Track and Field Blogs - Flotrack Blogs

Hello Floworld, Today is my second full day in beautiful Flagstaff, AZ. This is my 3rd trip to Flagstaff but my first with the whole Team Indiana Elite. Coach Chapman is doing a research study on altitude training, and the research study is helping to fund our trip. Before we left we all had to go through a lot of test at Indiana University’s human performance lab. We did V02 max testing and lactate threshold testing as well as tons of blood work. It was a lot of time in the lab but well worth it for a month trip… more »

My first Indoor track meet of my young running career was an experience I won't forget. Coming into the race my confidence was soaring, and I knew that my goal of sub-15 minutes for the 5000 was attainable. Earlier in the day (the meet was run at night) I visited Skinny Raven Sports-the best running store I've ever been to- and was thrilled to discover that Jerry Ross and an Adidas Rep would be joining me in my assault at sub-15. Also I was fortunate to be the first field tester of the new Anthony Familigetti designed Adidas prototypes. When… more »

Last month I wrote about my favorite piece of running equipment, the runderwear wind briefs. In light of the crappiest Michigan winter of all-time, I am going to spend another month writing about my SECOND favorite piece of running equipment, my wicked awesome neckbeard. Who needs a balaclava when you can grow one of these puppies. Nothing takes the sting out of a 0 degree day like having a dead squirrel around your neck!

Before you go out and grow your own neckbeard, there are a few things to consider.

1.) Make sure you… more »

I am currently 3 months into my first Michigan winter, and it is looking like there is going to be about another month left of ice, snow, and cold. Being from Southern California this weather and training conditions are the complete opposite of what I am used to. Recent events have inspired me to share a few ‘accidents’ that have taken place over this winter. While most of these ‘accidents’ were due to weather and road conditions, other factors such as carelessness, stupidity, and crooked feet also played a role in some cases.
The first incident to occur was… more »

I was in Denver last week, which was my first time in Colorado and it was a blast. The views of the mountains are beautiful. I was able to travel to the Air Force Academy, Denver, Boulder, and ski at Breckenridge. Due to limited jogging I wasn't able to take advantage of some of the cool runs in the area (especially in Boulder), but just gives me motivation to check the area out again sometime. I meet some cool people and got to catch up with some athletes. Look out for some new interviews on Flotrack soon.

… more »

After a 2 week stint in Tempe, Arizona I’m now back in Michigan. I got in Monday night at 6 pm and when the plane landed, much to my delight, the snow had melted and the air temperature was hovering around 35. I forgot that this is Michigan and no snow in February just means we will be getting hit again very soon. It didn’t take long for that to happen. I woke up Tuesday morning to 4 inches of snow on the ground. So much for running with no snow. Back to the treadmill it is.

… more »

Last week was the scariest experience ever for me...and I'm sure it was no better for Nick. Last Monday as we were out for a 14 mile run, Nick and I split off to head down 25 Mile Rd. to add 2 more miles while our roommates had only 12 on the schedule. Of course, this was my idea to take this route. Black ice was covering the road most of the way, but we didn't have any close calls or anything, so we weren't too worried.
As the two of us turned down 25, we saw a silver… more »

Will try to blog as much as I can today.
Lets see how it goes.

Mark more »

If anyone cares to get update results I am in Boston and I will try to do a live blog. I will leave comments below. more »

While all my roomates are enjoying there time down in Florida this week, I'm stuck at the house alone in the cold. I've done a lot of training in cold weather so you think it would get easier after awhile. What keeps me going though is remembering some of the performances I've had after training in tough conditions. One particular race the comes to mind is a indoor 3k in Seattle a few years ago. I spent a month at home in northern Wisconsin training. I remember doing a 10 mile tempo run right before I left. It was below… more »

The “Up's” for the month was a long awaited PR (PB for you Canadians) in the 5k at the Husky Invite and a fun trip out in Seattle. The “Down’s” for the month were the following 2 weeks of training here in Michigan and a pretty lackluster performance at USAXC. When things start to get down around here I like to watch this video to cheer myself up.


That is pretty much how it is here at the Bloomer house. That is Humphrey with the great beard and Reneau with the giant pot belly.
… more »

All of the women on the Hansons-Brooks team are currently training for the marathon trails in April. This week we headed south to get a reprieve from the winter weather, which, as of late, has not been on short order in southeastern Michigan. Here’s a recap of the trip, thus far.

We woke up around 5:00 am on Sunday to head out for a few miles before our flight, but didn’t even make it 200m before we realized the impossibility of getting in a run, especially with a specified time window due to the flight. Thanks to… more »

Audrey and I took our first plane flight together (how cute) on Valentines day so that I could run the USAXC Champs this weekend. We were greeted at the airport by her parents Rob and Carolyn, her brother David and his fiancée Melissa who had been engaged for only a matter of hours. This was very exciting, especially for Audrey and her family but when we got to Audrey's house we all settled down and went to bed because it was rather late.

The next day I woke up with a sore through but I decided that… more »

So I've had about 8 weeks of due to some shin problems, but now I'm back running again as of this past wednesday!! Let me tell you, I had three intense days of running!

Wed - 6:30mins (jogged to PT)/6:30mins (jogged home from PT)
Fr - 6:30mins (jogged to PT)/6:30mins (jogged home from PT)
Sun - 10mins jogging/4mins walking/12mins jogging

The PT office has me doing some jog/walk/jog for the next few weeks to make sure the shins are ready to go. Nothing really crazy done, but just is awesome to be… more »

Well let me start by answering a question I got from my last blog. Jeff Jonaitis asked me about an incident that happened in December, and how it effected my training. My college teammates and I had a reunion back in Danville where we caught up with each other, relived old stories from our "glory days", and basically put ourselves back in college for a night. So anyway, we have one teammate who was there who we'll call "Jeff", no that's too obvious, lets call him "JJ". He's that guy, you know, the one from your group that's always talking… more »

i'm so proud to be an alumnus of The University of Texas! Kyle, Danzell, Jacob, and Leo just dropped the nastiest Distance Medley Relay, the likes of which none have seen.

great job guys! wish i could have been there to see it!!

HOOK 'EM HORNS!!!!!!!

ps. that's the 6th NCAA Record for the Univeristy of Texas Men's Track and Field team!! more »

This is not something usually associated with Michigan in February, and this year isn't any different. For the meantime, this is reality and I am loving every minute of it. Yesterday I arrived in Tempe, Arizona for a 2 week training camp and walked off the plane to sunny blue sky's and perfect 70 degree weather. Not something I can say about my last two runs in Michigan. Prior to boarding the plane, Michigan was kicking out all it had. -20 degree weather and to my delight a snow storm was just about to hit once again. Luckily enough, I… more »

I had written a blog a few days ago, but then thought better of it. I thought it was funny, and so did Brian, who was the butt of my writing escapade. However, as I was running on the treadmill before catching a plane to Austin, I thought better of it. You see, Brian and I come from middle class farm country where you can make fun of anyone and everyone and not worry about offending anyone. That's because no one's excluded. Jeff Foxworthy built an entire career off of telling jokes about my family, and I don't care. It… 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 »

For weeks now I have been looking forward to this weekend. Not for the race itself but because I wanted to get out of Chico where it has been around 40 degrees and raining which in my oppinion is some of the worst weather imaginable. (I know I'm completely spoiled compared to all you Midwesterners that have to deal with 0 degrees and wind and ice). That has changed and the weather is unbelievably nice throughout the state of California including Chico.

That means I have to change my focus to the race itself. I hoping this… more »

I got to spend most of the month of January in some nice warm weather areas. After the Houston half marathon I went to visit my brother in San Diego. It was nice to spend my downtime in some sunny weather. I was only back in Michigan for three days before a group of us took off for a week in Seattle to visit the Brooks location. This was our second week back to running so it was nice to get out of Michigan and get on some snow and ice free paths. While running on snow and ice free… more »

I'm a little late posting this -- I should have had it up last week -- but things have seemed a little hectic lately, with several trips and too much work... Everyone had good runs down south in January, although most of us got sick during (me) or right after (everyone else) those trips... fortunately we had downtime to recover.

This "downtime" concept is new to me; normally it would freak me out to take off time just a few months before a big marathon -- but I have to say that it was a welcome and… more »

it's been some time now. some time since my last blog post, some time since i've been 100% healthy, and some time since i've felt like myself on the track. but...... I'M BACK. there's excitment when i wake up in the morning, butterflies before practice, and i'm exhausted afterwards!

having the inablity to work when you know you should be is frustrating. but luckily, there were a lot of people behind me, praying and believing that i was already healed. we were just waiting for the manifestation of it in the natural. trusting that the time… more »

Hi, I’m Dot and this is my opening blog on Flotrackr. I am one of five women athletes on the Hansons’-Brooks Saturn Distance Project.

It has been nearly 3 years since I moved here to Rochester, MI to join the team, and it has been one of my best decisions. However, you may not have agreed with me this morning, based on the weather we had during our first official OT workout. It was 23 degrees, with probably 7” of snow on the ground, that fell overnight, and we were on a new course. This was… more »

So here it is, my first blog. I have agreed to blog for flotrack for a couple reasons… first off, the creators are awesome! Secondly, I think flotrack is a pioneer for track and field web sites. Flotrack presents a new excitement for track web sites that has been severely lacking- it not only reports the results but it helps bridge the gap between the athlete and the fan- along with many other great things! Flotrack to most other track and field sites is like In-N-Out Burger to Burger King, high speed internet to dial up, ice cream to frozen… 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 »

Unbelievably awesome; is how I would describe my Super Bowl Sunday. It started off with me waking up around noon and heading off to the football field to play some ultimate frisbee with my History Teacher Mr. Neagley (Who has to be the greatest history teacher ever and is a huge New York Giants fan). It was his idea of a little pre-game celebration. Although we fought nobly my team eventually fell to the trash-talking Neagley and his team who he compared to his New York Giants. Ironically, we fell just as the Patriots would later that day in an… more »

Hi Guys,

To be honest I wasn't expecting to be blogging again so soon but i had quite an exciting weekend and i thought I'd tell you about it.

I had my first competition for the year on Sunday evening in Perth. The conditions we're, to put it frankly, absolutely perfect! It was about 35 degrees(celcius) during the day and we we're under the shade of the grandstand, the wind was strong and blowing directly down the runway. Perth is known for having good conditions but Sunday was amazing.

The… more »