Track and Field Blogs - Reid Coolsaet

The two things that worried me the most going into the marathon were being able to handle the pace and my legs holding up for 42.2km. To be specific, I was worried that I wasn’t going to feel comfortable running 3:12/km (5:12/mile) right from the gun, imagining that it would take a few km to warm-up. And, I ultimately thought my calves would let out on me or completely seize up towards the end of the race. Throughout my cross training (pool running, biking, elliptical and XC skiing) I never extensively worked my calves like I did other leg muscle… more »

It's closing in on one year since my last Floblog. I know it's been a long time but, it's been even longer since I've raced (so not much excitement). I just raced this past Sunday, I'll get to that after answering the question "What the heck happened?" Last April I pinched my sciatic nerve and after 2.5 months of x-training and trying to race at the Olympic trials (which didn't happen) I took some much needed recovery time. I started back up running in August and was just logging miles until I did a 25km trail race at the beginning… more »

Happy Canada Day everyone! Less than one week to go before the Canadian Olympic trials. I was thinking of letting it all go earlier last week but for some reason I just couldn’t quite pull the chute and I had to try a running workout one more time. I ended up doing a 200m then 4 X 800m. I saw some improvement from the week before but, my calf is still not working properly, no surprise there. It’s been a few days since the mini-workout and my calf is still a little sore. I was contemplating testing it again on… more »

There’s less than two weeks to go until the Olympic Trials (July 4th) and I have not been able to do one track workout that points to running a good 5000m. I had decent workouts when I started running again and I thought that they would get better, but the injury runs deeper than I anticipated. Having pinched my sciatic nerve over 10 weeks ago I still cannot recruit my left leg muscles properly. Specifically, my H reflex is quite slower on my left leg than my right leg and really affects my soleus. When I try to run fast… more »

I know it's been a while since my last entry but, I haven't had any exciting news. I do have a lot going on and hopefully someone can learn from this experience.

THE INJURY

This past week I saw a Neurosurgeon and a Neurologist. With the Neurosurgeon we went over the MRI results and he concluded that I don't need surgery, which was a big relief. Although it would of been nice if he said, "oh, there's a little problem in there, let me fix it. It will only take a second and… more »

I spoke too soon when I said my body was holding up fine. Physically, things went downhill starting on Friday night… well, they probably started earlier but, they became problematic by Saturday morning when I couldn’t get out of bed properly. It was a planned day off so I figured I would rest and hope that Sunday I could run again. On Sunday morning I ran 30 minutes (planned to run 95 minutes) before I turned back and walked/jogged back to the car. There was no chance of running on Monday, I couldn’t even walk properly and if I stood… more »

Training in Flagstaff has been going well and it's been great running into old friends and meeting new ones. Last Saturday we met up with the Canadian triathletes on their last night in town. The next morning we had a nice long run with the Indiana guys and a bunch of locals. That was followed by a great brunch hosted by Alicia Shay and her family and then an Easter Egg hunt put on by Mike Smith (top pic).

On Saturday night Simon Whitfield (2000 Olympic Gold Medallist) and myself sat down to 20 questions that someone… more »

Eric Gillis and I arrived at Phoenix airport on Sunday and made the drive to Flagstaff with a stop in Sedona. The only car they would give us for a one way rental to Flagstaff was the Nornee Mobile. I knew it was supposed to be snowing in Flagstaff so I figured we would run in Sedona and skip the snow. That wasn’t the case as there was snow on the ground in Sedona. The run itself felt alright once my travel legs loosened up after the first 30 minutes. Last year at this track I was running without a… more »

Flight from Buffalo, NY to Jacksonville, FL = $368.04

Airport shuttles= $75.00

Hotel in Jacksonville = $335.61

Competitive 15km = Priceless



.

Going into the race I, first and foremost, wanted a solid effort over 15km with people to run with, check that off. I also wanted to finish in the top three and run under 44 minutes. I didn’t get the time but, considering the wind (25mph with 40mph gusts) I was happy with 44 minuted and 25 seconds. When… more »

Got those lyrics from this song “Run” that I’m currently diggin’, (seems as though the real video keeps getting taken off Youtube for copyright restrictions)



Last week I did a workout that I do at least once every winter, and I don’t mind saying, that I killed it. Nevermind that I normally run this particular workout of 10 X 600m with 200’s thrown in the middle on a 185m indoor track, and last week I did it on a 400m track in near perfect conditions, minor details, haha. Last year this particular workout… more »

Well that was a short and sweet indoor season. I ran a 3:51 1500m and a 7:53 3000m(PB) and ran less than 10km on the indoor track for the whole month of January (including races). Now my focus will be on Mt. Sac and Stanford with a road race in March thrown in there so I don't forget what it's like to race.

Tim Konoval and I have been here in Auburn, AL for a week and a half and so far and the weather has been great, except for this morning's thunderstorm with tornado warnings. There… more »

If you made the connection between the blog title and where I’m going be training for the next few weeks then you must be a Neil Young fan. At one point a couple of months ago it looked like the Speed River contingent was going to be six strong down in Auburn but, due to an injury and race schedules it will be Tim Konoval and myself. Lately the temperature in Guelph has been hovering around the -10C mark (14F) and yesterday it dumped enough snow to make my morning run slow as molasses and relegated my afternoon run to… more »

What a difference four and eight years can make. At the beginning of 2000 my goal was to make the Canadian Olympic trials and I ran a huge PB to dip under the 14:40 qualifying standard for the 5000m by less than a second, and then I eclipsed the 1500m standard of 3:53 by less than a second as well. At the start of 2004 I had PB’s of 3:46 (1500m) and 13:53 (5000m), quite a ways off the Olympic standards. Even going into the 2004 Olympic trials (the last chance to make the Olympics) I was not thinking of… more »

Yes, it's me again. But I just had to share this clip with y'all from the Senior Men's race yesterday that my friend caught on video.



I barely pulled off the win yesterday at the AGSI National XC Champs in Guelph over teammate Eric Gillis. I seriously thought I was going to finish second when Gillis and I got to the bottom of the hill with 200m to go. He has been stronger on the hills this fall than myself but I decided I wasn’t going out without a fight. So I pushed… more »

Yes, another blog... aren't I the keener. I started blogging (I hate that word, blogging) last March in Flagstaff and when Mark asked me to put my blog on Flotrack this summer I said 'for sure'. So I've kept up my weekly blogs ever since and this weekend there happens to be a big race in my backyard...

..The 2007 AGSI National Cross Country Championships are coming up on Saturday and I’m pretty excited that they are being held in Guelph. It takes me about 9 minutes to run to the course from my house, so I’ve… more »

Quick update from Manchester before I get some Turkey. Round two as I've already celebrated Canuck Thanksgiving in early October.

Beautiful day, 16 C (61F) and sunny so I thought everybody would run fast. It wasn't really the case though as the race strung out before the 3 mile mark and almost everybody was running alone. I was about 15th at the 2 mile mark and Fagan was way ahead in first, he killed it up the hill and gapped the pack. I picked off a few guys on the downhill before the 3 mile mark and… more »

Big weekend!

Our adventures started off on Thursday evening when seven us left Guelph and drove for 3 hours to spend the night in upstate NY. On Friday we drove another 6 hours (passing through Scranton, PA) to get to NYC. We decided to stay in between Van Cortlandt Park, where we were racing, and Central Park, where we watched the trials. That put us right in the middle of the Bronx in a cheap Howard Johnson.

Watching the trials were tons of fun, so many people were out watching the race. It… more »

When I talk to people about being a full-time runner they usually ask me what my day consists of. When I used to work 30 hours a week right after University I would be much more efficient at errands such as grocery shopping, laundry etc. Now those are events in my day. Also, since I have the time, meal preparation takes longer and I’ll bake cookies instead of buy them, those kind of things.

Normal day…My Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are pretty much the same. Tuesdays and Thursdays are pretty much the same and Saturdays and Sundays… more »

The following is true tale of the best prank that has ever been played on me. I will start from the beginning so everyone can get an idea of who the players were and why this prank happened.

One spring day in 2003 my university of Guelph roommate, Robin Bourke, came home from the library and showed myself and my other roommate, T-Bone, a note he discovered on his books upon returning from a study break in the library. The note said something on the lines of “Hi, my name in Lindsay. I am in your… more »

Since my last race a few weeks ago I've been laying low, getting fat, hanging out with friends, skateboarding and mountain biking. I also had a check-up with the doctor who works with the National Endurace Centre here in Guelph. In the check-up I mentioned that my right foot has been hurting for about a year and a half, not enough to stop running but enough to cause pain if I step on uneven ground. So she decided it would be best to get an X-ray and bone scan to rule out anything serious. During the bone scan last thursday… more »

That’s the end of my 2007 track season. In both of my last two races I came up short of my time goals but, when I look back on the season as a whole I can say that I’m happy with how it went. The highlights for were my three PB’s (3:40.38, 13:21.53 and 27:56.92), and winning the Canadian 5000m title for a fourth time in a row. I was also very pleased with how my last month of training went. I definitely got to a new level of fitness in my workouts. Before if I was to run 5… more »

tried to solo at 10 000m tonight. I split 13:53 for 5000m, right on pace. Then I threw in a bunch of 69’s and completely ruined all chances of A standard, 27:47. I got lapped by K. Bekele and then latched on to him for a couple laps, man it felt good. I’m confident if I had people to run with a 27:45 would of been possible. I had some of my best workouts ever in teh past month so I decided I had to make a run at A standard for 2008. Well, back to the drawing board and… more »

Worlds have come and gone and the highlight for me was Gary Reed's silver in the 800m today. Not only is the silver a great accomplishment for Gary but, it was a very exciting race that came down to one one-hundredth of a second!

The Canadian team took home two medals (one more than 2005); Perdita's silver in the 100m hurdles was the first one, (plus a gold in the women's demonstration 1500m wheelchair). So you can see why a medal is a big deal for us Canadians and especially one that didn't come from the… more »

Worlds coverage starts tomorrow night and I have to say IÂ’m getting pretty excited for it. I filled in my fantasy team on IAAF.com and spent the $4.95 to get the WCSN.com coverage (thankfully Eliterunning.com put up a schedule of the distance events so I donÂ’t need to add the 13 hours for every event I want to watch). CBC will have TV coverage here in Canada on the weekends and Mark will surely have some good interviews here on Flotrack. Yes, it would be safe to say IÂ’m a big track fan, and, IÂ’ll admit, a bit of a… more »

Now that IÂ’m planning my next 12 months I need to start getting ready for the possibility of Beijing. Going to Flagstaff for a month in the spring is still in my buildup as I feel it worked well last year. At an Athletics Canada team Beijing information session in 2005, (that IÂ’ve since been kicked off of), we were told it would be a good idea to get over to China and experience the culture. Its also going to be fairly hot there so maybe its a good idea that I get out of the Canadian winter for a… more »

Let me recap the spring and summer of 2007 for yÂ’all and to do so IÂ’ll tell you where I was coming fromÂ… 2006 was a disappointing season as I contracted a nasty case of Bronchitis in March which completely screwed up Commonwealth Games in Australia, World Cross in Japan and much training going into the summer season. So not only did I have my first season of not PBÂ’ing over 1500m and 5000m since I started running seriously in 1998 but, I actually wasnÂ’t even that close to my PBÂ’s. I managed to run 13:43 by the end of… more »

Many of you might unfamiliar with me, Reid Coolsaet, because IÂ’ve spent most of my life in the Great White North. So hereÂ’s the low down on who I am and what IÂ’ve done so far.

I was born, raised, went to school and continue to train in Canada. Normally people want to know PBÂ’s coming out of high school (we had a 13th grade in Ontario), 4:06 1500m, 6:05 2000ms/c, 8:52 3000m and 15:56 5000m. Throughout high school I didnÂ’t really run that much other than cross-country in the fall as I concentrated on downhill… more »