All's well in E-ville

After running 13x400 meter repeats in 72-75 seconds I'm friggin' spent. After we finished the 400's we did a fartlek run. The workout really wasn't that hard, but it just caught up with me after awhile. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a ride to the Border Wars meet in Edwardsville so I can run that.

Funny story: The fire alarm went off in our dorm for the fifth time this year. Rumor has it (actually it's the truth) that certain guys in a certain room wanted to piss of their roommate who was having "relations" with a member of the opposite sex behind a closed door. So, they intentionally put popcorn in the microwave for 7 minutes on "HIGH." The popcorn burned like a mother and easily set the fire alarm off. A guy and girl were seen running out of the guy's bedroom in towels....... Indeed, the game of cockblocking has been taken to a new level.

I feel like shit today. When I woke up my legs were really sore and it feels like I screwed up a hamstring. Running an hour and a half at Wesselman Park is gonna be really fun today.

Funny story: We were on a training run a few days ago by the baseball field. Joey yanked an apple off of one of the trees nearby and smashed it into Morrison's back leaving some really sick goo. Naturally, Morrison gives chase to Joey but seems to give up shortly thereafter. As we enter the woods I hear someone exclaim "Holy shit!" I look back and Morrison is dragging about a 12 foot long tree branch at a pretty good lick attempting to run down Joey. At first he started to gain on him, but he soon gave up and left the huge branch out in the middle of the trail.

94 RICHARD FERBER UNATTACHED2 27:53 5:37

I came. I ran. I beat my old 8k PR by more than a minute and a half. So I'm really fuckin' happy right now. My mile splits were 5:13, 10:40, 17:something at the 5k, didn't get my 4 mile split, and I finished in 27:53. Today also marked the first time I ever ran against anyone from Alaska (University of Alaska-Anchorage flew all the way out to USI, crazy). Stonehill (MA), Kennesaw State (GA), Cal Poly-Pomona, U. Cal-San Diego, U. Tennessee-Chatanooga, and U. Alabama-Huntsville were also in attendance. Eight of the fifteen or so teams in the meet are ranked nationally, thus making it a really good experience. I'm hoping that I'll be running at Edwardsville in two weeks after my performance today; we'll see. In the meantime, I'm gonna roll out. There's a little get-together at the house and a few of the other teams may be coming. As Jake E. would say: Peace to your heart. ~ Rich

OK, so I'm averaging about 2 posts a week now that I'm in college. Down from the daily posting that I did at Hebron. I guess that would probably be due to the fact that there is so much do around here. Right now I'm very happy. Things seem to be working out the way I want them to. Pre-nationals are this Saturday on our course. I'm hoping to have my first good college race. After yesterdays workout I'm quite confident that I can:

Michigan Workout

1-mile hard
90 second rest
7 minute tempo run at 5:30/mile pace
90 second rest
1200 hard
90 second rest
7 minute tempo run at 5:30/mile pace
90 second rest
800 hard
90 second rest
7 minute tempo run at 5:30/mile pace
400 hard

My splits: 4:53 mile, 3:42-5 1200, 2:12-3 800, 1:06 400

That's all for now.~ Rich

Recommended Reading: http://victorhanson.com/articles/hanson091704.html Note: I previously had another link posted here, but I decided that this was not only a better story, but also less blatantly biased.

Yesterday was an exceptionally good day. We ran a track/XC workout over at hollow park. The workout consisted of 4x400, 1-mile tempo, 4x400, 1-mile tempo, 1x400. We had 75 second recovery in between the 400's and slighty more before and after the miles. On the first set of 400's I ran around 73-75 seconds on each of them. I came through the first mile tempo in 5:26, we did the miles on grass. In the second set of 400's I ran between 70-72. In the final mile I finished in 5:04. I clocked a 69 second final 400 repeat. All in all, a very good workout that left me more elated than tired. Our team is running Indiana Intercollegiates at Purdue on Friday @ 3:30 on their course.

In other news, things are going really well with school. Though my english teacher may still be a psychopath, she does a good job critiquing my papers. I got our first paper back already with a typed one page analysis of my writing, as did everyone else. Just a little of FYI, there are 27 people in my class.

I'm almost 100% sure that I will be back in town this weekend. If all goes accordingly, I should be back home Friday night. 'Tis all for now kids. Peace~ Rich

Islamic Fascism... the new Axis of Evil, Part 1 (?)

In the 1940's, America, as well as the entire world, faced the threat of the Axis powers which primarily consisted of Germany and Japan. At the time, it was very easy to determine who was friend and who was foe. The battles were fought in jungles, on open plains, and in airplanes soaring through the sky. However, the enemies and threats that the free world faces are different now. America’s new enemies do not wear uniforms to distinguish themselves from civilians, nor do they keep civilians out of harms way when it comes to choosing battlegrounds. Battles of the modern day are fought in the streets of major cities, in the middle of civilian populations. This is not done on accident, rather it is intentional. Whether people choose to accept it or not, America and of the free world is at war with Islamic fascists. Any ignorance to this blatant reality should have been erased by the events that occurred in Russia this past week. As some people may or may not know, over 300 people, many of whom were children, were brutally murdered in a school gymnasium by Chechnyan and Islamic separatists with links to al-Qaeda.

Countries such as Russia, Spain, and France are now learning the hard way that America is not the only target of terrorism. Islamo-fascist hatred is not only targeted toward America, but also any and all other Western societies. This problem is not going to simply go away by ignoring it, such as America’s isolationist policies tried to ignore the inherent danger of the Axis powers pre-WWII. Nor is it going to be solved through appeasement such as Chamberlain’s failed talks with Hitler prior to the invasion of Poland. What the world needs to realize is that the Islamic extremist threat that it faces is of the same magnitude of the threat it faced from the Axis powers in the 1940's. The only differences are the places and means in which this war is being fought. Only cooperation and real effort by the major nations of the world will be able to overcome this threat. It was successful in WWII and it can be successful now.

long hiatus

Sorry that I haven't posted since Monday, but the past few days have been busy with studying and running. That's what I seem to do in college, study and run. Yesterday was pretty fun though because right before practice Reffett, Garwoord, and Howski came over and we jammed for a little while. We played "Dancin' in the Moonlight" which is such a good song. Next time we're gonna work on Ryan Adam's version of Wonderwall. Tonight I finally get to sleep in for the first time in awhile. It's gonna feel oh so very good. Oh by the way, I need to give to give a shot out to Jenna. For those of you who don't know Jenna she's a political science major who lives in the wing adjacent from mine. She's not only cool as hell, but also intelligent as well. You rock, Jenna. Anyway it's Friday night, which means it's time for me to go. I'll probably post sometime in the next day or so. Hopefully I can start posting a little bit more after this upcoming week. ~ Rich

Yo yo yo..... the only reason I am posting today is because I'm procrastinating the brainstorming of my english paper. This weekend was a little too fun, so I slept in this morning. Now I am awake and I feel pretty good. This whole weekend I was thinking that I had so much that needed to be done for Tuesday, yet all I have is my english. All of the other work that I will be doing tonight will just keep me ahead of schedule. That makes me happy. I hope everyone at home is enjoying their hamburgers and hot dogs because I certainly enjoyed the 2 bowls of Ramen noodles that a swirling around in my stomach right now.

The Race
Came through the 5k in 17:35, finished the 6k race in 21:23. So, basically I sucked. Moving on....

Last Night
Jake called around 7'ish and said he was having a few people over to his place. So Rob and I talked to a bunch of girls and got them to come with. We watched some Chapelle's Show, played some ping pong, and listenened to Reffet on guitar. After we left we headed over to Rob's dorm room and chilled there for a little while. About 6-7 of us finally ended up in my living room pretty late. I was surprised we didn't wake up any of my roommates. Regardless, I met the coolest girl around last night.

Today is probably gonna be pretty mundane. I gotta go eat soon and later on I need to get my english and math done. Later tonight, we're heading over to John's house for what should be a good meal. Laterz ~ Rich

16:59 is just a number, and I don't like it

I have a race in about 12 hours. To be more specific, I have my first college race in about 12 hours. We are traveling over to the east side of town for the University of Evansville Opener. The race will be a 6k; that is to say it's 6 kilometers, or 6000 meters, long. In high school I ran 5k's and yet, in college, this is the shortest race I will run in XC this year. Any goals? You bet your ass. As you may know, 16:59 is my 5k PR. I think that's a very shitty PR, and I intend to break that PR in my 5k split of this 6k race. That being said, it's time for me to rest up. Nighty night.~ Rich