Track and Field Blogs - Dom Maio

I have a plan for my training. I kind of plan out the week or do it day by day based off of feel and weekly mileage goals. Right now I'm mainly focused on the 5k and expanding my base from last year. I want to get up to 50-60 miles per week. I ran only 27miles a week during my juror year and even sometimes around there my senior year if I take out the biking that I did. I really have no one to blame but myself if what I'm doing for my training now is wrong. I know that this feels right for me and I'm not going to learn anything unless I fuck it up. No better way to find out then using your own body right? I've bumped up the miles and checked my speed the last week while making sure my legs can handle it. This past week I ran 48miles and will step up to 53 for this week. After this week’s race I plan to start some LT fartlek training into some 6-8 mile distances and hit a 58 mile week. The past week has felt good. My mileage increased, I feel much more in shape again, and I'm ready to take a shot at the 5k. I know this race may not be a 15:20, which is my best 5k split for an 8k, but it will be my first real try at a 5k that wasn't a training run or run in high school. I finally found all my old high school pr times. 5k-17:03 1600-4:58.86 800-2:01.1 400-53.2 300h-44.8. I still don't know what my 2mile time was that I only ran once. I just remember it was bad. Even though I never ran the 2mile it recently became a memorable race for me.

My last couple weeks after nationals were nice. I got to see my brother and his team run regional’s, sectionals, and state. Sectional was most memorable for me because of the 2 mile. I've always just sort of showed up to watch my brother and a lot of the other people on the team. Asked questions watched races and everyone always knew "O that's Justin's brother". Multiple times I've had people on the team come up and ask me questions about training, my training, other runners, and even told me about running books they were reading. Most of the time I'm a quiet guy, so I'm not one to just say this is how it's done if I'm not placed in a leadership position, but when asked direct questions I will give direct answers. When thrown into a position I will get the job done and often surprise people when doing so because I just need the opportunity to do it and know that someone needs me. I this case I wasn't thrown into a position, but I definitely felt needed by all of the questions they asked me. I away I sort of felt like I was doing Miller's job because they seemed to respect me more than him. He really wasn't around that much this past year after losing his job and he had them doing 10miles a week for almost all of outdoor. I knew how his life was going, didn't tell them anything that he was doing was bad, and cared enough to help him out even if he is the "world’s biggest player" sometimes. He always had the unique ability to lie just enough to make me believe I could run faster the next race even if he knew deep down that it may not happen. Somehow I always pulled a pr out of my ass. He always joked the last couple of races that they could throw me in a race and no one would ever know I wasn't in high school. I get the you look really young thing a lot, but it gets really annoying when people don't seem to respect or listen to anything you have to say under the assumption that I'm young and naive. Being that they were high schoolers and knew what I had done there was a lot of respect that followed through with the more meets I saw them run at. This 2mile was special for me because I talked with Tim a 1hr before the race and told him "Hey, suns down, it’s nice and cool, only a bit of wind. That's perfect 2mile weather. That kick you had at the last 100m at regional’s was insane and is a really good indication you should use that energy in the early or middle part of the race. Let’s go." Maybe, it was because it was dark out and calm, but I could tell he knew he was going to do it. It was all over his face at the line. No big long speech, just what he needed to hear and knew I had been there to support everyone at past races. He then proceeded to run a 4:55 mile before finishing in 10:17 for a state special qualifier. He didn’t have the same kick at the end of that race, but he still tried to pull it off. I just remember him tackling me after the race and was so excited that he was bouncing off the walls. My old cross coach even once told me at the end of their cross season, “Man you should have come to more meets cause everyone seems to run better when your around”. I think being an athlete helps in gaining other peoples respect, but most importantly if you have pushed yourself into uncomfortable situations while running you know the mental and physical feelings in a race. If you don’t have the ability to see what other people are feeling during a race, ask what they were thinking, or interact with them they may get the impression that you don’t give a shit. Actions always do speak louder than words and if your ignoring someone or have some sort of problem with them and it shows you probably don't give a shit. Obviously, if someone is pissed off about a race you need to correct it because you need to be positive about running. Lost a lot of sleep before the race? Nervous? Not sure if you can do it? You mind is trapped off somewhere else? I’ve been through it, I know what that’s like and this is what I did. You can be the fastest runner on the team or the slowest but everyone thinks or feels like shit at some point. The fun part is watching people get faster and knowing you did something to help it. It’s not just about the fastest runner. I don’t care if I only helped someone improve from a 8min to a 7min mile. Anyone can take someone with a lot of talent and ability out of high school and say look at my great coaching ability for the first year. It’s harder and more satisfying to take someone with a bit less talent and show some love to get them to believe that what they’re doing is right and then watch them improve.

I still don’t know too much about what I’m doing now. There are certain things I want and I know that’s what I want, but have to get there. Everything is still somewhat confusing and I’m still trying to let things go that I know I will end up missing greatly because they mean so much to me. Will I be at Tulsa? It would be far to move, but I wouldn’t be much different than now. It might be easy not having to drive. Right now it lots like that may not happen. Even though I do live at home I still do everything myself a majority of the time. Guess that it becomes a routine when your mom decides to leave when your 14 that your ok with making food and doing laundry and stuff. I really want to help coaching at MSOE. I wanted to stay in Milwaukee and find a job once I graduated. I like Milwaukee. I don’t think I could handle not living around a city area. I found a job in Franklin and hope to get it while still helping at MSOE. I just pray that I find one that I want and get some money because my dad barely pays the bills every week and I’m not going to ask my mom for help unless I really need it. Everything will work out in some weird way just maybe not necessarily the way I maybe hoping for.

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