Track and Field Blogs - Flotrack Blogs

Boy did I ever have an eventful week. So I've been dealing with this injury since August, and we've been chasing pain all over around my core, glutes, quads, adductors, etc. and all the treatments seemed to kind of get things better, but it never got back to 100%. So I was making a trip to MN to visit family for a week, and thought I'd get a prescription for physical therapy so I could continue to get treatment from a therapist there that I've been going to since high school. We were planning 6 visits in a 5 day… more »

Since this is my first flotrack blog I will give a brief introduction of myself. I'm one of the "old men" on the Brooks-Hanson's team. I've been with the program for five years now, with a focus on the marathon.

Currently I am on the comeback trail from an injury setback I had in December. I ended up having to take about 3 weeks off due to a pretty severe achilles injury. Fortunately the time off did the trick and I've been training again for about 4 weeks now (mostly mileage) and should be around 115… more »

The following blog is in response to the comments by Johnny Maguire:

Your observations about elite runners are definitely accurate and I'm not going to try to defend myself or elite runners. I have only done two major road races in my life and at one of them I wandered around like an idiot for about a half hour after the race looking for my parents to take me home and the other time I spent about 20 minutes in the elite runner area and then left to go eat, long before the last of the runners… more »

This month a few of us went to Orlando for the Disney Half-marathon. While there, I got wind that Jim Ryun, my all-time hero of running, was going to be speaking right after us at the expo. Obviously, I decided to stay around and listen in hopes of affirming that he is all of the awesomeness that I've always perceived him to be. He was! Afterward, I stayed and got his autograph on one of his books and wished him well on his next run to regain his seat in the US Congress. I was like a kid in a… more »

Last night I went to the showing of The Spirit of the Marathon in Chico with a bunch of the team. It was really inspiring and entertaining and it made me think about my place in running and what running means to other people.

First, it was wonderful that there was a documentary made about running distributed across the country in the way that this was. Even though virtually everyone that saw this was probably already within the running community, it was still nice for everyone to get together and appreciate what we share. Running press usually… more »

flotrack blog readers,

I wanted to update everyone on my what my situation has been like in Kenya with the election violence and what I am doing these days.

I left my camp in Eldoret for Nairobi on December 23rd, before the violence started. I then remained cooped up in an apartment for much of January venturing out in the mornings to go for a 75 minute run. To say the least, my level of training had dropped considerably. I kept in contact with some of the athletes in Iten to be updated… more »

Today is the start of the 2008 track season for me and for Flotrack's race coverage and like the feeling you get before your first race of the season, "How can I be expected to run fast when we haven't done any workouts on the track?", I am feeling a lil of the butterflies. I haven't done any play by play since I think Huesden, XC doesn't really count, and I'm wondering if I can PR..I mean, be coherent behind the camera.
I should prob tell you, if you don't already realize, I made it back safe and… more »

My latest race was the Disney Half Marathon a couple weeks ago. It was my first race back since the Olympic Trials and probably my last race before the London Marathon. It would have been nice to run fast to get my confidence up but I did get a lot of positives out of the race even though my time wasn't what I wanted. Before the race Kevin wanted me to run the race alone. Most of my best races have always come when I'm just hanging on to someone else. When I raced on the track and shorter road… 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 »

As Mother Nature strengthens her grip on the winter weather, she can also use that winter chill to strengthen her grip on a man's nether regions. It only takes one time to learn that it is very, very unpelesant to freeze junior. Ryan Sheehan can attest as he made this mistake just last Sunday on a run where it was -13 wind chill. He was quoted as saying "I thought that I was going to throw up on the drive home from the run". That would have been bad because the G6 would have smelled bad for a long time.… more »

Now that we are posting our blogs on Flotrackr, I will be writing to a bigger audience then just my mom, girlfriend, and teammates. On our blogs on the Brooks website they would normally just be smack talk between teammates in blog form. For example one month was how I would dominate Kyle O'Brien at the classic American Gladiators, this was before the new show had come on (but I would still dominate him at that as well). He would try to refute this in his next blog but his logic would be faulty and just wrong. Now that we… more »

Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in the PF Chang’s Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon’s “Running Down a Dream” program as a pacer. The program offered support to 39 women making their final bid for an Olympic Trials qualifying time. As pacers, Luke Humphrey, Mike Morgan, Pat Moulton, and myself, were asked to run even 6:20 pace through 22 miles. Should be easy enough, right? That’s what we thought, until we started meeting the women. The pressure started to build with every new introduction.

Some had different pacing strategies—choosing to go out a little… more »

The last time I wrote we had just finished racing the Club XC National meet. Since that time I have been home to Indiana, out to New York, and down to Florida.

For most of the past few weeks I have been at my parents house in Indiana. It is always nice to go home and spend some time with my family and friends I don’t get to see for most of the year. However, the training in my hometown is not optimal, but the weather held up well and we didn’t see much in the way… more »

With our blogs recently changing location, I should probably introduce myself, but rather I think I’ll let my monthly blogs-for better or worse-slowly paint a Monet of myself.

Running-wise, the next thing up is the Women’s Marathon Olympic Trials in April, which specific training for will begin this upcoming week. Since I qualified for the Trials, I’ve thought a lot about my goals for that particular race, but this week I’m working on solidifying these goals...really hammering down on the specifics. Either way, I’m very excited to see how things pan out.

While… more »

Ahh... A sigh of relief. Finals for the first semester have just finished and now I can focus 100% on training. So far I have had about a month of steady mid-forty mile weeks with no injuries. Now it is time to start a solid 2 month campaign of base-training miles to gear up for track. I'll be upping the volume and the intensity here gradually and throwing in give or take 2 speed workouts a week. The speed workouts are going to be tough at first but I'm pretty fit so I should be able to handle it relatively… more »

This is my first time ever blogging, so please bear with me. I have been dubbed the "Grandma" of the group due to my advanced age, but I'm doing my best to keep up with my speedy teammates, in many more ways than just running, since coming on board last month.

I grew up in west Michigan, but I've lived in milder climes for most of the past 20 years. And I haven't spent the entire month of December in a single time zone -- much less a single state, or in Michigan -- since I was… more »

Karlskona, Sweden: I have arrived in Sweden after 40 some hours of travel. It was kind of crazy, I left Perth at 5 pm and took a 6 or 7 hour flight to kuala Lampur. I arrived at 10 pm KL time and had a flight at 9 Am so I crashed at the airport until my flight to Stockholm. That flight was 13 hours, which was hard, I arrived in Stockholm two days after I left Perth at 2:30 pm, but when I arrived to my surprise I had to take another flight at 6pm to Ronnerby and then… more »

Hi Guys,

As you've probably seen in the past few days Mark has been visiting Perth, during which time he has been trying to convince me that Flotrack is the greatest website ever. Upon close inspection I have to agree with him. Flotrack rocks and it's great to see so many people getting involved, be it posting video's, bogging or just logging on and checking out the content. I've gotta say it gives me a really good feeling about the future of our sport. I did notice though that field eventers we're way out numbered, so I… more »

So here we are, Flotrackr. I didn't even know this existed.
I have no idea what to write, so this will probably not be that interesting.

I guess, since it's Januray, it's a time for new beginings and resolutions. 2007 was a fairly tough year for me. It started off well, as I dominated Chad and Clint at the New Year's 4 miler in NYC. I then followed it up with a 40 second PR in the half marathon. However, after that, there was nothing too spectacular. I was ok with that, because everything… more »

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and I’m cruising down highway 58 with coach Pete Rea. We’ve got Depache Mode cranked to the max as we make our way to Blacksburg, VA for a little 3k rustbuster, a kick off to the indoor season. I arrived in NC just a day ago, and made a quick turn around. After the race we’ll drive on down to Tallahassee: our winter getaway and home base for six weeks.

I have to say I am ready for warm weather. I’ve been holed away in the depths of Downeast… more »

Well, it looks like we are going to be posting our blogs here on Flotrackr now. Its kinda intimidating knowing that so many people are going to be reading this. Anyways. This is a pretty lonely weekend her for me in Michigan. Most of my teammates are gone this weekend at various races across the US.

We have a few new additions to the team who are running at the Disney Half marathon tomorrow, along with Chad Johnson, Pat Rizzo, and Yolanda Flamino. In Phoenix a handfull of our guys are going to be pacing elite… more »

This is my very first post so I will be in charge of introductions. Flotrack - Jacob......Jacob - Flotrack. Alright, we got that. I should begin with a brief summary of my life: I was born and raised in Peoria, IL, rocked a small town High School called Farminton (the Farmers)... pause for snicker..... went to college at the University of Northern Iowa, married my lady, and now I pole vault for Nike.
I am super jazzed about the upcoming season because last year was mostly successful and this fall's training has been a extension of that. I… more »

Having just read Sully's blog, I felt convicted that I had promised flotrack to give them some updates in my '08 campaign.

Currently, I am in Tucson, AZ, nearing the end of a 5 week training camp. I have been joined by my wife, Sierra, and just recently, my brother and his wife (and child) have come from New Zealand to partner with us on our road to Beijing.
My brother, Steve, has joined my coaching team to aid Ron Warhurst, as Ronnie's time is mostly committed to the UofM track team. Basically, Ronnie writes my… more »

Vacation is over and its time to get back into the routine. School starts Monday as does my first week at full mileage with 2-3 workouts. If everything goes according to plan; I will be hitting between 90 and 100 miles for the following 5 weeks leaving me primed for an assault on the USA Cross Country champs down in San Diego.

For vacation I went to Breckenridge Colorado and Southern California and while I had a lot of fun it will be nice to be back into a routine with out anything in the way of… 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 »

I know, I know…I have really neglected this whole blogging thing, but I am officially back in blog mode. So my New Year’s resolution is to be much more consistent with my Flotrack blogs. My goal is to have one every two weeks and I am hoping you will all keep me on track if start slacking and I stray from my bi-weekly target.

When last I blogged I had just finished up with the outdoor season and in the process of packing my house up to meet up with my wife in our new digs in… more »

Happy New Year Everyone!

I'm sitting here in the Melbourne airport waiting for my flight to head off to Auckland (its already 3 hours late), but life is good because Quantas bumped me up to Biz Class, which means I get to hang out in the Airport lounge and sit on the upper deck of the plane. The lounge is cool with free food, drinks, and cricket on the tele. I have not uploaded so many videos bc again we are gathering content for our upcoming series, but the last day I was in Melbourne I got… more »

Happy New Year to y'all and welcome to my blog. I am pumped to be blogging on Flotrack.

I saw the New Year in with a very low key party with my husband, my bro, a mate, Dell, my partner in crime, Bronwyn Thompson (long jumper extraordinaire), her husband Jase, Mr Flotrack himself... Mark Floreani and his buddy from Texas, Geoff.

It was a bloody hot evening (41 degrees celcius) so we spent the evening in
my neighbour's pool. We treated our overseas visitors to a typical Aussie bbq. We cooked… more »