Day after Christmas

Well I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and an excellent start to a Happy Hanukkah. This year I spent Christmas with Lesley and her family. It was very nice. Only downfall was as we were driving down on Saturday, we were having a hard time of getting the Steelers game on the radio. Other than that, everything has went very smoothly. I guess that would be until this morning, when I locked myself out of the house for a half-hour. I kept knocking on the door, but no one heard me. And Bailee was getting scared of the gun shots, so that didn't help. Eventually Laura opened the door for us. I am just very glad that it isn't very cold. Then after I was inside, Aunt Barbara asked me if I heard the knocking on the door. I just laughed. It was good way to start the morning. If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at.

Well James Carney is trying to get a new game started. I do believe he has mentioned this game to me before, but he denies it. And he has researched it, and there is already something similar out there. Basically one person starts out with a movie, and names and actor/actress from that movie. Then you go around to the circle, and continue to name movies that person is in. When you fail to name one, then you are out. Interesting concept. I have heard of something similar with alternating movies and actors/actresses. But we will see.

I also read this interesting story about the trademarking of the phrase "Three-Peat". I just think the whole thing is amazing, what vision Pat Riley displayed by trdaemarking the phrase.

Well the Juggernauts are it as usual. As we enter our second four-week phase. We are progressing nicely. Once again, I can not stress enough the importance of summer training. The base they established this summer (Thanks to Jared Dillon), and the work they did this Fall, leads to their amazing fitness now. It amazes me when they workout how much farther along they are than last year. This will be an amazing season. I am really looking forward to it.

Daily Ramblings

Well it has been a few days since I last wrote. A lot has happened in those last few days. Bailee (Dec. 18) and Lesley (Dec. 20) had birthdays, I started my Christmas shopping (Dec. 21, the earliest in years), the Juggernauts upped their training intensity, and many more things.

It is college football bowl season as well, and Penn State will be playing Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Which should be a very exciting game. I think Penn State will win by 10+ points, but I might be a little biased.

As for the running, it seems that Oxysox are starting to gain some notoriety around town. People are starting to order them more than I expected initially. But everyone is enjoying them and seeing their benefits. Others had not heard of them, but I did my best to explain them. A more educated running community is a faster running community.

And lastly, I believe we will be affiliating ourselves with Nittany Spiked Shoe. Yes I will update the site more frequently and resume the interviews. It is the best situation for us and the future. The meet schedule will be finalized shortly, and I will let you, the dedicated reader, know what will be in store for the upstarts. We are currently looking at uniform pricing as well. Brian Derby, PSU track and field alum and good friend, is sponsored by and working for Phenetix, and they are presenting some pricing for us. So that is another decision that sits before us.

Well I need to get back on the grind of Christmas Shopping. I hope to write again before the holiday, but if I do not, Merry Christmas to all.

Dickinson Meet Coverage

Well State College had their first indoor meet. It was at Dickinson College. The meet went very well for them. Their results are as follows:

400m
22. Mike Ferlez 58.5
23. Jon Ferlez 58.4

800m
10. Paul Kernfeld 2:11.6
44. Kyle Ragan 2:34.6


1600m
6. Matt Groves 4:46.0
7. Josh Gainer 4:47.0

3200m
17. Christian Peoples 11:22.8
22. Dan Dougherty 11:33.7

4x400m Relay
4. State College 3:45.7

4x800m Relay
1. State College 8:25.4

It was a solid day's effort. Especially considering how early it is, and the track conditions. Saying I am impressed does not put the right perspective on it, because I have come to expect them to run this well. And I am glad to see them do it consistently. So I guess it is best to say I am impressed, but not shocked. It looks like they are on track for their goals this year.

It will be interesting to see what they do at the area meet at Penn State in early January. Always nice to run on a fast track. I'll be in attendance to cheer them on, so there will be a full report. But congratulations to them on a successful first meet, and good luck on the rest of the season.

C5 Fitness

In a regards to a question if the blog sold out, the answer is no. Just had some new deals going on, and wanted to make sure they got their just due. I was also asked by Trey Koubek what C5 Fitness stands for? As in, what are the 5 C's? I could only think of three out on the Friday run. But I asked Julie Christie what they were, and she delivered as usual.

Convenient
Courteous
Clean
Comfortable
Committed

There they are. They are followed to the best of their abilities by the staff. Julie is doing an excellent job running C5. It is back to its old successful ways, which is a good thing. Julie is trying to do many new things to improve the fitness center. Here are a few of the things she is doing adding a newsletter, selling merchandise (including Oxysox), changing the nutritional supplements and meal replacements, and offering new deals for members each month. Speaking of C5 fitness. Kate Nollau graduated from Penn State today. I attended her graduation party, and I got to see her sisters Ann and Margaret, and her mom, Carol. It reminded me of when Ann and I used to open the South Club. Those were the days. She opened the pool, and I the gym. Days gone by.

Moving Forward

Well progress continues. A meet schedule is in the works for the newest members of the Nittany Spiked Shoe Club. Things are starting to work out. It looks like it will be a great season. They are now being outfitted in Oxysox. The next thing will be the uniforms. And we just need to speak with our resident creative designer, Rebecca Donaghue, to make that happen. It is always nice when all the pieces begin to fit into the puzzle. Slowly but surely, the General's Sleepers are making their play.

Practice is going well, everyone seems to be adjusting to the training load. The current team members are Anthony Conglianese, Evan Griffin, Colin Love, Matt Kisenwether, Rick Koubek, Alex Krichels, Alex Vandenbergh. So it will be exciting to see where this season takes us. Well, the goal is for it to take us to Nike Indoor Nationals. The first meet will be in January, I will keep everyone updated on the specifics. But we have completed our first four weeks of training, and we are now onto the next 4-week phase. I believe this phase will cause the guys to have significant improvements.

Oxysox Sale

Well for the holiday season, I decided to run a sale on Oxysox. Oxysox are suggested to retail at $20, but I am selling them for a price of $15 plus shipping for an undisclosed length of time. It is definitely worth it. The only catch is, black Oxysox in medium and large sizes, are on back order until the end of the month. I wrote about some of the benefits of the socks a few days ago. If you have any questions about it, just let me know. I am also, trying to get the socks into some stores in PA and VA, so we will see how that goes.

Juggernaut Racing Schedule

The Juggernaut Racing Schedule is as follows:

January 13th: Gulden Relays, Bucknell University
Janurary 27th: Bison Open, Bucknell University
February 10th: USA XC Championships, Boulder, CO
February 24th: WV Flyers Meet #3, West Virginia University
March 10-11: Nike Indoor Nationals, Landover, MD

Outdoor Schedule: TBD

DeepSixTees.com

When you have racing events and the such, you are always left with extra t-shirts. So I had the genius idea to try and sell them online, which is why I am creating DeepSixTees.com. Plus it is an excellent way to showcase Rebecca's amazing designs, and hopefully get more work for her. The I realized that other race directors probably suffer from the same problems, so I am also creating, RunningTShirts.com. RunningTshirts.com will allow for race directors to sell their extra shirts through the site, so they will be able to unload the extras.

The main thing which will make it successful, will be the creative designs. People enjoy running t-shirts, so this will be a way to acquire them inexpensively. So it will help both sides, the race director with extra shirts and the consumer looking for cheap t-shirts.

The other thing about these sites, is that I am doing them with CSS based layout, which is why they are taking more time. It is a fascinating way to build a site. It makes the site so light, it is ridiculous. A good resource for CSS design is the CSS Zen Garden. Everything makes sense how it is done, it is just a matter of switching from a tabular design to CSS design. By learning this development technique, it will pay off large dividends in the future. I plan on working on the sites this weekend, so hopefully there will be something posted by Monday.

Footlocker Nationals

Footlocker Nationals were on December 10 at Balboa Park in San Diego, CA. The West dominated the boys and girls competition. Securing both individual and team champions. AJ Acosta won the boys race, and Jordan Hasay won the girls race. Pennsylvania qualifiers Keith Capecci (21st), Josh Hibbs (35th), and Liz Costello (21st) represented the state well in the national competition. They will all be forces to be reckoned with this indoor and outdoor season.

One of the cool things that happened at the race is that several El Camino Students formed "AJ Nation", which was his cheering section throughout the season, and especially at this race. It brought back recent memories to Carney's Irish Army and Franco's Italian Army.

Carney's Irish Army was cool, we all had green t-shirts with a black shamrock. And the quote from "Gladiator" on the back, "At my Signal, Unleash Hell." It was interesting to see how quickly that caught on, and how many shirts people bought. Then there was the accompanying cd, with 27 tracks of power.

I guess the question is what is next. Maybe we will have to create a fan club such as this for the Juggernauts. The fan base is there, it is just a matter of coming up with a name. It has to be creative and catchy.

The Juggernauts uniform design is coming along nicely. There are two choices left, and then we just have to contact sports artist specialist, Rebecca Donaghue, and we will be in business.

Oxysox

I was at C5 Fitness this morning working out with Meg Fleischer. And Joe Kisic is making fun of my socks. That is the oxysox that I am wearing. If only he knew the benefits of the socks. The main problem with oxysox is where to buy them.

I'll never forget the first time I wore them running. Artie and I were doing Tracks. My legs just had so much more spring. Artie was wearing a pair too. And he was commenting on the same thing. Even if the rest of your body feels tired, your legs feel fresh, especially your calves. I was impressed. Then they released the new model which provided more cushioning in the foot and heel area. The new model is an amazing sock, I highly recommend them.

Many professional sports teams and athletes are starting to use them. They are now the official sock of the National Hockey League. Here is an article discussing how Oxysox gives athletes the winning edge. The socks were featured in both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Endorsements for the socks come from hockey players to weekend warriors to elite marathoners such as Meb Keflezghi. Oxysox are a growing trend, I suggest jumping on the bandwagon now, and getting the advantage over your competitors in your next competition.

Training

Well I am back on the grind. It feels good to start to do some serious running again. I am having a solid week in training. I did a hill workout with the guys the other day, and I realized how much I missed the pain. It is the good kind of pain. The kind that makes you feel alive, and appreciate the feat you just accomplished. It was great.

The guys are in really great shape. They are progressing quite nicely. It all goes back to the great summer they had. The foundation was laid then, and we are continuing to build on that foundation now. It is an exciting time. One second faster, one step farther. We are striving to answer the question of how good we can be.

The guys will shock some people this season. But I think they are starting to believe in themselves more, which is going to open the doors to great performances. Their story is being written every day with the work they put in, and it is setting up for a great ending.

Day of Distance Clinic

Well the clinic was absolutely amazing. Learned a great deal. Dan and I really enjoyed the clinic and seeing Brandon's race. I will give a brief synopsis of the speakers. Matt Jones, Shenendowa HS, talked about setting up a powerful program. He had many interesting things to say, nothing new, but just a reiteration of the important things to do to establish a perennial power. But it seems all of the top programs do similar things. And all of them seem to be very passionate about what they do. Hmm, so I guess contrary to what I have been told, being passionate about something you do, is a good thing. Good to know.

Bob Kennedy, American Record Holder, talked about his experiences in the sport and what motivates him. He also answered many questions. It was truly amazing. The title of his talk was "One second faster, One Step Farther." It was based on, to get good, you always have to be trying to go one second faster and one step farther. And you have to be willing to fail to reach those goals. How good can you be? It is a question that will never get answered, but one that you need to continue to pursue the answer. All goes back to "Trials of Miles", as stated in Once a Runner.

Ringo Adamson, 2x Olympian and HS Coach at Woodrow Wilson, discussed and illustrated several plyometrcis and mechanics drills. He said he could teach an 8-hour session on drills, and never repeat one. His athletes are legit, and he gave me several good ideas for the upcoming season. I think his drills will help us reach our goals this winter and beyond.

Shannon Grady, President and Owner of Go! Athletics, discussed Blood Lactate Threshold Testing. It was interesting how much the information and analysis that she can deduce from the test. It definitely seems to produce very accurate results, and as Shannon put it, "Helps take the art of guesswork out of coaching." It makes it more of a science. Granted there are more things involved, but the results of the test are a great help.

Then it was off to see the great Brandon Eck run his first collegiate track meet at the Jack Pyrah Invitational. He finished 3rd in the 800, and ran 2:00. He ran a solid race. It was a good race to get the kinks out. He made a nice move to put himself into second place. It was an impressive race. I am glad to see his training is going very well. He should continue to have an excellent winter and spring, after his solid base building in the fall.

Leon met Dan and I at Haverford track meet. It was good to see one of the original members of the Wreckin' Crew. Ahh, the good old days. Dan and I got dinner with him, and then we hit the road home. Leon is doing well. He is making big moves in the Ill-a-delph. But that should not be shocking, he is always on the go, looking for the big break.

All in all it was a solid day. Long, but solid. Dan and I really enjoyed it. It was a fitting way to begin the wind down of my vacation. More to report tomorrow after the Nittany Valley Half-Marathon.