Track and Field Articles By Danny Mackey

Little Man SyndromeBy Danny Mackey M.S. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity of meeting the best male marathoner in the world, Sammy Wanjiru.  As a distance running fan, a lot of thoughts went through my head.  The first thought was; how many times will I get the chance to meet someone who is arguably the best in the world at their job?  That is a cool question in itself because you may meet tons of amazing athletes, a colleague gifted with intelligence, that person whom is relentlessly hard working…….but are they the best at what they do?  Who… more »

African Runners Versus Caucasians By Danny Mackey M.S.             Other than a few meets outside of Europe, the track season is over.  Between Flotrack and my cable network getting the Universal Sports channel, I have lost interest of my losing Chicago Cubs and been able to watch the best athletes in the world fight it out on a regular basis.  Unlike past track seasons, U.S. distance running fans were excited to cheer on top finishes in major Golden League IAAF meets and championships. America had a number of finalists and top 8 finishes in the Men’s and Women’s 800, 1500,… more »

The Physical Ceiling By Danny Mackey M.S.     May, finally.      Personally, I am jealous as well as excited.  Being injured entirely for 4 months killed any hopes of being personally involved with the fast track racing.  But, Portland is turning the corner weather wise and showing why it is the best place to live for a runner (one third of the year at least).  So, I am enjoying getting back to base training.  It was 65 degrees and sunny for my 12 mile run this morning in the huge temperate-rainforest-in-the-middle-of-the-city, known as Forest Park, and the flowers are still… more »

Hormones Working OvertimeBy Danny Mackey M.S. This article will fortuitously be a continuation from the article “Breaking Apart the Year.”  The only reason this is a “Part Duex” is because my mind wanders so aimlessly, sometimes things come together in order.  Also, I wanted to thank you for the emails and postings wishing me luck on the Achilles injury.  The MRI results came back and neither the tendon nor sheath is torn.  On the other hand, I do have edema in my talus (I only have a hypotheses on why, so I would be curious if someone out there has… more »

Hello everyone.  Before I get into this article I want to apologize for the large time gap in articles (not sure anyone even noticed/cared), but I have a good excuses.  First, the 9-5 has been insanely busy; I have the “Work to live”, not “Live to work” philosophy.  On the other hand, being a hardworking, bullheaded runner like some of you, there is a time to apply that athlete mindset and just get everything done, even if it takes 14 hours a day (multiple days in a row).  Plus in this economic climate, just having a job is a blessing. … more »

Massaging Towards Recovery By Danny Mackey M.S.               Hard training is only half of the equation to success, we need to recover. Just look back to the 38 year old Constantina Tomescu-Dita talking about one of her secrets to success after winning the Olympic Marathon Gold this year: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/sep/22/sandrock-marathoners-coach-reflects-gold-medal-str/.    Constantina speaks about sleeping, but there are other treatments athletes' can use to shorten the recovery time.  Sports massages are one of the luxuries that we only hear elites receiving to aid in recovery.   When you read “the day in the life of a so-and-so Olympian” a massage is often… more »

Carrying The O2 by Danny Mackey M.S.   I was talking with a few athletes the other day about sicknesses and injuries in the pool (the reason it was the pool is because I still have achilles tendonitis and the other guys were injured, there is no other reason to be doing the annoying task of aqua jogging).  Through the sob stories, anemia came up quite a bit.  I originally had planned on discussing the “normal” structural running injuries, but figured the “not so normal” ones would fit better.  One of the interesting trends I noticed, and you would to,… more »

Will Run For Food By Danny Mackey M.S.    I hope everyone enjoyed the downtime from training, racing and had fun with their friends and family over the Holidays.  Now that we are getting back into the routine of work and school, most of us look at 2009 and set performance goals.  If you are anything like me, the Holidays put a little damper on starting 2009 “fit”.  Personally, after a very frustrating 2 years, I began to come around slightly in November and December so I wanted to carry this through to January (as most of us want to). … more »

Living The High Life  by Danny Mackey M.S.  Altitude tents have a personal interest to me.  One major reason is because last year, I decide to be a subject with an ongoing study AND help my own running.  So I started using an altitude tent.  The problems began right after I bombed in the trials (unrelated to the tent) and began having sleep issues relating to disappointment from the race, then to make matters worse I bumped up the tent to 12,000 feet.  Combine sleeping 2 hours a night, full-time job, and 12,000 feet air while I’m supposed to be… more »

Detecting gene doping (this is the 4th article in a series of 4 focusing on Gene Doping) by Danny Mackey M.S.             I raced last week and it was a disaster.  In the beginning of the last article I talked about how my workouts had been coming along and I was excited to race.  But, sometimes the equation does not make sense.  I felt horrible physically, and when things started going bad I think I subconsciously disengaged (then the race went down hill even more).  So to keep it short, the lesson I learned from the race was I should… more »

The Risks of Gene Doping (3rd in a 4 part series looking at gene doping) By Danny Mackey M.S. (note: that picture heading for the article is a classic one of a rat’s muscle composition before and after taking a PED)               Since I post my training log on the site, I will start out with a little about my running.  I just go to my blood tests back yesterday and my red blood cell count is almost “normal” but my testosterone is double what is was in May (but still on the low end of normal).  Also, my… more »

 Specific Genes Altered (Continued from Gene Doping series part 2) by Danny Mackey M.S. We are still looking the topic of Gene Doping.  As I’m writing this (and listening to The Carps featuring The Cool Kids and the new Saul Williams album) I think it might be a 4 part series.  But, we will see what happens.        I always end up in a bad mood talking about cheating, so before we go on… how about Pre Nats!?  I was lucky enough to watch it live from LA (I went down there to race myself but got sick, let me tell… more »

How Fast Are We? by Danny Mackey M.S.              Regina Jacobs, Marian Jones, Tim Montgomery, the 7 Russian athletes this year, Brahim Boulami, Justin Gatlin etc etc.  I could add another 100 etc etc.  It is no wonder why people look at the recent amazing performances of Kenenisa Bekele, Usian Bolt or Haile Gebreselassie with a pessimistic (or realistic?) eye.              We all know the people that think everyone cheats, I probably sit somewhere in the middle and think (or know) athletes cheat but not all.  Call me a hopeless ignorant guy who still believes we… more »

  Don’t be all on your Jack Jones By Danny Mackey, M.S.     Did you ever notice some things are just better together verses alone?          Chips = good, picante salsa = good, chips + picante salsa = great.  I also just got introduced to those Uncrustables, and that reminded me of the classic all time best combos…..peanut butter and jelly.  Side note: if you like PB & J, try Uncrustables, though I think there is “something” in them, so don’t feel bad if you put down an entire box.  You can probably tell I’m hungry while writing this, but what about a… more »

Hi Flotrack,    You may or may not care who the heck I am (Danny Mackey), but this first “article” will just be an introduction.  I will try and save the boring  random details of me like, favorite color (light blue) and what albums are on the speakers right now (MGMT, Rage Against the Machine, Tokyo Police Club, The Cool Kids) and get to the running and science stuff.   So, I am from the south side of Chicago.  We moved to the suburbs later and I went to Andrew High School in Tinley Park, IL.  If that sounds familiar… more »