Saturday, December 20, 2008

Manteo's blog: Post-App/Winter Break Update




A lot has happened over the past few weeks/months in my ‘track world’ so here I am to let you know how it all went down. My first indoor meet of the season was the Appalachian State Invitational on December 5th. I only competed in the 400m as well as the 4x400m relay for this meet due to the massive amount of curves within the facility. My coach felt it would be best if I didn’t run the 200 for that reason and the 55 I’m just not ready for. It seems as if all the hard-work, proper coaching and REST played a major part of my performance in the 400 at App. I ran a time of 47.88, breaking the Holmes Center Record (48.42 in 2003 held by Otto Spain of Clemson and 48.10 in 2007 held by myself)! That’s the fastest ever ran in the facility (obviously) and I was quite proud of it being that it was a PR for me. After talking with my coach, I felt pretty motivated about it, even though it may not look fast on paper; it truly is fast considering the layout of this particular track. He told me the 47.8 could easily compute to a 46high on a 200m track (like Clemson) or even faster on a banked track! With that being said, I’m just overjoyed at the opportunity I have this time around to possibly do something special for myself, my team, and my school! I know that without God, my family, and my coaches I could not have any success at all so I thankful for all of them too!



As of now, I’m at home training in Shelby and Charlotte, North Carolina over the Christmas break. This is where most people tend to slack and fall of the charts as far as speed and endurance goes, so that is why I am training hard and remaining focused on what I want to accomplish and I’m willing to commit to anything that will make me better as an athlete. My schedule consists of weights on Mon. Wed. and Fri. while my running continues just as it would be at Western Carolina University with practice from Mon. to Fri. with a relaxed (jog day) on Wed. and a morning jog and stretch on Sat. Being that a lot of my teammates live within a 1hr. radius, we’re planning on meeting up to practice a lot over break just to keep things intact so hopefully that will pay off for all of us!



A lot of people have been asking me about my goals track-wise this year… As of now I haven’t established any! I mean, all can say is probably what anyone would say and that’s just to run faster than I did last year, or basically to PR! I think 2009 has a lot to offer me (I HOPE AND PRAY) and I feel that it will be prosperous for me too. That’s how I feel now, so there’s no telling if that feeling will change in the coming year, months so… anyways… Go CATS!!Strive6

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