Cowboys, post hiatus

It has been several days/weeks since I have made a good effort to keep up to speed with the happenings of OSU track (you could argue it still hasn’t happened yet) so I figured now that the conference championships are going on it is a good time to relay some information. Yesterday morning Kosgei won the 10k race, finishing around 29:24 and avoiding the confusion of having any two laps run in the same time (he won, so who cares?). This afternoon, two cowboys (not literally, as they are from England and Minnesota and not very familiar with agricultural sciences) won their heats of the 1500m prelims. Tomorrow they will race in the final heat and hopefully maintain their status as heat winners, although I have a feeling one of them will have to settle for second (on a side note, I think Tom, based on his closing speed today, will be entering the open 200m race as well, except he’ll run 1300m before hand to get warmed up). Also tomorrow is the steeple chase, in which we have one entrant. Additionally, the 5000 meter race will conclude the weekend’s races on Sunday evening, a race which ought to be rewarding for our team and bring home some points. The meet has been exciting so far, even though the men’s team has all of its runners (minus one, not that you don’t count Taylor) entered in three races.

Twilight results

The eastward trek this afternoon proved to be prosperous for those who raced in Fayetteville tonight, as can be seen in the results of the men’s 1500m race. We had several guys run 3:45 or better, including a freshman who ran unattached (as he is redshirting this outdoor season since he raced at the world XC championships in Poland) and ended up finished 1-2 in the race. Stubs and Tom Farrell, to be specific, both ran 3:42 (the former in 3:42.2) and Raul ended up running 3:44. Kosgei finished in 3:45, rounding out a good heat for the Cowboys (another freshman eventually won his heat of the same race in 3:54).

Tomorrow morning most people (who didn’t race) are doing a four mile steady state on the track. Should be decent weather (although this morning was particularly nice, not to be bitter or anything) and a fun event for all. This is one of the last workouts before conference (we’ll do something else next week and then basically chill until traveling to Columbia, the city not the country).

Living the dream, one 35 mph gust of wind at a time

Falling in line with the typical climatic expectations for North Central Oklahoma in the spring time, it has been quite windy around these parts the last several days. On Tuesday a lot of guys worked out on the track, most doing repeat 500s in about goal 5k pace (which, obviously, varies by person) with pretty short rest (jog 100m). Somehow, the wind was not unbearable, and it turned out to be an enjoyable little festivity. Since then, everyone has been taking it relatively easy, going for some well controlled runs and being forced to navigate the running paths while taking the bursts of powerful wind into consideration.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you scheduled your pre-finals week weekend) the wind has postponed tomorrow workout until Saturday, when the conditions are expected to be much improved. From what I know, most people will be running a four-miler. And it should be a good time.

Tomorrow a couple guys are running in Arkansas at their twilight meet. I think they are in the 1500m race, and hopefully they will chop down their season bests and solidify their status as regional meet participants.

Feelin’ alive during dead week

This is the last week of regularly scheduled classes, but it is the week before the penultimate week of regularly scheduled runs (unless you qualified for regionals, which in that case you have like a month or something to go). Translation: things are heating up around Stillwater, both meteorologically and figuratively. Yesterday was one of the likely last few truly long runs for the team (again, depending on your season plans) and it was a nice one indeed. Today we had another Monday team meeting (two, if you count the brief, organized rendezvous at this morning’s practice) and laid out the week’s plans. A couple guys are racing at last chance in Arkansas (both in the 1500 I think) and everybody else is working out and gradually easing down the training in time for conference (which is about two and a half weeks away). Nobody is doing any special workouts today, just an easy run to get in the mileage. A bunch of guys are doing 500 repeats tomorrow, but there are probably other workout groups as well.

Saturday in (and away from) Stillwater

To be honest, right now is a downtime for the OSU track team. Most people are sticking around Stillwater in order to get good training in and be sharp for conference, regionals and beyond. However, a small group went to Norman today for a meet while most everyone else stayed in town to run a steady state or some other workout. I’m not exactly sure how the workouts went, but the weather was really nice for it (besides the inevitable 30 mph wind).

In Norman we only had guys entered in the 800 and 1500. McNiff ran 4:00.84 and placed second in his race. Next week some guys will head east to Fayetteville for last chance, but I think most people will be staying in Stillwater until Big XIIs in Columbia, MO.

Long runs are scheduled for tomorrow, with some more workouts to hold down the regimen during dead week. The semester is coming to a close, something that, oddly enough, seems to happen every semester. Should be an exciting finish to a school year.

What’s been going on

I have been doing a terrible job of keeping the internet up to date on the urgent news that is OSU men’s track and its daily happenings, but today I will brief on what has happened this week so far (don’t get too excited, nothing major has really gone on).

Sunday was long run day, which was rainy and kind of nice for running. Monday was another easy run day with core in the morning, and in team meeting in the afternoon we basically established what everyone’s training and racing plans are for the remainder of the season. Tuesday was another moderately chaotic day, with one group doing a ten miler on the dirt roads and other guys doing stuff on the track (I was in the more time consuming ten mile group and did not really find out what the other guys did. Probably something between 100m and 10000m repeats).

Today, Wednesday, everyone went for a semi long run (a typical middle event around these parts). The atmosphere around campus is starting to get anxious/excited/annoying with the school year coming close to an end. The track team is excited too (despite any assumptions that classes and homework thrill all student-athletes) but with some important racing left to do the idea is to train hard for another week (more or less) and settle down to get ready for conference and beyond.

Mt SAC/OU races et cetera

The last several days, despite limited commentary, were rather positive for our team. We had runners in the 1500, steeple and 5k in SoCal Thursday/Friday, with everyone setting or matching their PRs. Stubs and Raul should be set to run at the west regional later this season in the 1500 (and the 800 for Raul) and Colby and Kosgei should be fine with their 13:42s from Friday night. Taylor ran the steeplechase in Walnut, CA, and finished likely a handful of seconds away from hitting an eventual regional qualifying time.

Down in Norman the rest of the team ran either a 1500m or open 3k race. Times were sort of slow, which is not terribly surprising given the rainy conditions, but overall everyone did their best at making a good workout of the situation. Now everyone should have a little down time to get good training in and gear up for conference in about a month.

Super Tuesday

Not much has happened since the races in Arkansas this past weekend. Several people leave first thing tomorrow morning for Mt. SAC in California, while many others are staying around Stillwater in hope of traveling to Norman for a smaller meet. A few guys are doing/have done repeat miles at pretty controlled paces today (anything between 4:50 and 5:20 or so) on the cross country course. Some other people are doing steady state tempo runs later in the evening when the wind dies down some.

Besides those going to Cali this weekend, most of the guys (minus maybe two or three) are running a 3k race on Saturday. Since that event is not run at regionals or nationals for outdoor track most people are training through this week and using the race as an indicator of how the revised training plans for everyone are progressing. The season is starting to pass really quickly, which is generally what happens when the weather gets nicer (what’s the saying, time only goes slowly if your miserable? There’s no such saying? Just go with it then) so the number of workouts left to develop and sustain a strong base and some speed is starting to dwindle. By the time conference and regionals come around most people should benefit from week’s of training like this one, where quality of running is maintained but volume is (in theory) held relatively high for the middle of a season.

Closing words for the weekend

The meet in Arkansas (namely, the John McDonnell Invitational) turned out to fare relatively well for the Cowboy track team this weekend. Overall, the conditions were ideal (high in the 70s during the day, closer to mid-50s when the sun went down, not much wind) and the shorter races ended up being pretty good as far as times go. In the 800m race Raul ran 1:50 to place second, a time that should hold up (at least for a while) in the regional rankings. In the 1500m race Kosgei ran 3:45 and is basically set to run at regionals (or super regionals or whatever you want to call the new, complaint-laced qualifying system. No offense, NCAA) later in the season. Chirchir also had a good 1500, finishing in 3:53, although some of the coaching staff remains skeptical as to whether or not running in lane three for most of the race was necessary.

This coming week should be a little different (assuming there is some standard, “normal” week out there to compare things with) with some guys heading out west to Mt. SAC and other guys taking I-35 down to our unattractive cousins’ place in Norman. Right now I don’t know who is racing what events specifically, but from what I’ve heard we should have people in the 1500 and 5k in California, although things could change and more or fewer events could see OSU runners in the entry list.

Today everyone just went for an easy long run, ranging from 90 minutes to 2 hours for most people. Considering we arrived in Stillwater just before 2 a.m. and had practice at 10 (to avoid the midday temps) it was a nice time to run and most guys felt good and controlled.

This week so far, expressed in words

Tuesday, often a day when guys workout doing repeats or tempo runs or what have you, was pretty windy and a little warm (it’s almost as if this is the case all the time in the spring) so a bunch of people did either a four mile steady state or repeat 500s at night. It was still pretty windy, but the idea was to stay controlled so it wasn’t a huge deal. Some guys with class at night worked out during the day, so times are all different and were run separately, but I do remember hearing that a group ran around 21:00 or so. Some people will do a light workout today (Thursday) while other people are gearing for races this weekend in Arkansas and others are preparing for Mt. SAC next week.

Tonight the March of Dimes is putting on some event in Oklahoma City, so a bunch of guys from the xc team are heading down to be recognized for the fall season (we really seem to be milking this whole national champions thing. When in Rome, I guess). Some of our friends and fellow athletes are going too (such as Kevin Durant and Colt McCoy, not sure who else though since our car pool with Phil Jackson got called off) and it should be an enjoyable evening with German and Dave hopefully giving captivating orations to the gallery (I’m not sure if that term applies, but the Master’s starts today so I’m in a golf state of mind).

There are 5ks tomorrow and 1500m/steeple/800m races on Saturday in Fayetteville. We aren’t taking a full squad, but it should be a decent meet nonetheless.