by Larry Eder
RBR, # 1. Congrats on your AR Casimir, how does it feel?
Casimir Loxsom: It’s certainly exciting! I’ve had this as a goal for a long time now, so it’s a really satisfying feeling.
RBR, # 2. Tell us about the race?
Casimir Loxsom: The plan was just to have a good hard effort on the day, and come back later on in the 4×400. Danny and I had a 30-second conversation about the race that was basically, “Your speed endurance isn’t good at all right now, so try not to go out in 22 (seconds) or it’s going to hurt, a lot.” I was really careful the first 200, and it was a good thing because the last 150 (meters) wasn’t super fun. Once the clock came up with the official time, I knew I had the record and it was a great bonus on the day.
RBR, # 3. What do you like about racing in Albuquerque?
Casimir Loxsom: We are up here doing an altitude stint, so it’s really convenient to have an indoor facility right in town with early season competitions. Coach Franklin and the UNM program in general have been extremely hospitable and everything logistically was really easy and low stress.
RBR, # 4. Tell us about training with the Brooks Beasts?
Casimir Loxsom: It’s been so great. I always knew I wanted to train professionally as part of a group, and I really believe that we have one of the best setups in the country. We train really hard, but have a good balance of social life and fun things that keep us sane, especially when we are up here at training camp. The Beasts have a great group of personalities to go along with all these speedy legs.
RBR, # 5. How has your training been going?
Casimir Loxsom: I’m a different animal this year. Even though last year was an off year, I was fortunate enough to place high at the U.S. Championships, and that allowed me to have some really great opportunities including two Diamond League meetings during the second European session. Being around such great athletes as a peer was almost a guilty experience, because my 2014 had significant training gaps that were, simply put, a result of me not being diligent and working as hard as I could have.
I came into the fall not resting on any laurels, and worked my ass off. I’ve built into carrying consistently higher mileage than I ever have, and it’s showing, especially on tempo and long run days. Leading up to this meet, I had a great 4-mile tempo run Friday, a 90-minute long run on Sunday and a hard session of short-rest 300’s on Tuesday. 2015 is a year that I really want to do everything right, and earn my place in the conversation among the top 800 runners in the world.
RBR, # 6. Where will we see you next indoors and tell us about the upcoming season?
Casimir Loxsom: Next up is the NB Indoor Grand Prix 1000. It will be nice coming down from up here and getting some good old-fashioned New England oxygen. It will be really interesting racing a little bit above my normal race distance. I honestly have no idea how it will go, but it will be lower pressure than racing another 6 or 8. I’m really looking forward to it; it will be a lot of fun. After that, I’ll probably just lay low until USA Indoors.
RBR, # 7. What do you like about 600 meters?
Casimir Loxsom: It’s just a really good event for me. It’s an “off” event, but I’ve been racing it since I started running track in high school. It’s a big event in the Northeast, and my high school highlight was probably winning the New England Championships in the 600 my senior year. It was an event at Big Ten Championships, and I’ve had other opportunities to race high level 600s since I’ve been a pro. I also think that 600 races and time trials are excellent race prep for 800’s; they make the pace in an actual race scenarios feel a little slower, especially for someone like me that will usually put myself further up in the pack.
