XC Countdown: Teddy Meredith of Hopewell Valley

Interviewed on 7/28/2017
113 days until the Meet of Champions

Q. Being more of a middle distance-oriented team how are you preparing to run the 5k?

We are really upping our volume this year. Right now we are at about 50 miles a week and as we start to double we should move up to 60 miles per week. The new guys won't be running all the mileage so I definitely think all the guys will get what they need out of practice. We've already been doing tempos once a week with the captain's practice, but we'll start doing more once official practice starts 6 days a week. That will be about 1 day after we get back from Cross Country University camp.

Q. Last year you ran your Holmdel PR at Shore Coaches [October 1st]. Do you feel you peaked too early last year?

Last year the end of the season was a bit of a mess. I got really poorly injured with peronial tendonitis. After I ran my 5k PR at the Fall Classic I got injured, then after I got off that I was hit hard with sickness. I was out for about 4 weeks, my first race back was Sectionals where I was 16th, after finishing 2nd the previous year.  I definitely peaked early, but it wasn't because of my training--it was more just unfortunate events.

Q. Being the team's fastest member and senior what is your role on the team?

I'm a captain on the team and I lead the pack a lot, but Tim [Dolan] really handles the social aspect of things because he is more vocal of a leader on our team.  I'm kinda quiet, but I help people where I can lead by example. I will always finish the workout, I'm always early to practice and finish the strength routine we have, while showing people how to do it correctly.

Q. You have a strength routine?

After our runs we'll do a few striders and a quick stretch, but on easy days we have a strength routine. It's a set of a bunch of different exercises that hit the whole body. We are trying to implement more of that because last year we didn't do too much of it and we're hoping it'll make us stronger as a team.

Q. What is your most difficult workout of the fall?

We have a mountain near us called Baldpate Mountain with a wicked steep driveway. It's maybe 1200 meters long, which doesn't sound too bad, but you have 4 minutes to get as far as you can up the driveway and it's like the Bowl but endless. We'll do 4 sets of that, which doesn't seem like a lot but at the end of it I'm ready to fall over. Normally we have set training groups, but for this everyone is on the line at the same time so we see how far everyone can make it up the mountain. Another hard one we do is we ship the team to Holmdel and we do the Bowl mile 4 to 5 times with the same goal to see how far you can make it into the bowl mile in 5 minutes. Last year I made it about 10 feet shy of the 2nd mile mark.

Q.  What is your favorite course?

I really like Veterans Park because you can get a real fast time, but we don't get to run it often. But my favorite is Thompson Park because it's the epitome of a cross country course. It's got the perfect amount of hills and flats and turns and stuff and I PRed there.

Q. You are the first person to not say Holmdel is their favorite course.

Everyone who says Holmdel is full of it because they don't like the course, they only like the last mile--that's the only thing they like [laughs]. I know most people like the atmosphere there, but I think there are too many people and I don't like it when there are so many people milling about.

Q. What are your individual and team goals for this year?

I would like to go under 16 at Holmdel and under 15:40 at a faster course. As for the team, we want to make it to NXN and win the Meet of Champions; along the way we want to win counties and sectionals and groups leading up to the Meet of Champs. We really want to win everything we possibly can this year. As an individual I think I can win counties but there are going to be some really good guys out front this year.

Q. Are there any teams and individuals you are looking to race this year?

Will Hare and the Princeton guys. We are much closer than other teams would be outside of running; we hang out at each other's houses occasionally, last year we had a viewing party where we watched Alex Roth run. Racing against Will Hare will be fun and challenging because he's a real strong runner throughout the whole race. He's really good at getting a PR, and it should be a lot of fun to race someone I'm very close to.

Q. Would you call yourself a kicker?

Sit and kick is something I really like to do. I can't lead a race to save my life, if I'm in the front I'll slow down and let someone else lead.  If I wasn't looking to win the race and just trying to be a low point scorer I think I would pick a guy on an opposing team that is slightly faster than me and stick with him as long as I could.

Q. Do you have any takeaways from last year?

We need to focus on injury prevention. One of our top guys, Will Titus, has been hurt for 3 months now and it's been a real bummer having him out so we're trying to focus on less injuries. Also, our team chemistry has gotten a lot better. We went to [outdoor] nationals and being on a good relay team really helps with that. As for cross country, we are trying to create a legacy. We don't want our team to be a shining star that goes out, we want to be that star that keeps on shining, so we want to get our team in a routine that is way up there, competing with the best.