Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Gibby and Massam Talk About the Season & NCAA Meet
First off click here for an interview with fifth year men's coach Alex Gibby who talks about the team's chances and how he prepares the team to do well at the NCAA meet. Secondly we have a blog from sophomore Ben Massam who will be participating in his first NCAA meet. Click here for that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We ran a nice race on Saturday and came within 5 points of winning the region, so we’re looking to take another step forward on Monday at nationals. Personally, I have been pleased with my season so far. I’ve had three solid races, but there is still a job to be done on Monday.
To be honest, I was extremely disappointed with my freshman year cross country season. After the season opener at UVA, I had a series of health issues that were eventually determined to be iron deficiency and anemia. I came into the season with high expectations after a summer of solid training where I reached a peak of 120 miles per week, but ultimately had to shut down my season prematurely after a series of unacceptable races. I redshirted for both the indoor and spring track seasons while we were trying to figure out what was going on. In May, Coach Gibby and I sat down and developed a plan to get me ready for a comeback during the 2007 XC season.
To address the iron deficiency, we realized that it was more of a dietary problem than an over-training issue. I came to appreciate that a focused effort was required to select a healthy, iron-rich diet from among the variety of foods offered in our cafeteria. I began to see an improvement in the way I felt almost immediately after I took 2 weeks off following the spring season. My summer training went about as well as I could have hoped for- I consistently hit my mileage goals and was once again recovering quickly from all workouts. When I came back here in August, I knew I was much better prepared to run fast than I was last year.
For me, what was most frustrating about freshman year was the fact that I was finishing behind runners that I was able to handle easily in high school. I got the sense that a lot of people didn’t expect me to be a factor again this season, so I felt especially motivated to work my way back to the level I feel I’m supposed to be at.
I am a fairly high mileage runner- early in the season I was steadily hitting 110-120 miles per week. I like endurance-oriented workouts such as hills or pace runs, but a key aspect to my training this year has been some of the quicker paced efforts. I realize that the workouts that are most beneficial to me may not always be the ones that I am most comfortable with. Thus, I feel like some of our staple workouts like mile repeats or repeat 1000s have really allowed me to break races down into segments and “stay in the moment” while racing.
More than anything else, it’s been great to train with all the other guys and contribute to our team. It was tough to lose some of the seniors from last year, but I think I’ve learned a lot from the current upperclassmen on the team. We have a great group of personalities, and everyone has come together to achieve our goal of returning to and achieving another high placing at Nationals. I feel like I’m back to running close to my potential, and I’m very much looking forward to race on Monday afternoon. I think we’re ready to run well.

Unknown said...

Ben,
Great to see you rewarded for your hard work over the past 2 years. We'll be there cheering the team on at Nats. Best of luck.
Spencer