bit what is going down in a few weeks. As someone who thrives on certainty, an opportunity like this is irreplaceable.

Last night I had an opportunity to travel with the team to Appalachian State University and compete in a small weekday indoor meet there. I raced the 3,000m, and it wasn’t exactly what I would call a success. They split the 3k into two heats, and I was seeded about fourth in my heat, so I started thinking maybe I would go for the win. That thought process was cemented when Coach Larios said, “Musto, what do you think about just going out and winning this race, huh?” So I went after it. I went straight into the front pack from the gun, and sat in second or third for the entire first mile. Somewhere between 1600m and 2000m, the air quality (or lack thereof) of App’s facility began to get to me, and I faced an incredibly difficulty in breathing. It’s no excuse, because I should have gutted through it better than I did, but I absolutely did the opposite of gutting through. Both Coach Larios and Coach Dawson have told me that they were very impressed with the fact that I went after the win the way I did, but I certainly was far from impressed with my ability to finish. In the end, Luke Copeland ran 10:00, Jarod Neilson ran 10:09, and I ran 10:23 for the night. Luke really battled like a man in his race. He was the last one before the cutoff in the fast heat of the 3k, and after only 300m he was already beginning to lose contact with the field. However, he continued gutting through alone and ended up running the fastest of the three of us, which is certainly commendable.

Coach is giving us a wakeup call at 4:30AM, and we’re leaving the hotel at 5:15, so I must sign off for now. Twitter updates will occur tomorrow after the race is over.

Jed finished first for the Cavaliers yesterday in 1:18:15, Andrew was second in 1:18:26, and Ben was third in 1:20:03. Jed and Andrew both feel very confident that they can hit the standard on March 7.

Snow, Track Workouts, Races, and a Special Edition Song

At 4:30 on Saturday morning, my alarm (obnoxiously) buzzed, and it was time for me to roll out of bed, brush my teeth, and roll on down to the gym to leave for the ETSU Niswonger Indoor meet. It was bitterly cold, and I was exceedingly happy that the race would be indoors. I was expecting pretty good things out of the race--I was loose, feeling good, and had thrown down some good workouts of late. The fact was, however, that my legs--while not heavy enough to notice upon getting out of bed--where heavy enough to begin to notice around 2,000m into the 5,000m race. Somewhere between 2k and 3k I began to fall apart, and it was all downhill from there, as far as the race went. I ended up running 17:58 and finishing third out of the three Montreat runners in the race. Hege went 17:25ish, and Jared was around 17:35. Both of them doubled back valiantly in the afternoon and ran legs of the DMR--Andrew the 1200, Jared the 1600. These poor guys were thrown to the wolves in that regard, as they're simply not the speed demons of lore discussed in John Parker's Once a Runner. Hege dropped a very respectable 4:35 (or so) 1600 in high school, but the guy hasn't done work as a miler since then, and has spent the last couple months in marathon training. Jared has never done mile-esque work and is also in that same marathon training. Needless to say, they didn't dominate, but as I said before: they put forth an excellent effort.

On Sunday, Ben Hall, Daniel Dunn and myself went on an afternoon jaunt up Greybeard Mountain (one of the mountains that forms the "bowl" that Montreat lies in), and then ran around the "rim" of the bowl and ran down from Lookout Point (the opposing peak) and back to the college. After that run my right Achilles began to tighten up, which was severely disappointing, and it continued to bother me throughout the night as several members of the team watched the Super Bowl in Montreat College President Struble's living room, as Pres. Struble had invited us to watch it with his family. (And what a game it was! It's a shame that the Cards couldn't pull it off, but you can't argue that it was a great game!)

Monday's planned long-run was split into two runs after Coach Larios saw how heavy our legs were in Saturday's races, so Luke Copeland and I hit the roads of Montreat at 6AM for 50 minutes, and then I doubled back with the rest of the team in the afternoon for another 65. My Achilles bothered me the entire time, but it was at least tolerable. I had an epiphany in English Lit this morning, also. I was recalling Achilles tightness from the past, and how it never bothered me for more than a few days, and I remembered my magic potion: Icy Hot. Thus, I got my hands on some of that stuff and applied it liberally to my leg. It's a good thing I thought of that solution, too, because this afternoon's workout was 10-25 x 400m. It was a classic Coach Larios workout--stick in the pack, or drop out and cheer. We were to do as many between 10 and 25 as Coach decided as he watched us, and we were to go at whatever rest he deemed a good rest based on the most recent one (maximum being 90s). In short, this style of workout is incredibly tough mentally, but it also makes one a much stronger runner. We ended up going 18 x 400 and averaging about 73s and pushed the 90s rest on most of the recoveries. It was both one of the best workouts I have ever run, and one of the most difficult. 18 x 400 in 73s with 90s recovery on a track shouldn't be overly difficult, however, it was snowing (hard!) and windy the whole workout, and that combination is one I have never faced before, and that made it more difficult than it would have been otherwise.

There is a decent bit of snow on the ground (by North Carolina standards) and we are anxiously hoping that classes for tomorrow will be canceled. The team is going to a viewing of the 2008 movie Spirit of the Marathon tomorrow afternoon, so we are doing our training run in the morning. Assuming class is canceled, the plan is to roll out and get that done at around 9-10 AM, and relax the rest of the day. We'll see what goes down. Below is a video, courtesy of (most of) the marathon group. Andrew Hege, Luke Copeland, Will Musto, and Travis Yoder star in this most excellent rendition of Alan Jackson's Winter Wonderland. If you look carefully, you can see some snow accumulating on the road. Enjoy!

Indoor Opener

Saturday marks my career indoor debut, and also my season opener, at East Tennessee State University's Niswonger Invitational (likely closer, too, due to half marathon training/scheduling, and also due to the fact that I am redshirting the season). I will be racing the 3,000m, and I'm both excited and feeling good about the race. We're training through it, of course, but I still think it will be fun, especially if my legs don't feel heavy on the line. If they do...well, it won't be so much fun, but if they feel spry, then I think I will have a lot of fun on Saturday.

Last Friday was the 1600m time trial, and for those of you who didn't catch it on the Twitter Updates (the "Mini-Posts" on the top of the main page), I went 4:59 and came in second on the team. Andrew Hege was first in 4:53, and then there was a pack of several guys right behind me from Ben Hall at 4:59 to Jared Neilson at 5:08ish. The effort felt super controlled and relaxed for me, and I was genuinely pleased with the day. Coach Larios emphasized repeatedly that he wanted to see us all go "whites of our eyes" during the race, but the fact is that none of us were really quite sure where our fitness level stood and therefore the race was run cautiously. There was a tight pack of five or six of us, with Luke Copeland leading the race, until 1000m when Hege opted to push the pace. At that point, I hesitated, waiting to see if anyone was going to chase him, and when I saw that nobody was, I went after/with him myself. Ben made up about 10-12 meters on me in the final 200m, that boy can move at the end of the race, that is for certain. Travis Yoder said, however, that he saw some nice footspeed out of me in the last 25 or so meters of the race, which was encouraging, because that's when I realized that Ben was about to pass me and I cranked it up a little bit.

On Monday, the marathon group (consists of Andrew Hege, Jared Neilson, Jed Edwards, Ben Hall and myself) went for a 90 minute long run at 6:40 pace. Normally, while a harder effort, that wouldn't be a difficult effort, but one must remember that we have spent the last six-plus weeks running nearly exclusively on the roads, and certainly not on the up-and-down terrain of Montreat, NC. To make it worse, the grass trails that we ran on were extraordinarily soft due to a light rain that hovered over the area all of Monday. It was mutually decided that the 6:40 pace was closer to 6:10 or 6:15 effort, which is far faster than we have been doing long runs (I've been going probably 6:45-7:00 on the roads, myself). It was a difficult run, but obviously it's one that needs to be done and repeated in order to hit that new A standard of 74 minutes.

This afternoon the entire team traveled ten minutes down the road to Owen High School in Black Mountain and did our track workouts for the week. The men--except for a couple guys on a "30/50" plan (30 min in the morning, 50 in the evening, every day) to allow them to regain fitness lost over break due to injury or illness--went 3x1600 + 1x1200 at 5:20 pace. Well, 5:20 was the goal. I think as a whole we ended up averaging about 5:25 pace, however, it was inredibly windy and Coach said he was very pleased with the effort. I myself ran 5:20, 5:33, 5:25 and 4:05. I felt really great through about 1300m of the first rep, and then suddenly I felt as if somebody punched me in the gut, and knocked the wind out of me. It was a very weird feeling that didn't go away the rest of the workout. After the 5:33, I mentioned it to Ben, who said to me, "If you can't stand the heat, pull out." I obviously would have none of that, and gutted it up. Ben later told me that he was just trying to get me fired up a little bit. It worked!

I must say, it was a whole lot of fun today running a workout where I was rubbing elbows with the rest of the team the whole time. This was exactly what I had in mind in high school when I pictured college workouts. It is also an opportunity that I did not really have during the fall when I was instead attempting to make up for lost fitness all season. Yes, I ran in a lot of workouts, but many of them were alone or with just Luke Copeland, or trying really hard to hold onto the back of the pack...none of them were as much fun as this workout.

I will be updating Twitter and maybe posting some pictures during the meet on Saturday. It appears we'll be there all day, as Hege is running the 5,000, which starts at 8 AM, and the team is also competing in a DMR, which will run sometime in the late afternoon. It should be a good day, though. I've only been at one indoor meet in my life--NAIA Nationals last March--but it was a lot of fun to watch. I'd imagine getting to compete will be all the more fun. Also, the Knoxville Track Club hosts a High School meet in conjunction with the Niswonger meet, and several friends of mine who happen to be in high school still are racing in that meet, so I will get to see some good friends, also.

Return to School

Well, the last four or five days have been hectic--significantly more hectic than the return to school should be. First, on Sunday, I received an email from my Athletic Director informing me (and the rest of the student-athlete body) that Montreat College is reviewing a move to NCAA Division III. The buzz around school is crazy, nobody is really too pleased about it. The move effectively cripples coaches' opportunities to recruit athletes. There are many more details, but I don't know that they are appropriate to share here. The basics are, however, like I said: Montreat College is looking into a move to NCAA Division III. Even if that move doesn't happen, the Board of Trustees has elected to eliminate athletic scholarships, beginning with the incoming freshman class in August, 2010.

Last night, after getting to school, I was informed by fellow marathoner and teammate Ben Hall that the NAIA has reduced the marathon A standard to 1:14:00--a full 60 second reduction. That was kind of irritating, but it just means that I will need to train that much harder. This is a minor problem which is certainly overcomable.

As far as training, it's gone really well recently. Sunday I did a nice little hill/strength run, which ended up being about 55 minutes long, including three times up Rocky Face Mountain, a mountain which is a ten minute run from my front door (5:27, 5:47, 5:40) and one time up Oak Ridge--the road near my house which is just straight up hill (2:08). I've never recorded my times up Rocky Face Mountain, but if I recall correctly, sub-6 is historically a very good time for going up that sucker--and I did that thrice. It is a pretty legit mountain, too. I measured it on Google Maps/GMap Pedometer once, and it is something like 850 meters long, so as you can see it is a pretty difficult climb. Also, the fastest I've ever run up Oak Ridge (roughly 500m long) was 2:04 (and that was with fresh legs!), so all-in-all that was a very encouraging run.

Monday I was supposed to run with former HS teammate Matt Coniglio, but he ended up having something come up, and we were unable to meet. I dispatched a text message to Patrick Hall--my coach for the fall of my senior year of HS and also a graduate of both my high school and my conference rival, Covenant College--and he and I met at the Chattanooga Nature Center for a fartlek--1 minute on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off, 3 on, 5 off, repeat--over the hilly trails of the CNC. I would be lying if I said I felt awesome; while I did feel very good, I also felt fatigue in my legs from the hills the day before, so while it was still a good run, it was pretty difficult.

Tuesday was a light fartlek/recovery run with Luke Copeland after I got back to Montreat. He and I just ran around campus for an hour and threw in 8x60s light pickups. It felt very good. Today he and I modified the assigned 4xMile workout, instead opting to go a straight 2 miles around "Lake Susan" here on campus, with the intention of just going around 6 minute pace. A light workout, but there is a reason for that--I will get to it. The road around Lake Susan is pretty up-and-down, about 750 meters, so we just went 4 laps and called it close enough. Actually, Luke went 4 laps, while I dropped out after 3 because I decided I had had enough, after going hard Sunday and Monday, it wasn't necessary to push myself to that point today as well. I covered the 3 laps/2,250m in 8:20, which is just about six minute pace. Perfectly paced run!

The reason we slowed the pace of the workout down to six minutes and the reason that I bailed after three laps are one and the same: on Friday, we have a 1 mile time trial as a team. This time trial will give Coach Larios a good idea of our current level of fitness (after 6+ weeks away from campus, it's the best way for him to figure that out) and give him a good idea for our individual workouts, and also a good idea of what races to throw us into in the near future. He has asked us to leave plenty in the tank for this time trial, so, treating it like a race, Luke and I opted to go slower for the workout today--which could be better termed a tempo--so that we would be sharp on Friday.

We're back at school, classes started today, and our first "race" is Friday afternoon! I'm excited, I didn't think I would get an opportunity to race a mile this year. Last year I opened up track season with a low-key "rust-buster" 5:01 1600, the last 800 of which were solo, and the first 800 were paced by someone else (I didn't want to take the lead) and we went through in 2:32. I don't think it's too unreasonable to hope for quicker than that on Friday, considering it will be fairly competitive and I won't have to worry about running alone. We shall see how it goes.

12 Degrees...of Separation?

These were the conditions about an hour after I finished my 6AM run this morning. I certainly wouldn't call it the most comfortable run I've ever been on...

Returning to the Winter Wonderland...or just plain cold weather.

Well, the last couple of weeks since my last post have been relatively uneventful. I had a small scare last Saturday, there was a bit of pain in my lower leg that I thought at first might be bone related, but as I paid more attention I realized that it was muscular pain from stepping/landing wrong on Friday's run. A bit of intensive icing and Sunday off and I was ready to rock and roll again on Monday.

I head back to school next Tuesday, and classes resume Wednesday. I must say--I am ready to get back to both my team and to training on soft surfaces. It has been a fun training period over break, running with the group in Dalton, but I'm ready to get off the streets and back onto the trails of North Carolina. Here's to hoping that the temperature in Montreat isn't too much colder than it is here at home. (As if that were a possibility!)

I did have a good run last week with a former teammate of mine from high school. He and I went about eight miles, but the nice leisurely run accidentally turned into a pretty quick clip, and after running the first half at an even 7-minute pace, we made the return trip at a good bit under 6:30 pace. The good part about this is, I didn't notice the pace pickup (which is probably part of why it occurred--combined with the fact that neither of us is ever willing to complain about an increase in tempo, rather we have always sucked it up and kept going), and actually felt as if we were slowing down. To have a strong second half of a run like that is encouraging, and I am looking forward to the coming weeks as I hone my fitness a bit more.

Speaking of fitness, Coach Larios told me last week that the team will undergo a fitness test when we return from break, and that our level of fitness--based on that test--will largely determine the races which we run in the near future. I think that's fair enough. I also think that I have certainly gained fitness--if not confidence, as well--during this break, and I hope to return to school ready to make just a few adjustments necessary only to sharpen myself in the month and a half before Albany.

Introductions

Hello all, I'm Will Musto and a freshman at Montreat College. Montreat is a member of the NAIA Appalachian Athletic Conference, and is located about 15 minutes east of Asheville, NC. We boast what is essentially a first-year program and were able to finish third in our conference xc meet this fall--missing out on the runner-up trophy by a single agonizing point.

2008 was a rough year for me as an athlete. I entered my HS senior track season expected to be a contender for the 1600m state championship. The first several races of track season, I ran horribly, failing to even crack the 5 minute barrier. Supposedly this was because I was putting too much pressure on myself. Who knows. Anyway, finally I was in a low-key slow heat at a large invitational and won the 1600m with a convincing last lap, running away from my competition in the final 300m and proving to myself that I still had a possibility to run well that spring. Later that day I won the (slow heat of the) 800m race (I had been running so poorly that I couldn't hit the standards to be in the faster heats) in similar fashion, taking the lead in the final straight, and also setting a several second PR. Both races were very comfortable. I was convinced that I was ready to run low-2s or 2-flat for 800 in the right race, and 4:35 or faster in the 1600m. I was exstatic. Two days later, a stress fracture in my left foot's third metatarsal showed up, and my season was toast.

Excepting a couple of weak attempts at racing (to try to qualify for State track), I didn't run seriously from April 7 until sometime in July or early August, thus entering my freshman xc campaign with a base of zero mileage. Real fun. The fall was a series of frustrating races, opening with a 32:20-something at the UNC-Charlotte Invitational, and mercilessly continuing until the conference championship, where I ran 29:47 (I think?) and finished as the sixth man on our team...over a minute behind our fifth man.

We are currently on a six week Christmas break and I am training for a half marathon on March 7 in Albany, GA. I have been furtunate to be able plug into some training groups here at home during this break--I know some of my teammates have not been so fortunate, and I hope that their training is not suffering because of it. For the most part I have been running with the Dalton High School (Dalton, GA) team and several alumni who are also running collegiately (Daniel Grass from Kennesaw State University and Ken Eichberg from Campbell University to name the two most prominent alum), and it has been fun to get to know some new people and run with them four or five days a week.

In Albany, the plan is to run 1:15:00 pace or faster, in order to hit the NAIA Marathon A Standard. That's 5:43 pace for 13.1 miles--significantly faster than anything I've ever done. I'm told that Albany's course is pancake flat, so I'm thankful for that. In early December I raced a hilly 10 mile course in 1:03:06. In that race, which was 24 degrees at the start, I made the tactical error of dropping my gloves around 6.5 miles, which certainly had a negative impact upon my race--although I was only running about 1:02:00 pace (6:12/mile) before that point, so still a good bit off of goal pace. Hopefully the flat course + a good period of hard training will be able to get me there.

New Years Eve I raced the local road race--a 4.2 mile affair in Chattanooga, TN, where I ran 24:53 (5:56 pace) for 10th place. My race strategy was to go out conservatively and then chase people down. I went through 1 mile in 5:53, which put me in probably 30th place and was exactly where I wanted to be. I ran the second mile in 5:43, and in the process I ran through about three different packs (none of which contained someone willing to forge ahead alongside me! A couple tried to key off of me, running just off my shoulder, but I surged a little bit to drop those leeching off me.). Just after mile 2 and the turn-around, I caught up with the man I had been chasing for a full mile, but beyond him there were no more people within legitimate reach to chase, so I figured he and I would end up dueling. Unfortunately he was a cyclist by trade and ended up just tucking in behind me (as cyclists tend to do) and not challenging me at all--also unfortunately, I didn't realize we were slowing down until it was too late. I covered the third mile in an abyssmal 6:05. In frustration, I quickly put a gap between me and the cyclist who I had run nearly the entire third mile with, and spent the rest of the race running away from him. The fourth mile had a bit of running into the wind, and I covered that portion in 6:06, which was also kind of disappointing. I went 66 seconds for the final two tenths for the total of 24:53. I guess my biggest regret of the race is that there weren't more people for me to run down, so considering that, I can't be too disappointed. I think it's the fastest overall pace--and most comfortable--I've run a race in quite a while, too, so it was certainly a step in the right direction. A little more than eight more weeks of training, so I definitely have some serious strides to make.

On that note, I'm going to peace-out for the time being. I hope to update this occasionally in an effort to chronicle my chase for the standard--hopefully it can be an enjoyable journey for not just me but everyone else, as well.