Track and Field Blogs - Eric Stermer

For Christmas we are leaving to go to texas so the day before on Christmas Eve, we are doing basically everything. This morning there was free skiing at Greek Peak ski resort kinda near Cortland where I go to school. So, I took my littlest brother David and we went up there. It was packed there, we waited in line forever to get his rental snowboard and boots and then when we got to the lift we waited forever again. Definately not worth it. But the reason why we left so early was no because of being sick of waiting,… more »

Well considering we had 6 inches of snow at Penn State in the middle of October, we have not seen much of winter since then. now it is the middle of December and the semester is winding down, and the winter weather is finally here. The other day, I did a run with a couple of my teamates and the weather was snowing, 20 mph winds, and felt like 2* because of the windchill. We decided to run to the highest point in Cortland, running up Tower Rd. It was a 1000ft ascent on icy and snowy roads. Not to… more »

I know it is wierd to see that my latest post was about looking forward and now i have one about looking back. But, in all seriousness why do we have history class? So that we may learn from our past to prepare for the future. So I decided to compare my most recent past experience at NCAA's from when the guys ran durring my freshmen year in 2006 at NCAA's. Reason being both courses were sloppy and tough, and many good runners ran poor and many ok runners got lucky, where team scores were really high and the winning… more »

As a team we placed 5th. It is not what we wanted to place. We are a better team then that but, we just did not run well and things just did not work in our favor. Nor did it work in many good runner's favor. Alot of teams and athletes have been battling illness like swine flu and some just were effected by the sloppy, hilly conditions of the course in combination with how the race went out... FAST! Personally, the race went out fast enough where even though I thought I went out conservative, I went out too… more »

This has been a very interesting year for me. I have had alot of ups and downs while trying to get to NCAA Division III nationals in Cleveland. As a team we are looking to repeat as National Champions. But, personally I have not been able to stay as consistant and trust worthy as I had hoped for this season. I ran over the summer alot of miles but they were all slow and recovery because I had just come off an injury that set me off for 15 weeks that made me miss the whole indoor and oudoor seasons.… more »

This past weekend we went down to Penn State to run the golf course down there against a great field and what happens? We got 6 inches of snow!!! Now that was disappointing because that course was going to produce some fast times for us but none the less we were ready to race. The morning of we got to the course and began to spike up and then the meet got canceled. We were all pretty upset because we wanted to race and prove that we could run in that weather. It was REAL cross country! Anyways, Lock Haven… more »

Running the Paul Short this past weekend was amazing! I ran an amazing race running a time of 24:58 in the 8k. I was so excited to find myself under the 25 minute mark. I knew after how well I was running last year I would be able to do it, but with all of these set backs I am suprised I had done it so soon. This is a major confidence booster. Hopefully with this confidence and a new PR, it will set me up for running even faster and also a possible all-american placing at the NCAA's. As… more »

So the other day after our first workout of the season, I was on a run and I felt a pinch in my right achillis. As the run continued, it began to worsen. So I took the next day off like I was going to and took care of it all day. By the end of the day it had started to feel better and by Friday it felt symptom free on the run. So I didn't run the team time trail but I am able to still run. I was really worried about this becoming a serious injury like… more »

This past saturday I had left NY to go visit my family in Houston, Texas for my cousins wedding this coming monday. Running down here has been kinda hard because it is so hot! I have been doubling to keep my miles up but I will wake up at 7am and it will be humid and around 90 degrees and I will run after the sun goes down in the evening and it will be 10pm dark but still over 90 degrees and very humid still. Back Home in NY I havent had to run in anything more then 80… more »

So today was the first run I have had in like 5 weeks where I have felt good the whole run while going faster then 7:10 per mile pace. After I ran the Vestal XX I was feeling pretty run down all the time on every run. Then I went to race the Boilermaker and just blew that to pieces as I felt horrible the whole race. I think it all had to do with that 20k. So I decided to take the week off after the boilermaker, and being myself I hoped right back into my training after that… more »

Yeah so basically for all the races that I have ran over the years, it has been a very long time since i made a newbie mistake like I did the other day at the boilermaker! I went out in a 5 flat first mile when it was starting the first 800 on an long uphill. Yeah I basically killed my race in that first mile because by the time I hit mile 3 I was done. you could stick a fork in me and I was ready to drop out haha. The thing that kept me going is the… more »

So today I got back from my run and was logging and checking my e--mail and guess what I happened to recieve. Thats right! My acceptance into the Brooks ID program! meaning I get to represent Brooks and I get all their gear 40% off and some extra cool little things on the side! Hopefully with this I can help others out get brooks gear also and would hope that it "Inspires" runners "Daily"! more »

So it has been over a week since I ran the vestal 20 and I am starting to feel more recovered and capable of the running I was doing before hand. Today though I had realized how fit I actually am so early. From comming off such a hard hilly 20k road race and recovering in a week to be able to come back and run a 5 mile tempo like I did today at Tempo Tuesdays, I felt pretty darn good! Although my warmup didn't think I should have but once I hopped in I started to role. 29:14… more »

So last weekend I ran the Vestal 20k which I am the 5th Forker to win it starting with Chip Boehm who ran 63:30 and CFred who ran 67 somethin. I ran slower then that, 71:18 but its good for me. It is a huge PR and it is still pretty fast. The course was a grueling hilly course. Anyways it took more out of me then I thought. It has been a week so far and I am still feeling shot from it. I am kinda scared that I might have screwed up my training for this summer if… more »

So i was on letsrun.com today for the first time in forever because I had let Tedrick use my computer to look at stuff while I went to work. Anyways because I havent been on in a long time I was interested to see what people were saying about us as we are trying to come back and defend our National Title. I found that because of our track performances alot of people have very little hope in us. Which this is nothing new they had been saying it the whole season. But what they fail to remember the team… more »

So yesterday was tempo tuesday on my home track back in Chenango Forks, NY. Funny though, I did not know it was on my track! Instead I thought it was on Chanango Valley's track because that was where it was last summer. But now that my school has a new track, the location was changed to there. Now having no idea that was the case, I was running to the Chenango Valley track when I passed the house of one of my friends that lives on the road there who was also going to tempo tuesday. So I picked him… more »

So I have forgotten... sorry lets rephrase, my body and I have both forgotten what it is like to go for long runs and how it feels. As I have been uping my milage the last month or so my long runs have been the hardest thing i have had to do. Today on my 13.5 i realized how i used to go the same pace for 17 miles and feel better then I was. Also, as I had hit 12 miles I realized how easy 12 miles used to feel going 12 everyday before I had gotten hurt. I… more »

The summer started a couple weeks ago but for me it has started long before that. I was out for 12 weeks due to a sweeling of my achillies, but I now am on my way to getting back into shape slowly. I wish to do everything thing that I can that, God willing, that I can do inorder to comeback this coming fall and be an integral part of the team that inspired me to become what I have become as a runner today. I know that I am fully capable of doing what is neccesary to defend our… more »