|
Recently
selected as one of first four athletes to join the newly-established
Team
USA Monterey Bay, James Carney packed up his car and drove from
State College, Pennsylvania to Seaside, California, where he will
live with fellow runners Ryan Bak, Anthony Famiglietti, and Fasil
Bizuneh and train under coach Bob Sevene.
Carney
was a four-time Division II All American while at Millersville University
in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he still holds several school
records. Upon graduating from Millersville in 2000 with a degree
in Finance, Carney entered a masters program in Logistics at Penn
State and used up his final year of collegiate eligibility running
for the Nittany Lions. He holds personal bests of 14:00.38 for 5,000
meters and 28:48.88 for 10,000m.
MensRacing.com:
When did you get out to California?
James Carney:
I got out here about three weeks ago.
MR:
Have you already started training with the Team USA Monterey Bay
group?
JC:
Yeah, I never took time off after the [USA Outdoor Track & Field
Championships], I'm just going to keep training through Labor Day
— the [New Haven] 20k — and see how that
goes.
MR:
Are all of you out there already?
JC:
It's me, Fasil Bizuneh, and Ryan Bak. Anthony Famiglietti will be
here next week sometime, I think.
MR:
How's it going so far?
JC:
It's going great, man! It's awesome. The weather's perfect every
day, we have awesome trails to run on. I think we have like 7,000
acres of trails out our back door, so it's great.
MR:
Does Team USA provide the housing? Where are you living?
JC:
Yeah, they give us housing — it's actually an old military
base. They've turned the military base into CSUMB (Cal State University
- Monterey Bay), so we have off-campus housing right there on the
Bay.
MR:
Are you all living together?
JC:
Yeah, all four of us live in the same apartment.
MR:
Do you think that will be good for bonding or do you think it could
cause some problems?
JC:
No man, it's going to be awesome. We all get along pretty well together
so far. Fam isn't here yet but
we're all pretty easygoing guys, I'm a pretty personable guy, I
think (laughs).
MR:
How did you hear about Team USA Monterey Bay and what was the application
process like?
JC:
I heard about it several ways — I heard about it online
and I also heard about it from my friend, Artie Gilkes. He was coached
by Sev up in Boston; I knew through Artie that they were recruiting
people. After I finished up at Penn State, I kind of sat around
and waited for a good opportunity to pop up and this kind of fit
me pretty well.
MR:
So you filled out an application and they called you?
JC:
That was it, dude.
MR:
Do you know how many applications they received or how competitive
it was?
JC:
I'm not exactly sure but I heard they had over 60 applicants or
something like that. I don't know how I got picked though, I think
they had better people than me. Don't tell anybody this, I don't
know why. Maybe they'll kick me out (laughs)...
MR:
Well they must have seen potential there. Was it hard for you to
leave everything behind?
JC:
Yeah, it was pretty rough. I just packed up my car. I packed my
clothes and my computer and that was about it. I pretty much just
dumped everything else I own, I put it in storage at my sister's
house until I get back. I left all my friends, I don't know anyone
here. I'm beginning to make some social connections now, but it
was basically just Fasil and me hanging out for the first couple
weeks. We met this really weird guy, that was about it, but we're
starting to make some friends now.
...The
drive out here was pretty exciting... I don't think I slept for
like the first three days because I just had so much adrenaline.
I got all fired up, it was fun, man.
MR:
So how much time was there between when you got the call and when
you left for California?
JC:
Not much time, maybe three or four weeks. I had to give my two-weeks
notice for work, and then I had to tie up some odds and ends back
home. Then I just left.
MR:
Where were you working and how many hours a week?
JC:
I was working at a gym, The Athletic Club... I was working the desk
about 25 hours a week.
MR:
And was it hard to leave your girlfriend behind?
JC:
Yeah, it's kind of rough, man. I'll probably see her next month
at New Haven and she'll come out and visit me in October, but other
than that, I won't get to see her too often. But she's understanding
about it, she knows this is a good opportunity for me and she doesn't
want to see me miss it.
MR:
Were you still working on your degree at Penn State?
JC:
I was working on my masters in Logistics... I have about half of
a thesis to finish, but I'm one of those people who may never finish
(laughs).
MR:
Is it something you can still work on in California?
JC:
Yeah, I'm done with all of my coursework and basically I wasn't
even using the university a whole lot anyway. Once in a while it's
good to be in close proximity with the advisors and the faculty
to get advice and some structure, but other than that, I wasn't
using the facilities very much. I can, technically, still work on
it here.
MR:
Do you think you'll get a job in California?
JC:
Yeah, I want to get a job, I'm looking for something part-time right
now, that's actually what I was doing when you called, I was looking
online for some stuff. I want to be a park ranger...
MR:
I hear that's actually a pretty dangerous job...
JC:
Fasil and Ryan were out on the trails yesterday and they saw a mountain
lion! I haven't seen one yet. I went running after that yesterday
and I thought I heard something rustling in the bushes, it was probably
just a squirrel or something...
MR:
Have you talked to Sev about his training philosophy and do you
know how it compares to what you've been doing in the past few years?
JC:
The past year or so has been really unstructured for me. I've been
training, but not in a structured format. My planning this year
sucked, it was just awful. I didn't have any races going into the
USA meet, I hadn't raced one time, that's probably why I did so
badly (laughs). I never had anyone tell me, 'Okay we need to go
here, here, and here' before a big race. So I really suffered a
lot this year. I think it's really going to help, one, because I'm
going to have the people around me to train with and two, I'm going
to have Sev telling me we need to go to these certain places if
we're going to run the Olympic Trials next year. So I think it's
going to be a lot better.
MR:
Did you have a coach in State College?
JC:
I coached myself for the most part. My roommate helped me with workouts,
he timed me and we would kind of coordinate with each other...
MR:
Do you think you'll be increasing your mileage?
JC:
I don't think [Bob Sevene's] going to be increasing my mileage significantly,
but the work I did before was a lot more scattered, here it's going
to be more focused... I wasn't really training towards anything
specific. Here it's going to be, 'Okay, I have to do drills to develop
more power...'
MR:
So what are you focusing on right now?
JC:
The big focus is the Olympic Trials next year. But there are a lot
of smaller goals like winter nationals in cross country, and then
we have to get our qualifier so we'll probably run at Stanford next
spring, either in March or May, we're not sure yet.
MR:
Are you mostly just doing basework right now?
JC:
I'm doing workouts right now, for the 20k, but after the 20k I'll
probably take a break. I haven't taken time off since February.
I need to take some sort of a break sometime, then I'll start building
up mileage all fall, doing drills and stuff.
MR:
Among the four of you training out there, it seems like you cover
all of the distance events. Do you think you'll be doing all of
your training together or will you just be doing certain workouts
as a group?
MR:
One of the reasons Sev picked our group the way he did is that Ryan
and Fam are both shorter distance type guys and Fasil and I are
longer distance, so we can kind of feed off of each other. Maybe
they'll make us faster and we'll make them stronger.
MR:
So are you doing workouts together right now?
JC:
No, because I'm the only one still racing right now. I think Fam
just finished up at Pan Ams so he's on his down time and Fasil and
Ryan are just doing basework right now.
MR:
Can you tell me a little about your college running career? You
went to Millersville first?
JC:
Yes, it's a Division II school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I graduated
in 2000 and I had only completed three years of eligibility. I didn't
run at all my junior year because, well, to put it bluntly, I was
just burnt out, I couldn't take it anymore (laughs). I didn't enjoy
it, I didn't have a love of running at that point.
MR:
So it wasn't a redshirt year because of injury, you just didn't
want to run?
JC:
I just didn't want to. I couldn't stand the thought of going to
the track to do a workout, that would just drive me insane. I thought
about it over the summer and decided to run my senior year. I came
back my senior year and I loved it so much. I still love it so much.
I really enjoy going out, just the peace and everything of running.
I did really well my senior year, then I graduated and still had
that eligibility left. I looked around, I knew I wanted to go to
grad school, and Penn State was a good fit.
MR:
What were your best times while you were at Millersville?
JC:
I ran 29:15 in the 10 and 14:00 indoors for the 5k.
MR:
Is the 14:00 still your PR?
JC:
I've run 14:00 like a half a dozen times, man (laughs). It's ridiculous!
But it's coming down this year, no doubt.
MR:
Did you improve a lot when you went to Penn State?
JC:
No! I basically took a step back because I was only running like
65 to 70 miles a week at Millersville. I went to Penn State and
my mileage increased a lot; I started running like 110, 120 miles
a week. I was just lucky not to get hurt. I don't consider it a
waste of a year, it made me stronger, but my performances were pretty
bad. I was always recovering, I was never ready to race, I don't
think.
MR:
So when did you start reaping the benefits of all that training?
JC:
I think last year, when I jumped down to 28:48. I was just kind
of coaching myself, but I was getting a lot more rest and a lot
more recovery. When I was at Penn State, we had all these good guys
and we just beat up on each other four or five days in a row. I
was never recovering before the races. Last year, I didn't have
anyone beating up on me all the time, so I was very careful about
going hard one day and then resting the next day... But I still
didn't have that much direction...
MR:
Did you always know that you wanted to keep running after college?
Or did those later improvements make you want to keep at it and
see how fast you can get?
JC:
I think everyone thinks they can get a little bit better, but I
just really love running right now. I've always wanted to do something
I love, so I'm going to give it a shot for a couple more years and
see what happens. I like the idea of just one focus right now, and
that's what I have, so I'm really happy.
MR:
What was your high school running like?
JC:
I ran all through high school, but wrestling was my main focus.
I just kind of ran cross country to get myself fit for wrestling.
It was cross training, mostly.
MR:
For weight loss?
JC:
Yeah, I'm as skinny as you can get but it was basically weight loss
for wrestling (laughs). I didn't really take running seriously at
all, I just kind of jogged. My senior year, I realized I could become
a better runner than wrestler, so I took it seriously my senior
year. I don't even think I broke 5:00 in the mile my junior year,
and then I ran like 4:27 my senior year.
It
was a pretty big improvement... so I decided to go out for the team
in college. I didn't have a scholarship, I was never recruited by
anybody. I just walked on at Millersville, a Division II program,
and just developed from there...
MR:
During your junior year, the year you didn't compete, did you run
at all on your own?
JC:
...During the fall of my junior year, I went out for about two practices
and was like, 'I can't do this anymore,' and I took maybe a month
off. Then I was like, 'I'm getting fat and out of shape, this is
ridiculous' (laughs) so then I just started running for fun a little
bit here and there, like four or five miles. Slowly, I started running
more and more, because I started enjoying it. I wasn't doing workouts,
I was just enjoying running. Eventually, in the spring, I started
doing workouts just because I was having fun doing them. So I was
definitely running during that time but I wouldn't consider it training.
MR:
Do you have any plans to move up to longer distances?
JC:
Well, we're kind of testing the waters with this 20k to see how
it goes. I'm definitely more of a strength-type guy, but we're just
going to stick with the 10k, at least through the Trials. After
that, I'll probably test out the half marathon and stuff, eventually
I'll probably move to the marathon. I'm too slow, dude! I can't
run must faster than like a 57-second 400.
...What
else do you want to talk about?
MR:
I think that's basically it for my questions.
JC:
Do you want to know what my all-time goals are or anything like
that?
MR:
Okay, what are your ultimate goals in the sport?
JC:
(Joking) Umm, boy, I don't know. That's a good question, I'm glad
you asked that. In the sport, I just want to do really well at the
Trials next year. But really, I just want to be a good person, you
know? That's my goal. If I become a good runner, that's just a bonus.
(Interview
conducted August 14, 2003, posted August 20, 2003)
|
