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Stanford
Cardinal Jake Riley, a redshirt freshman, looks the lead his squad to another top place
finish at the NCAA Division I XC Championships. He kicked off the
season with a second place finish at the USF Invitational.
How's
your training going right now?
Training is going really well
right now, I started keeping a log for the first time this summer
because Coach Dunn requires it and I felt like it really focused me.
I've been running more mileage than I ever have before, and aside
from a few aches and pains here and there I'm feeling really
strong.
Can you get into any specifics about how a week's
training is going right now?
Well for starters it’s a lot
different than what we had under Peter. As far as I know Peter’s
training was pretty unique and I realize now that we were pretty
pampered under him. Now we’ve got a much more in depth core and
drills circuit, we run seven days a week as opposed to six, we have a
long run, pretty standard stuff but we didn’t have that under
Peter. I’m not going to go any farther than that just to be safe,
but we’re definitely challenging ourselves.
Stanford just
pulled an 11th place pre season placer. Is that where you want to
be?
It’s definitely not where we see ourselves at the end of
the season, but considering how we placed last season and who we lost
I can see where they’re coming up with their numbers. But honestly,
I’m going over these questions with Brendan Gregg, and this is the
first time we heard about the rankings. We don’t really pay
attention to the rankings, and I think anyone who does is going to be
in for some surprises come November.
How is your team looking?
A killer top seven?
It’s really up in the air right now,
we’ve got a great group of strong fifth year returners from last
year who’ll definitely be in the mix, but we’re also a pretty
young team with a monster freshman class that’s chomping at the bit
to get out and race, plus the red shirt freshmen from last year. I’d
have a better answer after some more races, but however it plays out
we’re going to be really strong across the board.
Did you
watch the Olympics this summer? Stanford Alumni Ryan Hall, how was
that for you?
While they were on I did pretty much nothing but
watch the Olympics, gymnastics, swimming, archery, you name it. One
of the coolest things about being at Stanford is that connection to
guys like Ryan Hall and Ian Dobson (both of which I got to meet at
our training camp which was awesome). Just knowing that I’m running
on the same trails they did is a pretty cool feeling. I was kind of
disappointed about the finish, but I don’t know what you can do
when some guy goes starts pushing way under the expected pace and
just doesn’t come back.
You're from Washington and with your
high school times you must have had a lot of options, why did you
choose Stanford?
To be honest I don’t know how I could have
chosen anywhere else, it’s in a great location (San Fran is
probably one of the coolest cities in the US), the weather is great
almost year round, the academics are phenomenal, while at the same
time you’re part of not only one of the best distance programs in
the country, but also overall athletic programs, plus they have a
great financial aid program and the guys on the team are awesome. For
me it was pretty much a no brainer. I know I sound like a Stanford
brochure, but anyone who visits here will tell you the same
thing.
What are your thoughts on fellow statesman Gerry
Lindgren?
I have a lot of Washington pride, too much some of
my teammates would say, so I’m all for anyone who can rep
Washington running well. I’m going to stay away from his personal
life, but anyone who can run 200 miles a week and still stand is a
champ in my book, and it just shows you how baller Washingtonians can
be.
What are you studying at Stanford?
It’s not
completely set in stone yet but I’m pretty certain I’m going to
major in Biomechanical Engineering, and maybe to become a doctor,
maybe not, we’ll see.
What is some essential running gear
for you? favorite shoes, shorts, ipod (music choice?)
I have a
Timex Ironman watch I got as a birthday present and it’s probably
my favorite piece of clothing even outside of running. I have to have
shorts without a thick hem, otherwise I chafe like a madman. I train
in the Nike Structure Triax, but I’m happiest in the lightest pair
of spikes possible, top two are probably the old Kennedy Track
spikes, and the Ventulus plus’s.
What does your diet consist
of?
It’s nothing formal and I don’t really pay attention
to it except to make sure I’m getting some kind of fruit and some
kind of vegetable at every meal, I try to keep it to one dessert like
thing a day, and stay away from soda. Other than that I love bacon
and apple juice (not necessarily together, but in general), and
before I run it’s almost always a cliff bar.
Is the food
decent at Stanford?
From what I hear we’re pretty lucky
here, the food in the dining halls is really good. By the end of the
year last year, I was a little tired of having similar food every
week, but there’s enough variety that you can go a long time
without getting bored. The place I’m living this year has a single
chef for like 60 people, and the food is even better than the dining
halls, so I’m pretty excited about that.
Jessie Spano, from
Saved By The Bell, always wanted to go to Stanford, is it all it's
cracked up to be?
I think my answer to the question about why I
chose Stanford should answer that, but yes, Stanford is awesome in
almost every way. I would be totally happy going here even if I
weren’t running. My only problem with it is that we don’t have a
cool little college street with like grungy coffee shops and weird
bookstores and restaurants. Palo Alto is a really rich area and main
campus is pretty far from it anyway so I feel like I’m missing out
on something with that, but hell, I can just go to San Fran for that
kind of stuff.
What races will you be competing in this
season? A tentative schedule?
We have the Stanford Invite in
about a week which is always fun, especially since it’s now going
to be the site of the regional race this year. After that we have
Pre-Nats at Terra Haute, then Pac-10’s at Oregon, then regionals
here, and then nationals back at Terra Haute.
What's the
hardest workout you've ever done?
Under Peter we had a workout
where we went on a 40 minute tempo then came back, did a six minute
jog, then ran a 1k as fast as we could. Back in high school we once
did 3 X 3 sets of 300m intervals all out which was pretty hard
too.
Can you give me a story from your running past? The
craziest and least appropriate please?
This didn’t happen to
me, but a guy on the team once went into a port o potty before our
cool down. As we were jogging down he asks really nonchalantly if
anyone of has ever gotten our junk in poo before. Turns out someone
had semi missed the toilet and gotten some poop on the seat. Our guys
junk then touched it while he was doing his business. He said later
that is was really weird; he was used to wiping behind, but this time
he had to wipe the front as well.
***This interview was done via email. Much thanks to Jake and Hakon DeVries***
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