Bloomington South's Carl Smith has already proven himself as one of the top distance runners in the state after finishing 8th at the Indiana State Cross Country Meet. Currently, Smith is tuning up for the outdoor season. Find out how is training is going, what meets he is looking forward to, as well as his college plans, and a special round of off the course questions to get to know the Carl Smith outside of running.
Indoor started up recently in Indiana. How is the season going so far?
It has gone fairly well. I've been part of a 4x800 that went 8:10, a DMR that went 10:28, and was a rabbit for a teammate who ran a 4:19 pr in the mile and a 9:39 in the 3200.
What is that like having a two to three month layover from cross until indoor? How do you transition and get yourself ready for a new season?
I started out with a long three week recovery period of not running to make sure my body would break down during the long indoor/outdoor track season, and then started back with light mileage, only 3-4 miles a day. I'm still only running about 35 miles a week, as the concentration will be on outdoor rather than indoor.
Why less of a concentration on indoor? Do you almost view indoor as a tune-up and a chance to get that training back?
Definitely, our team uses indoor to readjust to the shorter distances, and keep some light mileage, so that by the time we get to outdoor we're prepared to do what we need to do.
Are their more speed workouts at practice? I know you mentioned 35 miles a week, but what does the workout week consist of? Do you have a favorite workout?
Were still keeping the workouts relatively slow staying at 5k pace for most of the workouts, and doing 400s at least once a week, and doing a second longer interval workout on the other day. Right now the off days are very easy, so most of those 35 miles are found in the two workouts and the one long run of the week. I'd say my favorite workout of the season would be 5x1000 at 3:15 as the longer workout are more comfortable for me, and I know that they will help me more in the future as I will be concentrating on the 3200 this year.
Last year, the 3200 was your event as well. You finished 22nd at state in 9:35.83. Do you plan on running anything else or solely that? What meets are you looking forward to this season and what are your goals for your senior year?
I might run the 4x800 as well, but probably not, as our team has a lot of depth in that area, so the 3200 will likely be my only race. Last year had a disappointing finish as I got the flu a week before sectionals and never really recovered from it. Hopefully I can do better this year and get my goal of our school record at a 9:07 which is 5 seconds faster than my PR. I'm really looking forward to our Conference meet, which has a strong 3200 field and where my PR was last year, so it should be a fast and fun meet.
You’ve had a great high school career at Bloomington South. Are there any moments that stick out to you? What will you remember the most?
A couple would be winning the Blue race at Flashrock, which was an eye opener, The New Haven meet, where our team was able to pack run and take a lot of the top places, the Mideast Meet of Champions, which was a great experiences with the other seniors for Indiana, and most recently running a DMR with three other seniors on our team and running the fastest time in the state so far with a 10:28 the first time running as a group.
Next year, you are heading to Indiana deciding to stay in state and run for the hometown Hoosiers. What was the recruiting process like for you and what are you looking forward to the most about running in college?
I ended up picking Indiana over Notre Dame, William & Mary and Syracuse more for the team and coaching staff than the school. It was an extremely hard decision as I really like all of the schools I visited, but ended up deciding that I was most comfortable with Notre Dame and Indiana over the other two. It then mostly came down to money, which IU was easily the best option, and it helped to have former teammates on the IU team who only had good things to say about the program. I'm really looking forward to changing the distances up and running the longer distances, along with being part of such a strong running program.
FUN STUFF
We know what Carl can do on the track and cross country course, but we wanted to see a more personal and fun side. See what he had to say in this round of Rapid Fire Q&A.
Do you have any nicknames?
Nicknames aren't too common on our team, but when we do have use them I'm called the human torch for my hair.
If you were stranded on an island with three things what would they be?
The three things would have to be sunscreen, as I burn really easily, a watch so I could keep running and time workouts and know how long I'd been there, and then I’d have to say my music.
What's on your iPod right now?
I mostly Listen to Indie music, with my favorite artists being Ra Ra Riot, Vampire Weekend, Fun, and Walk the Moon.
If someone were to write a movie about you what would it be called and who would play you?
A movie about me would probably be called "That Ginger Runner" or something of that idea. Finding an actor would be kind of hard. I'd love to say Nathan Fillion could play me, but they'd probably have to get some little known ginger actor.
What is the best advice anyone has given you and who was it?
Some of the best advice given to me would be from our assistant coach two years ago who would always say "it's all about the little things". As in the that you can get by without doing the finer points of training, but without doing the stretching, abs, form work and the like, you will never be as good as you could have been.
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