Virginia Cavalier junior Ryan Collins is going to his second NCAA Championship of the 2009-2010 season. This past fall, Collins placed 41^st overall and more recently ran 13 minutes, 46.41 seconds for 5,000 meters at the University of Washington Husky Invitational to book his ticket to NCAAs. He's got an open race strategy and looks to keep chopping seconds off his 5,000 time...all the way until the 2012 Olympic Trials!

Today is the Sunday before NCAAs. Did you get your long run in?

Yeah, we usually do our long runs on Sunday. I went a little bit shorter today to try to gear up a little bit for Nationals this week.

Are you tapering?

Yeah. Just not as high volume for the Sunday run. I'm kind of taking it a little bit easier.

What's the rest of your week look like?

My coach drew me out a whole plan. I've got to look back over that. I think Monday we'll do a light workout, then Tuesday a nice easy run. Then Wednesday we're traveling.

What's your typical training look like? Your typical mileage?

During the year, I'm probably around 80. I'm very consistent with my weeks. I have basically the same plan every week.

You mind sharing?

Yeah, yeah. I don't care. On Mondays, I usually just do a run then some strides at the end...like 200s. Hour run then strides. Then on Tuesdays, I do a workout. So whatever coach has for us. It's always different. Wednesday, I usually go for my medium-long run. Usually about 80 minutes or 85 minutes. Then Thursday is my rest day. I usually go about 50 minutes easy. Friday is a workout day. And I have not idea what that is. Then Saturday is another rest day. Easy...about 45 to an hour.

Is this going to be your first track NCAA meet?

Yeah, it is.

How are you going to do?

I think it can go any way. I can finish as high as top-three or as low as 13^th...or 16^th or however many people go. It's just a loaded field. I think I'll be in the top six.

Do you have a plan right now?

Yeah, I do. I think I'm just going try and get good position somewhere in the middle to upper half of the race and then try to conserve as much energy as I can and see what I can do until the end when the pace starts going.

With such a dominant runner like Sam Chelanga in the field, what's it like going into a race with a guy like that?

Sam is someone who's definitely got a lot of respect from everyone in the NCAA, especially with how dominating he was in cross country. But, he's definitely a different beast on the indoor and outdoor track. I know he's run some great 10Ks and 5Ks. I think it will be different style race than how he went in cross country. I don't think it will be a runaway from the gun, but it very well could be. I raced him in a mile earlier this year and he won it, but I've just got to try to treat him like any other competitor. I approach it like I'm as good as him, even though he's obviously a lot more accomplished. But that's how you approach racing him.

Your place-finishes show that you handle championship races well, but are you nervous at all?

I would say that I'm not as nervous as I am excited. There's no real pressure on me. I think that I have a really good opportunity to compete with a lot of people, big names in the NCAA. I think I'm just excited and hopefully I'll be able to compete well. Not much is expected of me, so I'd like to live up to the high expectations I have for myself.

How did you find your way from Boston to Virgina?

I was looking at a bunch of schools and went through a bunch of programs that had kind of what I wanted to major in and also good running programs. My sister went to school down in Georgetown. She was a runner there. I liked the area—the DC/Virginia area. I looked at William and Mary, Georgetown, UVA. Then I just took visits. I was looking at a bunch of other schools and Virginia wasn't even on my list. I was watching a football game on TV and I said that I wanted to look at Virginia, then never really did anything. I couldn't find the coach's email address online. A few months of recruiting went by and I finally I told my dad, “one school that I wanted to look at was Virginia and I never looked at that school.” We ended up contacting Coach Dunn actually at that time. He set me up for a visit and it's the last school I visited. And I loved it.

What sold you on Virginia?

It was a big, big college atmosphere. A sports atmosphere. There are a lot of academic opportunities, a lot of athletic opportunities, athletic help and aid, tutors, study halls...they had what I wanted to major in—kinesiology, so that was a good fit. And, it was an up-and-coming program. It fit everything I was looking for.

Do you have a good trail system down there?

There are definitely a lot of trails. I don't run the trails as much—they're a little bit narrow and windey than I'd like. But there are some good trails and dirt roads that I like. I usually some good loops on dirt roads or golf course loops.

A job in kinesiology, is that the long-term goal?

It's a five-year bachelor's/master's program. I'm planning on staying here five years and hoping that I don't get kicked out before then. I'll plan on being down here five years. Then, my fifth year is an Olympic Trials year and I'll definitely be training here for that. After that, I'll just have to see where I'm at. Hopefully I'll be done with my academics and then I'll see how far I can take this running thing. I'd like to run for a little while. If that doesn't work, then I'd definitely like to pursue in kinesiology...coaching...teaching.

Are you looking more at the coaching side of it or teaching it?

More coaching, I would like to get into. We'll see how it goes. I'm definitely going to be a different person in two years. I change my mind all the time, but I want to stay in the athletic field. It's a good fit for me right now.

So, the long-term goal, in terms of running, is the 2012 Olympic Trials?

Yeah, 2012, I'd love to go to the Trials there and compete.

That's 5K for sure, right? That's your event?

5K for sure...right now. (Laughs) We'll see if I try a 10K in the future. Maybe I could see myself bumping up to that too. We'll see.

Have you run a competitive one before?

I ran at ACCs outdoor last year, which you know is not one for time. It's one for championship-style race. That's the only 10K I've run.

Do you think you could go pretty quick right now?

I do, yeah. I think I could run a good 10. The problem is that you have to get out to Stanford to get a good one. Depending on if I could go out there to do both Stanfords, and I definitely want to run a 5K at one of them. If I could find another 10K to run fast, that would be awesome.

What are your time goals for the outdoor season?

I surprised myself a little bit early on this season, running 13:46. I want to keep chipping away at that. It would be great to be in the 13:30s. High-13:30s, mid-13:30s would be awesome.

What do you guys do for fun when you get free time down there?

Well, instead of writing this paper that I have to write—on my spring break...usually we have a lot of fun down here. During the warm months we go cliff jumping. We go to rope swings. Go swimming and just screw around. We go to these pond beaches and stuff. We go rafting. During the winter time, we've had a lot of snow this year...which is kind of unfortunate. It's been kind of cold here. It's not why I came down here. Once it gets cold up in Boston, you know it's going to be cold every day. We did some sledding this year and had a lot of fun with the snow. We just hang out with each other.

What's the topic of your paper?

Oh, God, I haven't even looked at it yet! It's for my motor development class. I don't even know what the topic is. It's due tomorrow and I feel like everyone else in my class is probably already done it and is probably in Cancun, Mexico right now, sitting back and having fun. But, me, I'm procrastinating...as usual. I'll be doing that for my spring break...all night.

Procrastination. Is that your style?

I would say so...yeah. (Laughs) That's definitely me!

If you could have one meal, prepared by anyone, what would have and who would make it?

It's easy! I would have a Thanksgiving Sub from D'Angelo's! It's turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mayo and it comes with two sides of gravy that you can dip it in. It's pretty amazing! When I go home, I lose all my money to that sub shop! It's a good thing I'm away from that right now.

Can you give me a crazy running-related story?

I've had some good runs, some fun times when running. I've snuck into corn mazes and had cornhusk fights with some of the guys on my high school teams before, which was a lot of fun. One time, me and my buddy Jeremy Langton were out running at night and a car swerved towards us and beeped. It was a bunch of teenagers messing around. My buddy Jeremy reached for a rock on the ground and turned around and threw it at the back of the car and kind of splintered the back of the car. We kept running and they turned around. We had to high-tail it through the woods when they came back.

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