Andrew Bumbalough KWIK-E

February 14, 2008

Georgetown Hoya junior Andrew Bumblaough has been through the thick and the thin of running. After fighting through injuries he has already posted top marks in the country this indoor season, with a 3:58 mile and a 7:53 3k. With Andrew in great shape and a big outdoor season rapidly approachingâ€¦the two could be a deadly combination.

IMAGE of Andrew Bumbalough
Courtesy Imageofsport.com.

How much are you running outdoors compared to indoors?
Almost entirely outside. I guess we only come in once a week to do strides or unless itâ€™s really REALLY cold. Other than that we pretty much do all our workouts and runs outside.

You ran 3:58 one weekend and 7:53 the next, how does that feel?
It feels great this early in the season to be fit enough and sharp enough to be able to run those types of times. To be honest, I was happy to come out of XC healthy. Because so far my college career, that hasnâ€™t happened, Iâ€™ve either got hurt during XC season or after. So just have that positive momentum coming out of XC, having an All-American season, it was a huge lift for me. Iâ€™m happy to just be healthy at this point in the season. And I think that the strength that I got out of XC is going to pay huge dividends through indoor and continuing into the outdoor season.

Would you attribute your great running to getting over these injuries solely, or have you changed your training at all?
I donâ€™t think weâ€™ve changed the training so much as weâ€™ve added a lot of preventative measures to keep me healthy. For one, I got orthotics last year and that is helping me a lot because my form has always been a little odd. I think those have helped me stay healthy. Just in terms of my strength routine, itâ€™s a little different than other guys on the team. For instance, each guy has their own routine to keep them healthy and Iâ€™ve beefed up my lower legs and core and hip areas, in terms of exercises and I think thatâ€™s helped a lot. In terms of my mileage, if anything, Iâ€™ve run more mileage because I can handle it with all this new strength stuff.

Are you going do any 5ks, or are you going to stay in the mile to 3k zone?
No, probably not indoor. I think outdoor eventually that will be my best race as I continue to get stronger and fitter. I think the speed aspect of things is really important to develop early on, that way when I do get stronger Iâ€™ll be able to really utilize the speed at the end of a 5k. But thatâ€™s more outdoors. In terms of this indoor season, Iâ€™ll probably stick with the mile and the 3k.

Do you think you have sub-14 speed right now?
Oh, yeah. I definitely could go under 14 right now. I donâ€™t know if I could run in the low 13:40s right now, but outdoor that will be one of my goals. Right now weâ€™re staying out of the strength stuff. Weâ€™re not doing longer tempos right. Weâ€™re also not resting through indoors, weâ€™re keeping the mileage upâ€¦incorporating speed stuff. Just to stay sharp. The main focus is outdoors. And the main focus outdoors is NCAAs and hopefully to get an Olympic Trials qualifying time too.

Youâ€™re talking about qualifying in the 5k?
Either the 5k or the 1500m. We havenâ€™t really discussed that in depth yet. But, I guess a main goal of the outdoor season is just to get to the Trials, to really get that experience, so that way four years from now, Iâ€™ll be one of the guys competing for a spot.

Just this indoor season, what would you say are your goals?
Having this be my first indoor season where I wasnâ€™t hurt, I guess going in my goal is just to make Nationals. In the past two weeks Iâ€™ve done that. Iâ€™m pretty happy with that. But I guess I can get more out of it than that. I guess I donâ€™t know if I have any expectations at Nationals. I just want to go out there, utilize the training Iâ€™ve been able to do and compete really, really hard. I think Iâ€™ll be happy with the result if I go out and do that. Itâ€™s hard for me to go out and make predictions because Iâ€™ve never been in this position before.

It must be really exciting for you to finally be where you want to be with your running.
Exactly. I couldnâ€™t be happier right now. I known, even through the past two years with the frustrations, Iâ€™ve known Iâ€™ve had fast times in me. Itâ€™s just been a matter of being healthy long enough to train enough where I could do that. Itâ€™s not that Iâ€™m doing any super, crazy workouts or a ton of mileage. Itâ€™s just that Iâ€™ve been able to stay on me feet and thatâ€™s the biggest thing. Iâ€™m the type of guy that knows how to race and willing to put in the work to do itâ€¦I just had to figure out how to stay healthy. Coach Henner and I have done a great job communicating with each other and finding out what works for me. That has me really excited. When I go into these big races, these NCAA races, I know Iâ€™ll be ready to do really well.

What would you say the lowest low was in the past few years, when youâ€™ve been injured and how did you get through that?
Definitely last year at this time. I came back from Christmas Break, got injured in XC, right before NCAAs and couldnâ€™t run that. That was a huge letdown because my team needed me and I wanted to be out there. Then I go home for Christmas and get two or three weeks of good training and I do one workout in spikes, for the first time in a while, and I basically justâ€¦got really bad Achilles tendonitis. I guess I just was being really stupid at that point and tried to run through it. And thatâ€™s the worst thing you can do for Achilles tendonitis, especially because it will really swell up. My Achilles was really swollen for almost a month, month and a half, and nothing really seemed to work. Finally we got it to heal up and I guess that was my lowest low. It was several months of not really training, nor was I able to race at allâ€¦that was the biggest down time.

How did you get out of that?
I donâ€™t know. It was definitely a situation where I was talking to a lot of people. My parents a lot, my high school coach a lot, and Coach Henner a lot. We were trying to stay positive about things and realize I was going to get healthy, I just had to be patient. I was able to run one indoor race: IC4As. It was a relay leg. Just being out on the track, after being away for so long, even though it was such a low-key thingâ€¦I ran the 1200m leg of the DMR. Just getting out there on the Boston Indoor Track was huge for me. To get out there and feel that competitiveness againâ€¦was just likeâ€¦help. To get out there again in a really low-key situation that didnâ€™t matter that much. That got me excited for outdoor and I think things just started to take off and progress and I started to run fast outdoors. I ended up running 3:42 last outdoors, so things only got better from there.

Didnâ€™t you run low 14s on a full 5k on a XC course (in high school)?
I ran 14:32, I believe at Footlocker South. Yeah, that was 5k. Thatâ€™s the course record I think still right now. That was Alan Webbâ€™s course record and that was my senior year. I ran 14:14 for 3miles at my state meet course. I would guess the more impressive race was the 14:32 race at McAlpine though.

I guess thatâ€™s not a bad thing to break one of Alan Webbâ€™s records.
I will say the day he did it the course was under five feet of water, there was rain and it was cold. I will give him that.

Do you get to see Roy Hibbert on campus?
Itâ€™s funny. The training room is always filled with the basketball guys and the track team. Itâ€™s us and them in the training room all the time. I see Roy and Patrick Ewing Jr. and those guys everyday. I guess their doing pretty well this year, last nightâ€™s (Tuesday night) game (laughs) was a little questionable.

How big do those guys look in person, they must look like frickin monsters?
Yeah. Roy isâ€¦huge. Heâ€™s like 7â€™2 or something like that.

Iâ€™m going to see the Syracuse vs. Georgetown game this weekend, so Iâ€™ll get to see what you see all the time.
(Laughs) Yeah. Roy towers over Coach Henner, who is like 6â€™4...so itâ€™s pretty intimidating walking by Roy. But heâ€™s a really good guy.

Post a Comment

#2	Cheryl_x February 14, 2008 at 11:52am Are we switching days? reply
#1	Cara Hawkins February 14, 2008 at 10:33am I remember watching that 14:14 when he was a Senior it was amazing. It was this lone runner coming down the last hill and no one behind hi. He is most def. one of the best runners to come out of TN. I know he will do some pretty awesome stuff. reply