Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

Interview: Ryan Bak of Trinity College (Alumni)

At first glance, it may seem strange that Ryan Bak--a 2003 graduate of Trinity College in Connecticut--would have left college with unfinished business.  After all, he was a national champion in cross country, owner of a 4:01 mile time indoors, and the fourth-fastest DIII outdoor 5000m runner ever.  Yet while some may have seen a solid cap to a career, Ryan and others only saw potential left to be tapped.  Since 2003 he has surrounded himself with a number of other national-caliber runners and reaped the benefits (including a 13:38 5000m best), but he's also sustained a string of injuries.  Now under the tutelage of Frank Gagliano in the well-established Oregon Track Club Elite, Ryan hopes that the next year will find him making big improvements to position himself in preparation for 2008.  Ryan recently took some time to talk about his past injury struggles, present turnaround, as well as to reflect on his DIII career, including winning Nationals at St. Olaf. 

You made some sizable improvements in your PRs since training under Bob Sevene out in California after graduating in 2003.  What's the transition been like since his retirement from coaching last year? Bring us through the past twelve months of your running.

The past 18 months have played out as the most trying period of my running career.  I have been on a roller coaster ride of highs and lows due to a series of 4 fairly major injuries.  It began in early 2006 with a short but successful indoor campaign in which I ran a personal best at 3,000 meters of 7:53, demonstrating that my fitness was setting up well for a good showing at the USA Winter XC Championships.  At the cross country trials I finished 9^th in the 4k short course race and came back the next day with a 13^th place finish in the 12k long course race.  I was selected for a spot on my first USA squad to compete in the North American, Central American, and Caribbean (NACAC) XC Championships.  Unfortunately, my first low was right around the corner and a few days before I was scheduled to travel to the NACAC XC Championships I sustained a slight tear to my left Achilles tendon.  Needless to say, I missed a good deal of training and was just getting back into the swing of things when the Big Sur Distance Project was coming to a close.

I moved to Gunnison, Colorado in May of 2006 to be with my girlfriend, Natalie Provost, and to train in the crisp thin air at a base elevation of 7703 feet.  I became a volunteer assistant coach for Western State College of Colorado, a perennial powerhouse in DII distance running.  I began training with Michael Aish, a phenomenal distance runner and New Zealand native, who also began acting as my training advisor.  During my first summer in Gunnison I suffered a major injury to illio-sacral ligament (attaches between the sacrum and illium).  This put me out of running for another two months.  I finally got back to health and slowly built back into training during the fall.  I ran the Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving Day, but soon after I was sidetracked again, this time with serious nerve pain in my right foot.  I discovered that I had a severely pinched nerve that was trapped from releasing and two neuromas in my right foot.  After months of shooting nerve pain, which kept me from any hard running, and exhausting every means of treatment, I finally had surgery on my foot on February 19, 2007.  I traveled to New Jersey to have Dr. John Connors perform an operation to cut the ligament that holds the metatarsals together in my foot so that my third and fourth metatarsals could separate further to relieve the pressure of the main neuroma and release the pinched nerve.  After recovering from the surgery, I spent one week on the spin bike and seven weeks running before I opened my track season with a 13:49 5,000m at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invite in Palo Alto.  My confidence was coming around and I felt like I was finally back on track (literally and figuratively).

A planned move in late May landed Natalie and I in her hometown of Eugene, Oregon.  I wanted to get back to a group-training atmosphere and Coach Gagliano invited me out to train under his tutelage with the Oregon Track Club Elite.  I quickly got to work.  Fresh off of a new personal best, 3:43.52 1500m at the Pre-Prefontaine Meet, in the midst of a heavy week of training and still in my strength phase, my sights were set on a great summer of racing with lofty goals.  Unfortunately, another major injury crept up on me less than a week later.  Another injury to the illio-sacral ligament left me at home all summer wondering if it was time to hang up the spikes as it seemed like my body just couldn't keep up with the daily pounding any longer.

I was fortunate to fall into the hands of an old surfing buddy of Natalie's father.  Without question, one of the most skilled and knowledgeable therapists in the world of athletics, Chris Whetstine, soon became a close friend and the encouragement that I needed to get back on my feet.  The root and driving force behind my string of injuries was finally discovered to be a fairly significant leg length discrepancy.  With the work of Whetstine, Dr. Richard Gorman in Eugene, and Dr. Ted Forcum in Beaverton, I have been able to get back to full strength and take proper measures to minimize the potential for future related injuries.  I am now fully immersed in base training with Gags and the OTC contingency and feeling better than ever before.

It's the unavoidable question that lots of people are undoubtedly asking themselves heading into next year, so we've got to ask you, too.  Next year is an Olympic year.  How are you feeling going into it, and what are your goals?

I am feeling really good going into the Olympic year.  I finally have my injuries problems behind me and I am really enjoying running again.  It is a huge asset to have top-level coaching, a group of talented and hard working training partners, great facilities, and access to a great support system.  I'm very excited at the prospects of competing in my new hometown for the Olympic Trials.  My number one goal for the year is to stay healthy.  If I can do that, good things will come.  One of the biggest keys in distance running is consistency and that means consistent training over time.  It has been a long time since I have been able to put together a solid period of uninterrupted training, and I have still been fortunate enough to make some progress.  I have confidence that if I can reach my goal, I will have a breakout year and make huge strides.

How did your experience running in Division III prepare and not prepare you for running as a professional post-collegiately?

Competing in Division III provided me the opportunity to race in championship races earlier in my collegiate career than I would have otherwise been capable of in other divisions.  This enabled me to gain valuable experiences earlier in my career.  I was fortunate to have a very supportive coach (George Suitor) at Trinity that helped create opportunities for me to race at higher levels during indoor and outdoor track.  Traveling to some meets like Mt. SAC and Penn Relays really opened my eyes to how fast some athletes were running in Division I and made me look outside of the stereotypes of what a Division III runner should be capable of.   The transition to running post-collegiately on the professional level is a difficult transition to make no matter what division within the college ranks you are coming from.  To an extent running for a small school in DIII may have provided me with more opportunities when I first finished school.  Not too many DI runners with personal bests of 4:01 in the mile and 14:00 for 5k have opportunities knocking on their door to run professionally, but coming from a small school and a small program their were some people that were willing to take a chance on me as they saw this as a sign of untapped potential.

How much do you still follow Division III running?  How much do you check up on your alma mater, Trinity College (the men's team is currently ranked 31^st)?

I still try to keep tabs on what going on in Division III running.  I don't follow it as thoroughly as I did while I was still in school competing, however, I do pay attention to the bigger races of the season.  I also try to stay in regular contact with Coach Suitor at Trinity, and I follow the team's results weekly.  Trinity has a very talented team that is still fairly young.  I am looking for them to surprise some people over the next couple of years.

Monday, July 30, 2007 must have been a momentous day for you.  Where does the Letsrun quote of the day rank on your all-time list of accomplishments?

Hahahahaha... I really didn't expect my email to Weldon to develop into the quote of the day.  It felt a little odd seeing my words at the top of the webpage.  I definitely took a good deal of flak for it, which probably negates it off of any list of top accomplishments.  However, I still strongly stand behind what I said.  The recent news with Marion Jones simply added more credence and legitimacy to my defense of Chris Whetstine.  Chris was truly an unfortunate victim.

Do you keep an online running log that you'd be willing to share?

I do not have an online running log.  I keep my log on an excel spreadsheet that I put together several years ago.  I have provided an abbreviated version of the last two weeks of my training:

Monday 10/15 /07       AM 11 miles w/ hurdles, drills, pillars, strides

                                    AM Lifting at Hayward plus core

                                    PM 5 mile secondary run at Amazon

Tuesday 10/16 /07       AM 14 miles w/ 7 x mile on wood chips at Amazon w/2:00 jog rest (4:53, 4:54, 4:54, 4:53, 4:54, 4:55, 4:52)

                                    PM 4 mile shakeout run from my condo

Wednesday 10/17/07   AM 10 miles on Amazon-Rexius-Ridgeline trail

                                    PM Chiropractor w/ laser treatment on neuroma

                                    PM 4 mile secondary run from my condo

Thursday 10/18/07       AM 13.5 miles w/40 minute hill tempo at Hendrix park

                                    PM 4.5 mile shakeout run from my condo

Friday 10/19/07           AM 11 miles w/ hurdles, drills, pillars, strides

                                    AM Lifting at Hayward plus core

Saturday 10/20/07        AM 13.5 miles w/ 7 mile pace run (5:15, 5:05, 5:02, 5:01, 5:04, 4:59, 5:00)

                                    PM 4.5 mile shakeout run from my condo

Sunday 10/21/07          PM 19 mile long run on mixed terrain (Pre's trails to logging road to Mt. Pisgah out and back)

Total:  114 miles

Monday 10/22/07        AM 11 miles w/ hurdles, drills, strides

                                    AM Core and pillars at Hayward

                                    PM 5 mile secondary run

Tuesday 10/23/07        AM 15.5 miles w/ Michigan workout (2k on wood chips, 2k on track, 2k chips, 1600m track, 2k chips, 1200m track, 2k chips, 800m track w/ all wood chips running at 5:10-15 pace and all track running at 4:50 pace)

                                    PM 4 mile shakeout run mostly on grass

Wednesday 10/24/07   AM 12 miles on mixed terrain (condo to Amazon-Rexius wood chips loop and back)

                                    PM Chiropractor w/ laser treatment on neuroma

Thursday 10/25/07       AM 13 miles w/ 35 minute short hard hill loop

                                    PM 5 mile secondary run from my condo

Friday 10/26/07           AM 11 miles w/ hurdles, drills, strides

                                    AM Lifting and pillars at Hayward plus core

Satruday 10/27/07        AM 14.5 miles w/ 8 mile pace run in Corvallis after watching Pac-10 XC Championships (5:20, 5:01, 4:59, 4:58, 4:57, 4:58, 4:54, 4:54)

                                    PM 4 mile shakeout run on wood chips

Sunday 10/28/07          PM 18 mile long run on Amazon-Rexius-Ridgeline

Total:    113 miles

One of the highlights of your collegiate career must have been winning the National Cross Country Championship in 2002.  The race that year was held at St. Olaf, and this year's championship returns to that site.  Bring us through the race that day and how it played out.

It's been a long time, so some of details might be a little rusty.  I remember telling myself all season (beginning with my training early in that summer) that I was going to win the NCAA XC Championships at St. Olaf.  I visualized it way too many times.  I trained harder than I ever had up to that point in my running career and I kept telling myself that I was training harder than everyone else and if I kept it up I could make a statement at NCAAs and run away with the victory.  As the race day neared, I was very nervous.  I put a lot of pressure on myself to win.  Anything less that than would have been a huge disappointment.  I think that most of the people around me, my teammates, and my friends at school, all expected me to win.  That added a lot of pressure on top of the pressure I was already putting on myself.  I just couldn't wait to race and get it over with.  I knew that once the gun went off, I would be calm and my instincts would kick in and take control.

I remember going out hard off of the starting line to make sure that I didn't get tripped or stuck in any of the traffic.  Once I got to the front, I looked around and I felt like everyone in the race was looking at me and waiting for me to take the pace.  I settled in right at the front, but I ran very easy and looked for someone else to take the lead.  I ran very comfortable for the first two miles and then just after the two mile marker I made a hard move off of the front and put in a surge.  That was exactly where I had planned to make a move every time I visualized the race in my head.  No one responded to my surge at first, so I just kept it going.  I ran a hard mile and opened up a big gap of about 20 seconds on the field during the one hilly section of the course.  I relaxed and cruised through the rest of the race.  It was a great feeling hearing the crowd roar and having the race under control during the last two miles.  I really got to relax and truly enjoy the victory.  I might have enjoyed it a little too much though, as I let the margin slip during the last 1/2 mile, but I was prepared to surge if need be.  I remember crossing the line and seeing my Mom and Dad at the finish line.  It was a great feeling and a great relief of pressure off of my shoulders.

What does it take to run well on the St. Olaf course?  Do you have any other general impressions of it, either as a competitor or spectator?

I remember seeing lots of pre race talk on different message boards saying that it was a course suited for strength runners due to the longer hills during the 3^rd and 4^th miles.  People were saying that speed runners would struggle such as myself.  My impression was that the course was pretty slow due to the long grass, but it's not as difficult as people make it out to be.  You need to be prepared to change your rhythm during the 3^rd and 4^th miles.  You can pick up a lot of speed on the down hills and that momentum can be transferred back up the hills.

Are there any other closing thoughts or pieces of wisdom you'd like to share?

I would like to wish everyone the best of luck throughout the last few weeks of the season.

It is important not to lose sight of why you run.  If you enjoy what you do and it brings you happiness it is only then that you will be capable of your best.

Thanks to Ryan for a fantastic interview.

Untitled Comment

9:57 PM, November 12, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Thanks for interviewing Ryan! I have been wondering what he has been up too; haven't seen in much in results lately and now i see why.

Keep interviewing those D3 alumni!

Bak

9:55 AM, November 15, 2007 .. Posted by Manville

Great guy, class act.However, I doubt he was nervous before X-C Nats. I have never seen that guy nervous; Stone Cold Ryan Bak!!!

Pic at the Bottom

12:28 AM, January 29, 2008 .. Posted by Geoffrey Long

Btw. The pic at the bottom was from one of Bak's best collegiate races - 2002 NESCAC XC Championships at the Farm Course - Tufts University. Bak crushed the field and the course record, it was in the low 24 minute range. No one had broken 25 on that course to that point. I am not sure anyone has done it since. Hope you put together a healthy season in '08.
GW Long, Trin '04