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R O B B Y A N D R E W S | R2M 09
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w e e k 5 > So, this week ended pretty well.
Here’s how it started:
Monday: 2x200 (32,35) 200 jog; 800 (2:05) 800 jog; 2x400 (63,62) 400 jog; 2x200 (31,30) 200 jog. Felt smooth in the 800 and 400s. It was relatively nice out, not too cold or windy and sunny. This was our only full day of school for the week due to midterms, so not too bad.
Tuesday: 6x600 (1:50,1:52,1:50,1:48,1:50,1:47) with 200(1:30) rest and then 2x200 in 30 with 200 rest. Felt real comfortable during the 600s and then just changed gears in the 200s to remind my legs of what Friday was going to be.
Wednesday, we had our first snow day (no school) in a long time! I got to sleep late and just bum out all day. The snow turned into rain by the time I woke up so it was kind of a waste of a snow day. I went for an easy 2 miles in the bad weather; I felt good and did some accelerators after.
Thursday, I took off from running. I went home right after school, took a nap and got everything ready for tomorrow!!!!
Friday, we still had midterms, so after that I went home and took a nap to wait for my dad to get home. We left at about 3:30 to try and beat the traffic, and I got to continue my nap in the car. Once we got there, I checked in. I saw Brett walking all by himself, so I went over to him and put my stuff where he was sitting. We watched the Masters 4x400 to watch my dad’s team; he suffered a hamstring injury a few weeks ago and couldn’t run. This was the first time Brett got to see the track, so that was good. We got to sit around for a little while and just relax. Well, I tried to but Brett couldn’t sit still for 2 minutes!
Anyway, after watching the girls’ mile (good job, Jill!), I warmed up and did all my usual pre-race stuff. We got to watch the college 4x800 from real close-up; it was pretty cool seeing Villanova come from behind. I guess you could say they inspired me a little. Getting back on the track and doing some striders was a great feeling, and it got me so pumped up. When the gun went off all of my nervousness went away, and I just went right to the game plan. The pace went out nice and slow for the first half, and then Stutzman took over. I let a little gap get between the leaders and myself during the third 440, so I still have to work on that part of my race. But with 3 laps to go I got right back into it, sitting in fourth place right on their heels of the leaders. With 2 to go on the backstretch, Brett made a big move to get into second, and I went right with him to get into third. At the bell I let out a year’s worth of frustration and waiting to get back into this situation, and I finally came out on top. To finally cross the finish line first is just an amazing feeling, especially at Millrose…it means so much more!
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w e e k 4> This past week of school, despite being only 4 days, felt like an eternity. I still was not feeling well, and I feel like I did more homework in this week than I did in the whole year combined, which is probably true. On top of that, so many tests, thanks to the end of a marking period. Of course midterms are next week, so on top of trying to remember stuff we learned last week I have to remember stuff from the beginning of the year! Man, can’t a guy get a break? Once again, I’m not a complainer, but if I were it would sound something like that.
Monday we had no school! Yay! So with snow still on the ground we went to the Manasquan Reservoir for a nice long run, 10 miles to be exact. No big loop this time, ran at a pretty solid pace feeling good; feel like I’m back in cross country. I went home, had some soup and slept for most of the day.
Tuesday - It snowed either on Sunday or Monday, and half the track was still covered in snow. The part that was covered was the stretch where the wind is at your back, and the wind was pretty strong again so running into it was not much fun. It was annoying figuring out where to start for 400 meter repeats but I got over it. We did 5x400 with a lap jog: 61, 62, 60, 60, and 60. Then after an 800 jog we ran a decent 800 in 2:24 just getting back some rhythm. It was rather difficult to change speeds in the middle because you were either running into the wind or slipping on ice.
Wednesday - I went for a big loop with the guys, nice and easy. Went to the orthodontist after and was told that after five and a half years I will be getting my braces off February 10th!!!!!!! Best news ever! And, I got a haircut so I wouldn’t be so shaggy for the upcoming weeks.
Thursday - The ice was still partly on the track but we were only doing 300s and 200s, so we ran the opposite direction with the wind at our backs and without any ice. Workout was 2x 300, 200, 200 with a 400 rest after the 300 and a 300 jog after the 200s. Big Bob told me we were going to be running rather fast so I put my spikes on for the second half of the workout. I was 40, 26.3, 26.3, 39, 26.0, and 24.8; then we took 800m-rest before running a relaxed 600 in 1:45. It felt good to be doing real fast stuff again. That night we had our cross country banquet; yes, it’s a little late but it’s the thought that counts. It was a very nice dinner, and it made me realize how much I am going to miss Coach Hagan, who voluntarily comes down to the track with us when we have a workout to give splits and make sure we are running fast enough, and the rest of the team. So, thanks everyone, I’ll miss you next year!
Friday - I went for another big loop to get ready for New Balance 4x800 the next day. It was really warm out, and I was mad I forgot to bring shorts. Maybe this is a sign that spring will be coming early? Groundhog Day is coming up, so we will soon find out!
Saturday, the 4x8 wasn’t scheduled to go off until 6 so I got to sleep in for once! Big Bob drove the minivan so everyone could fit; Coach Tweed, Gary Sparapani, Kingsley Prohette, and Matt Gabor. As we are warming up we could hear them commentating over the loud speaker about the girls 4x8. Southern has a pretty insane squad, and we heard that Jill Smith ran 2:05! Gabor’s personal best going into this race was only 2:07, so I told him that he has to beat Jill or he’s walking home. Big Bob is frantically looking for us as we are stretching downstairs (we warmed up inside like normal people, Brett and Tyler!) and says they are already calling out the lane assignments for the first heat. We hurried upstairs to get our uniforms, spikes, and everything. Kingsley calmly tells me has to go change and he’ll be right back! Gabor is walking with me and as we sit down to get our spikes on he doesn’t have his bib number, so he runs back to our stuff through the mob of people to get it. Gary was with Gabor getting his number and stuff. I hear them call for all anchor legs to go down the runway type thing and still no King! He has our baton, too. Finally, he comes running in, gets his stuff on, and we just barely make the gun.
Gary led off with a very strong and smart 2:02.2 in about 9th place. Gabor, our handy-dandy 2:07 leg, goes out in 58.8 (his personal best in the 400 is 58.0)! Miraculously, he holds on to run 2:03.3 in 11th place (and gets to take the car home with us). King goes hard, 57.4, then rolls onto a 2:00.1 getting me the baton in 5th/6th. I hit the 400 in 56.6 feeling good, and then pick it up to 55.6 for a 1:52.2 split giving us a time of 7:57.8. We placed a distant second to Morris Hills, who had the race won after the first 400. Our previous school record was 8:17 so the guys were ecstatic that they all ran their best times and we broke 8 minutes. After, we went to Ruby Tuesday’s, celebrated our success and talked about the next few weeks ahead of us. This was great speed work for Millrose next week; I can’t wait to get back in the Garden!
Sunday, I got my day off to sleep and maybe, possibly attempt to do some homework. Seeing as this is my last blog before Millrose, I wish everyone the best and hope that it will be an exciting race that keeps everyone on their toes. I just found out that it will be aired live on Friday night, so if you can’t make it, be sure to watch it on TV!
w e e k 3> I just want to start out by saying how unfair it is that Cory McGee gets to run along the beach in shorts and a t-shirt while the rest of us have to wear sweatpants, sweatshirts, leggings, hats, gloves and everything else in the middle of snowstorms! Glad I got that off my chest. I only say this because this past week was colder and windier than previous weeks. I found myself complaining about the weather a lot, not that I’m a complainer, but if I were I would have complained about the weather.
After taking Sunday off, Monday I was back on the track with a distance-oriented workout. 7x1000 with 1:45-2 minutes rest. I started out in 3:17, then found my rhythm with the rest of them; 3:10, 3:12, 3:11, 3:10, 3:12, 3:08. It felt weird doing a workout I usually do during cross country, but reminds me that I still have some endurance to go with the speed work I’ve been doing.
Tuesday, I went on a long run (9ish miles). I say “-ish miles” because it seems every year we come up with new mileage for the course we run. Freshman year it was like 15 miles, after actually running it decently fast we came up with about 9.5 miles for it. We call it double big loop; about a mile from the school there is a cornfield behind a cemetery that has a few loops. If we only want to run 4 miles we can run to “gas line” and turn around. For 5.5 you go to “owl haven” and turn around. For 6.5 you run a “Big loop” which really doesn’t make sense. And, for 9.5 you run the loop twice, making it “double big loop”. Don’t bother asking where the names came from, I have yet to get an answer from my coach.
Wednesday was brutally cold and extremely windy. The goal was to run 5x500 at mile pace with a 300-meter rest. After warming up and feeling how strong the wind was, I realized times were kind of meaningless. I just made sure I was giving a decent effort and still running semi-close to pace. 1:26, 1:23, 1:22, 1:21, 1:22. Decent day, nice and quick, I got to go home and get to bed early!
Thursday we had a semi-snowstorm in the morning. I was hoping school would either be delayed, closed, or they’d let us out early because it was snowing pretty hard. You can’t concentrate all day with it snowing outside, so it was a big bummer that we had to stay the entire day! This wasn’t entirely bad; for practice we ran a big loop, and my friend brought his sleds from home so we could go down a steep hill right by the turn around point for gas line. After getting a few bruises and getting bombarded with snowballs, it was actually a fun day at practice.
Friday, I wasn’t feeling well. On Thursday my throat started hurting, and I had a little cold. It really hit me on Friday. Besides that, our 1200 leg of the DMR went home early because he wasn’t feeling well, and our 400 leg missed school on Tuesday and Wednesday because he was sick! I went home right after school. After taking a nap, I ran 2 miles.
Saturday, Group 4 State Championship Relays. As planned, we ran the DMR. Sparapani hung tough in the 1200, running 3:20 with our team in 5th place, 6 seconds from the leaders. Freshman Menza miraculously ran a 52 to keep us in 5th and 7 seconds down. Kingsly goes out in 56 and holds on for a 2:01, which got us in 4th and not too far behind. I went out very conservatively, making up ground lap by lap. 2:11 at the 800, I took the lead and just stayed steady. With 2 left, I picked it up and ran 31, 28 for a 60 last quarter and 4:16, feeling great. Hopefully our time will be fast enough to get us into Penn Relays, the team has worked so hard and deserves it. About 3 hours later I attempted to come back in the Sprint Medley but could only muster a 2:01 and 5th place finish. It was a long day but I am still really happy with the team and how everyone else performed.
Sunday - Having some dead legs in the sprint med, I wasn’t really in the mood to run but needed to get the “junk” out of my legs, and I kind off took Friday so I had to run. I ran 4 miles in 24:30, not sure how that happened but it felt good, so I’m not complaining.
As promised from last week, I know you all are dying to see my big surprise. Brett and I have come up with the best nicknames ever for each other! Rocky and Bullwinkle!! So, now you know our secret. Congrats to all of those who made Millrose, Springer is looking pretty tough, I’m not gonna lie. To Bobby Andrews from New York, with all the respect in the world: I’m happy there will only be one of us running at Millrose, that would have been way too confusing, but best of luck to you in the future!
Rocky, out…
w e e k 2> So, with the New Year I figured maybe I would make a few resolutions; go to sleep earlier at night, attempt to do homework, and maybe, just maybe, run from the front. Maybe not that last one, but I’ll try the first two for a couple of weeks and see how it goes. I’m feeling back to 100% and ready to do some serious training this week.
On Monday I did a repeat of the workout I did a few weeks ago: 2x200(31,33), 200 rest; 800(2:15), 800 rest; 600(1:25), 5 min rest, 400(59), 4 min rest; 300(39). I could never really find a rhythm, 800 was not as fast as it should have been, 600 went well, the 400 was not as fast as it should have been, so I tried to make up for it in the 300 and went a little overboard. Regardless it felt a lot easier this week than it did a few weeks ago, so that’s good.
Tuesday, I went on a long run (9ish miles) and then went to our school’s basketball game. I got to take the half-time half-court shot, and almost made it, I’m a little rusty.
On Wednesday we did 6 400s with a 200 rest: 66,63,63,62,65,64. Last two were getting tough, but I tried to keep my form the best I could rather than flail around and still hit the times.
Thursday, I went on a medium run (6ish miles) to get ready for Monmouth County Relays the next day.
At the beginning of this week I thought we were going to run a 4x8 at the Hispanic Games, but coach Tweed thought it would be better for the team as a whole if we went to the MCR. I’m slated to run a Sprint Medley and a 4x4. I’m all excited to run a strong 800 and see if my training has been paying off. So [in the Sprint Medley], our first 200 guy starts off solid, we’re right in the mix of things at the exchange, and our second 200 guy can really roll. As I see all the teams come off the turn, there isn’t a red uniform. Then I look for our 400 guy, he’s looking at me with the same confused look I probably had on my face. Turns out our 200 guy pulled/tweaked/ did something to his groin and couldn’t finish. After the immediate frustration I start over to Tweed and I hear him yell, “DMR!” Keeping with the plan, I run the 800 leg. I went out a little too fast, 26.8, already in the lead. I just stayed strong the rest of the way to run a 1:55.5. Then, about 30 minutes later I came back in the 4x4. Went out under control in 25.1 and came back in 24.9 for 50.0 feeling great. So, despite all the confusion everything worked out.
Saturday, I went for a recovery run (6ish miles) in the morning so I could get up to the Hispanic Games and watch Brett and Ty run in the afternoon. My dad was running a little late and with the bad weather I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it in time to warm up with Brett and Ty, and I wish I hadn’t. One of my favorite things about the Armory is that you can warm up inside and not have to throw a million layers on to run outside, so when I call Brett to tell him I got there, I ask him if we’re warming up inside. He goes no way; we’re running in the snow. I looked at my bare legs and wish I had worn pants. So, we get going and Ty starts telling a story. Then, out of nowhere, he slips on the ice!!!!! Me and Brett…sorry, Brett and I, are cracking up and can’t stop laughing. On the next loop Ty walks around his body outline in the snow and almost falls again! Ty was going for another loop, and Brett wasn’t sure if he would, but he decided to go for just a few more minutes. As we make the turn we had made 2 times prior, I catch a patch of ice and fall, covering my bare legs in snow. I then asked myself why I wasn’t home sleeping or doing anything other than running on ice in the middle of winter, in shorts. Anyway, I apologized to Ty for laughing at him when he fell and if it wasn’t for Brett having a race I would have made sure he fell on the ice, too. Next time, buddy! The race was exciting, and I look forward to racing these guys in a few weeks.
This week we are running a strong DMR at the Group 4 Relays to get a time for Penn Relays. Gary Sparapani will be our 1200; Toni Menza our 400, Kingsly Prophette our 800, and I’ll be bringing us home. Look out for something special in next week’s blog; I’ll leave it at that…
w e e k 1> Hi there, this is Robby Andrews here talking you through my season and giving you a little insight on what’s going through my mind as we get closer to Millrose!
My true love cross country betrayed me this year. Cross country is my favorite of the three seasons because I like being outdoors and like how mentally strong you need to be. Towards the end of the year I wasn’t getting the goals I set for myself, especially at Footlocker. I cramped up in the race, and there was nothing I could do. Now it's track time...yay!
I opened my indoor season with the two mile at Bishop Loughlin Games to give me a chance to run a solid two mile while I was still strong from cross. I didn’t run as fast as I would have liked, but I’ll take it. Now Big Bob, my dad and coach, said that we are going to focus a little more on speed than we have in the past. The Friday after Christmas we did 2x200 (32, 33) with 200 rest; 800 (2:14) 800 rest; 600 (1:24) 5 min rest; 200 (27) 4 min rest; 2x300 (43,46) 5 min rest. Big Bob asked for a big effort in the 600 and I was surprised at how fast it was.
After a great workout I was looking forward to another strong week of training before the team went after some nice relay times. This wasn’t meant to be though; I got sick Friday night with a stomach virus and couldn’t eat anything for a few days. Did some real light running on Monday and Tuesday, and did a semi-workout on Wednesday. I was supposed to go to Brett Johnson’s house on Tuesday and stay till Thursday, but I couldn’t. (And then when he told me he was going to attend the University of Virginia with me, I was really disappointed I wasn’t there.) Anyway, I’m feeling better now and ready to start doing some nice training for the next few weeks. Millrose is less than a month away!
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