This fall season went really well for me.  In past years, I have only been running around 40 miles a week.  I ran mostly the 400 and 800 in high school and had some trouble with injuries.  This fall I managed to carry a much larger workload while training with the team here at the University of Montana. The great trails and mountains help with strength and it probably doesn't hurt to be running at 3,200 ft of elevation here in the city of Missoula.  Some runs take me up into the 5,000 ft of elevation range.

My highest week ever in high school was 52, and since coming to Montana my weeks have been...

50, 61, 58, 55.5, 54, 70, 61, 56.5, 59, 53.5, 51.5, 52, 50.5, 20, and 39.5 (last two weeks were an active break).

 

The miles have been coming along great, and I have gotten some really good tempo and interval workouts in as well.  I was a redshirt this fall, but I am really looking forward to racing this winter and/or spring. 

I haven't been home to Eugene in some time though, and I am looking forward to getting home for a month this December and January. I can't wait to be back on my old trails again. - Casey (indoor roster photo)

So my high school running career ended today. Yesterday in the prelims of the 800 I set a nice big personal record for myself of 1:56.92 (previously 1:57.6). I was third in my heat and got the last automatic qualifying spot in my race. Today was finals. I was very excited (last year I missed out of finals by 0.03 seconds) and so I was ready for some redemption this year. I was a little anxious to see how my body would respond to the big PR yesterday, but everything worked out. I was 5th today in another personal best of 1:56.30. Overall a great ending to a very fun season.

South Eugene swept the 800 meter at the Southwest Conference District Meet yesterday. The temperature was easily of 100 degrees, and the black track really got hot. Brad Gissel was 3rd in a personal best of 1:58.35. Walker Augustyniak leg the first 600 and then dueled me all the way down the homestretch to finish 2nd in 1:57.83 (he had already won the 1500 earlier in the day). I was barely able to hold him off in 1:57.82. We have had the goal to go 1-2-3 at Districts since the beginning of the year so this was very exciting for us.

Us South boys had a great time up at Jesuit. Walker ran a great PR in the 1500 in 4:00.27 and then we ran a great race with the Jesuit boys in the 4 x 800. We ran 1:55.79 to barely hold of Jesuit's 7:56.03. All the legs were very close, and that allowed both teams to run fast times. Sammy Kirtner ran 4 seconds faster than he ever has in a great lead leg for us in 1:59.3. Brad Gissel ran a solid leg to keep steady with the Jesuit team. Walker, even after his 1500, ran a great 1:56 leg for us as our third leg. I think I ran 1:57.7 as the anchor leg. We are checking with our coaches but we are very close to the school record, and we hopefully were able to beat it by a slight margin. We also came back to run the same four guys in the DMR, so it was a long night. We thought it was a really run meet. Great conditions and great atmosphere.

South Eugene team heads up to Jesuit relays today to run in the 4 x 800.  We hope to break 8 and run with some good competition.  Running for South will be Sammy Kirtner, Brad Gissel, Walker Augustyniak, and Casey Weinman (myself).  Er....yeah not really sure what a blog is but I am playing around with all this stuff.

 

signing off.