Jeff mixing it up

Jeff Raab competing in his first collegiate meet at the Vassar Invite.

Most blogs that I have read seem to include some form of daily mental outpouring of thoughts and observations.  On occassion I will  comment on things that I observe during workouts for those of you who may be interested. 

Today’s workout was cruise interval session of 5 to 8  X 900 meters with 90 seconds active recovery.  This basically means that a runner runs at a pace for the prescribed distance that is about 90% of maximum heart rate.   This is approximately the Lactate Threshold or just below the point that a runner begins to go into oxygen debt and produce lactic acid.  Working consistently at just below threshold is the point where an endurance athlete can most effectively raise the lactate threshold and improve speed endurance.   This is crucial to successful distance running.

Optimally a runner would have there blood lactate levels tested while running on a treadmill to help the coach determine the ideal training pace for a specific runner.  A heart monitor can become an effective tool as well but can sometimes become a crutch that an athlete ends up too reliant upon.  At this point the athlete-coach relationship becomes crucial in helping to determine how a runner can learn to run within themselves to achieve the best result possible for a given workout.  More often then not I find that it’s important to hold back an athlete from training too hard in threshold session.

Our venue was new today.  Justin and I have been scouting out locations where we can watch the runners cover 1 K to 1600 meters in a large oval on a slightly rolling course.  I want to more closely approximate the typical terrain we might encounter during our championship meets.  We found a nice course around some ball fields out at the Ulster County Fair Grounds.  It has grass. dirt and shale and relatively level footing on easy rolling terrain.   I thought the conditions were ideal to try out the location today for the work bout we had in mind.

In todays workout session our women completed 5 X 900 meters with 90 seconds of active recovery completely under control and locked into  a pace that was consistent throughout the work bout.  Nikki McCarthy and Danielle Harmon completed a 6th repeat because they were easily capable of tolerating the additional work load and have consistently maintained 50+ miles per week for several months.  We finished the session with 4 X 200 meter race pace repeats to pan over to some higher intensity without completely depleating the system after the long cruise interval session.  The women seem to respond positively to frequent shorter bouts of higher intensity running in conjuntion with the tempo based workouts.  Psychologically, they believe it is beneficial and that can go a long way.

The Men completed 8 X 900 meters with 90 second recovery.  At this point most of the guys know where they’re at in terms of fitness and settled into threshold pace fairly quickly.  Joe and Rob worked well together consistently hitting 3:07ish.  Rob Webster, Shawn and Liam worked well together.  Dex and Jeff worked solo but held their pace consistently.  Some of the younger less experienced runners are still learning but seemed to manage to run within themselves today.  Dan and Greg worked well together as well.

I think we found ourselves a great location that we can return to and measure our improvement during the course of our season.  We have three days to recover for Bard on Saturday and I think we got just the right amount of work for the recovery time we have before race day.  I think they’ll be tired the next couple of days but the legs won’t be quite so beat up .  We shall see.

Good news today.  Nichole Wissler seems to be able to run pain free with a light wrap.  She ran pain free for 25 minutes today.  J-Boz is still side lined with shin splints and Ryan Bauer is struggling with IT Band syndrome but they are doing what they have to rehab and work through it.  Marian is struggling with ankle pain not unlike last fall.  My hope is she’ll recovery quickly to get a full season in.

The New Paltz Cross Country teams will be hosting its first annual Campus Alumni 5k Invitational.  The event will be held on Saturday September 26th at 1:00pm out in front of The Athletic and Wellness Center.  The course will tour campus and be run primarily on the roads through campus.

It promises to be a fun event with a chance for old and new to meet and mingle.  There will be a Barbeque following the event near the ball fields.

Please let all your friends know about this event.

Coach

Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach of Villanova University, Marcus O’Sullivan visited with Coach Trunkes yesterday on New Paltz campus to explore the possibility of SUNY New Paltz hosting one of his  summer running camps.  Coach O’Sullivan who is a four time Olympian, three time indoor World Champion in the 1500 meters as well as a multiple winner of both the Millrose Wanamker Mile and 5th Ave Mile was excited about what New Paltz has to offer potential high school Cross Country campers. 

“My hope is that we can host Coach O’Sullivans camp in the future.  I believe it will attract a large number of talented high school athletes and enable us to  show case both the school and our amazing network of running trails.”

“New Paltz is a runners haven and we need to get as many talented SA’s here as possible so they can see what a great place New Paltz is to go to school and run.” 

Coach O’Sullivan has been running summer camps for the past twelve years and has hosted as many as 400 high school athletes at one time.

Look to this site for any future developments with Coach O’Sullivans camp.

The 2009 Women’s XC team is shaping up to be the best team in schools history.  With top returners Lisa Cassaro, Danielle Harmon and Sara Wenger accompanied by a large contingent of talented freshmen and transfers, the women are poised for a great season.

Our pre-season rail trail 3k time trial gave us a good indication of who had put in a solid summer of training.  Freshman Nikki McCarthy (Wallkill) looked very strong leading  Danielle Harmon (Pearl River),  Lisa Cassaro (West Islip), Nicole Wissler (Mineola), Nichole Wischoff (Cooperstown), Alex Berenis (Saratoga) and Christina Bartonicek (Berne) who rounded out our top seven.  The majority of the girls looked very fit and prepared for the hard work to come.

Their first test came on Sept 1st at Chadwick Lake State Park against Mt St. Mary’s College in Newburgh.  The Mount is building a new program so the girls were uncertain of what they would face.  The strategy was to get out the first mile and settle into a tempo paced run for the final two.  The NP Women swept the first 14 places led by Nikki  and Danielle in 20:02  and followed by a group of four (Lisa C. , Sara W. , Nicole W. and Chanelle S.) in 20:58.  All of our runners looked under control and running within themselves at the finish.

The Vassar Invitational followed closely on the heels of Mt St Mary and my hope was that everyone did not expend too much energy at our first race.  The Women have never finished higher then 4th at Vassar so our goal was to move up and be competitive with Vassar.  At the start Danielle and Nikki got out quick chasing Vassar All American Joahnna Spangler.  After them there was a large group of Vassar runners followed closely by New Paltz.  Coming out of the back woods with 1K to go Danielle held a solid second place behind Spangler but Nikki fell off the pace fighting stomach cramps.  Lisa C. finished 2nd for NP and eighth overall, Chanelle S. finished a surprise 11th overall and third NP runner.  Sara Wenger was 13th overall and 4th NP runner, Nichole Wischoff was our final scorer in 14th a great collegiate debut.  Christina Bartonicek and Kate Frick (Red Hook) rounded out our top seven in 15th and 17th place respectively.

The Women placed second overall and it was there highest placed finish to date at the Vassar Invite.  My hats off to the Vassar women who put their second through 6th runner in front of our 2nd.  Congratulations to Danielle for an outstanding performance with a 61 second improvement over last years race and to all the women for an outstanding effort.

This weekend (Sept 19th) we will travel to the Bard Invitational where the Women’s 5k race will go off at 12 noon and the Men’s race will go off at 12:45pm.

 2009 Men’s Season is off and running

 The New Paltz Men’s Cross Country season is off and running.  The Hawks  opened with a duel meet against Mount Saint Mary’s of Newburgh.  The 5K opener was held at Chadwick Lake Park in the town Newburgh, NY.  Junior Joe Gentsch led all runners with a time of 16:17. Senior Rob Grazier, Frosh Jeff Raab, Frosh Shawn Gannon and Junior Dan Caruso rounded out the top five.

 Next the team traveled to Poughkeepsie for the Vassar Invititational.  The 6K course at Vassar Farms has been the official start to the racing season for NPXC for years. The weather at the Vassar event has always been hot and this year was no different. It was sunny and dry but that didn’t stop the team from putting a solid effort into the books.

The men placed 2nd last year but this is a very different team.  The squad added six freshman and welcomed back senior Rob Grazier who after a one year absence has come back stronger then ever.  The team ran aggressively and established that they should not be taken lightly.  They beat a strong Stevens Tech team by two points and top runner Joe Gentsch took first place overall for the men.  Joe’s effort reminded the sizable crowd why cross country is such an exciting spectator sport.  With about one K to go, Gentsch and Vassar’s top runner Jon Erichson dropped the hammer.  The two fought each other for the final six hundred meters, trading elbows and boxing each other out.  When they made the final turn, Gentsch gained a one step lead and  that was all he needed.  We won the race with a time of 20:25.  His time was an eye opening 48 second improvement from last year.  Gentsch’s fine work earned him  SUNYAC’s runner of the week.  http://www.sunyac.com/crosscountry/2009/pow.html

 Finishing second for NP was returning Senior Robert Grazier. As mentioned, this was Rob’s first XC race in over a year.  He finished in 12th place overall (one second off a top ten finish) with a 21:40. It was a rewarding start for Rob to what could be a huge senior season for him.   Jeff Raab, a top freshman from Ocean City High School in New Jersey, provided the coaching staff with reason to feel good about the season.  Jeff finished 14^th overall and 3rd for the team with a time of 21:54.  The result was a nice start to Jeff’s college career. 

Finishing next was Dexter Larsen a sophomore from Washintonville, NY.  He finished finished 23rd overall and 4th for the team.  Dex ran a 22:34, improving his previous time and feeling stronger at this years meet.  The coaches are expecting big things from Dex this season.  Robert Webster finished 24th overall, 5th for the team another strong result.  Rob “ran like an animal” and crushed his own previous time of 22:36.  Newcomer Shawn Gannon from Roy C. Ketcham HS ran 25th overall and 6th for the team.  Shawn is looking to improve throughout the season. Freshman Greg Hanusch of Bayport-Blue Point was 29th overall, 7th for the team.  Greg will “beast” on the remainder of the season as he adjusting to the college training routine. Veteran Dan Caruso was 34th overall, 8th for the team and had a time of 23:09. Dan was on the wrong end of a meeting with a bee and still destroyed his time from last year.  Sophomore Doug Templeton was 36th overall and 9th for the team. He also improved his previous time and looked smooth throughout the race.  Senior captain Nick Avello was  48th overall and 10th for the team.  Nick is recovering from injury and rounding into form.  Nick expects to improve his performance and health as the season progresses.  Freshman Mike Montero of St. Francis Prep was 50th overall and 11th for the team with a time of 24:28. Mike finished with a nice kick and ran a very smart race.  The final finisher was Ethan Cohen of Smithtown, 64th overall and 12th for the team.  He finished with a time of 25:33. With his first race behind him Ethan is looking to race the way he knows he can.

 The Vassar invite was a great start and a big step in the right direction. Newcomers showed strength and promise. The nerves of there first collegiate race are behind them. Veterans showed improvement, focus, and a winning attitude. The teams next race is on September 19th at the Bard Invite (8K) Go Hawks!.      

Pat Cook- Team Manager

New PaltzXC finished out the spring track season with some great performances at the annual Mathew Vassar Track & Field Invitational.  Alexndra Berenis lead the women in 800 meter run finishing 3rd with a season best of 2:34.07.  Alex’s comeback has been phenomenal considering  she has been back running only eight months.  Alex underwent ankle reconstruction surgery as a freshman at UVM.  Outstanding freshman talent Kris Rolla ran a season best of 2:37.29 placing 4th out leaning a Vassar runner by less then a 1/10th of a second. 

In the men’s 800 meters, Sophomore Dan Caruso toad the line and placed 5th with a season best of 2:06.05.  Dan lopped two seconds off of his previous best.  Dan is eager to take a couple more cracks at the 800 this summer.  He will be interning in NYC and training with the Central Park Track Club throughout the summer.

The Women’s 800 promised to be an exciting race and it certainly lived up to its billing.  Returning 1500 Champion Lisa Cassarowas ready to dial it up with teammates Olga Stulovand Lori Brown.  The field included two sub five minute 1500 meter runner from Williams and All American Joanna Spangler  from Vassar.  The race went out fast with Olga bridging the gap between the Williams runner and Spanglerwho were clearly the class of the field.  The race for third was heated with seven runners competing in a tight group in the middle two laps.  As the runners approached the final 300 meter mark Cassaro unleashed her kick and opened up a wide margin finishing 3rd in a pr of 5:07.53 and new school record.  Stulov battled hard for the next position but was outleaned by two Vassar runners.  Her earlier pace work took its toll at the end.  She ran a personal and season best of 5:10.63 for 6th place.  Lori Brown battled hard down the stretch and placed 8thwith a collegiate best of 5:13.68.  Joanna Goldfarb ran a personal best of 5:41.45, Rebecca Shuriff ran 5:44.68,  Amanda Ward ran 5:48.51 and Marian Buzon in 6:00.91.

The Men’s 1500 meter run was won by defending Champion and meet record holder Joe Gentsch.  Joe went out alone in a comfortable 63 second first 400 followed by a 2:10 half and 3:30 three quarter.  Joe briefly gave up the lead for less then 50 meters on the final turn to Williams runner Conor Kambut kicked past him down the final straight finishing in 4:07:02 with a new meet, school and personal best.  Joe was followed by Doug Templeton in a PB of 4:41.07 and Robert Webster AKA Sideburns in 4:41.82. 

In the 5,000 meter run Sophomore Danielle Harmon paced a steady smart race and finished with a track best of 20:03.53 in third place.  Danielle felt great after her race and was thrilled with her performance.  After many tries at a variety of distances Danielle has finally found her best event on the track.

The men’s race was perfectly set up for Rob Grazier, Jr unattached who will be running on Varsity XC next fall.  Rob Paced through the first 3200 meters right on pace 5:10, 10:20 but the lack of race experience at this distance took its toll falling off the last mile in 5:28. with a final time of 16:28.42.  This was a huge pr for Rob and his very first attempt at 5000 meters on the track.  Freshman Dexter Larsen ran his third 5000 meter race of the season and crushed his personal best by 16 seconds in a time of 16:47.30.  Unfortunately Dexter ran this race completely alone which makes his results even more remarkable.

The final notable finishes were:  the women’s second place finish in the 4 X 800 meter relay in a time of 10:22.66 ( Berenis, Stulov, Brown, Cassaro) also a season best.  Dan Caruso finished second in the men’s long jump in 5.62 meters.

congratulations to all our spring competitors for a great season and what has hopefully forshadowed a great cross country seasons to come.

On January 30th 2009, the cross country
traveled to Madison square Garden to watch
the Millrose Games track meet which has
some of the best athletes in the world
performing in there respective events fun was
had by all and many of our men grew
particularly fond of one Swedish female
pole vaulter.