For this week's Friday Focus we caught up with Mark Wieczorek after his pacing duties at Stockholm. He is headed to the first ever FloTrack Throwdown to compete in the 800 and pace the 1,500 on Aug. 8th.

Talk a little bit about the Brooks Beast's Group dynamic? How has it changed since you've joined?

When I first joined the Beasts it was obviously a small team as we were just getting it started. In a sense we were a small team with a bit of an underdog feel trying to validate ourselves as a legitimate training group. Over the past couple years I think the team has developed into a team that is as about as competitive and well know as any in the country and it was really fun to get to be a part of building that with Brooks and getting to see the team evolve into what it is today. One of the things I liked the most about the team was that we were all always really close and it really did feel like a team environment and despite all the growth and changes that the team went through I felt like that was something that we never lost.

Describe your fondest race memory.

Probably the Olympic Trials in 2012. It had been a difficult 2 years of training on my own and coaching myself without much validation of all the work I was putting in and it was almost a relief to make the final that year and perform well. Those 18 months leading into the trials I had worked 6 different jobs and it wasn't easy to make ends meet and I had been considering retiring after the season and running well and getting picked up by Brooks has allowed me to extend my running career and hopefully get another opportunity to compete in another Olympic Trials this next year.

If you had a day off from your everyday responsibilities, describe how you would spend it.

Usually when I have a break from training and have the free time I like to do other sports that I don't get to do much anymore and go hiking or spend time out on the water. I grew up playing basketball, baseball and golf and the energy requirements of training (and injury concerns) don't allow me to do them as much and I've always enjoyed other ways of being active.

What drew you to race at the first ever FloTrack Throwdown?

Well I wanted to do another race and I knew it would be a fun way to finish up my season. I pulled my hamstring this May and re-injured in June so I really feel under raced and am still excited to compete. It's fun to see meets being done in new ways and I just knew Flotrack wouldn't be doing it if they weren't going to be making it a fun and unique experience.

There is going to be a different way of compensating athletes (at the Throwdown) what is your take on that?

I think it's great. It's so easy to get locked in with just the way things are supposed to be done. I have always found that I run my best and that the sport enhances my life the most when I am enjoying running and enjoying my training and I think that just applies to the sport as a whole. Finding ways to make what we do just a fun experience for the athletes and fans will go a long way for generating interest in the sport and anytime I see someone trying to do that I think it's great.

What is your cross training regimen?

When I'm not racing, I like to swim and alter g. For me, my body just isn't able to recover well over time on high training volume so it helps me a lot do my doubles in the pool or occasionally on the alter g. This fall I'm planning to return to doing 2-3, 30-40 min swims each week. I think anything I can do to build my training volume and keep the skeletal muscular stress on my body reduced will help me a lot next year. In season, I generally don't double and will typically take a day off every other week as needed.

What is your main goal for this summer?

I'm in an interesting place this summer. My contract with Brooks ended after the outdoor championships in June and it is probably likely I will be on my own again next year. With the setbacks I had with my hamstring I still feel like I am in the best shape I've ever been in, I just wasn't able to get myself together in time to put down a fast meet and the at USA's I just ran really poorly. So I spoke with my agent (Chris Layne) and if I'm going to be able to support myself to train again next year without funding I need to try and make some money this summer so I am mostly just pacing over in Europe. I will have a race in Dublin on the 24th and then the race in Portland so I'm hoping to be able to make enough money to support myself next year and pop a fast time to show where I think I'm really at right now. It's exciting to be here and still have races knowing I'm not on my last legs and feeling like I am ready to run 1:44.

If you could give one piece of advice to any runner, what would it be and why?

Have fun and enjoy the process. Our sport is so focused on running fast and making teams and when things aren't going well (especially in terms of performances and training) it's easy to get frustrated and not enjoy what we are doing and I see a lot of athletes that are going to finish up and realize their careers are over and they never stopped and took the time to appreciate how amazing of an opportunity they had to pursue their running. I've always said that if the ends has to justify the means then you are in the wrong sport or doing the wrong thing with your life. The process of training and getting to travel and compete and simply getting to pursue finding out how good we can be regardless of the outcome needs to be the priority. If making an Olympic team is the only thing that can justify things and make it all worth it then the reality is that most are going to end up disappointed and I think that's an unfortunate approach for an athlete to take for the sport.