Track and Field Blogs - Flotrack Blogs

Despite my attempt to make my own silver lining out of the season, the goal of turning things around in Europe has not gone as planned. When I left Belgium last year after a surprisingly good post-college season sprit of pr-ing, I had big plans for this year. I thought that when I stepped off the plane here in the next year, I’d have accomplished so much more than I have, and would have had the opportunity to do more Golden League or Grand Prix races (which are really cool experiences and make you feel like a flashy track star… more »

I have begun off training in the Mission district of San Francisco. The training includes playing recorder, xylophones, singing dancing; the approach is to teach music to kids, stemming from the core. I am beginning to integrate all of the components from this long journey of life. The fruits of my labor from Cuba, New york City, Brazil, Kenya, Eritrea, Belgium. . . are all seeming to make sense! Dance as plyometric meditation, running as performance, music as art. I am just one piece of the puzzle, but the gestalt is evident. God Bless! Gabe Jennings more »

So it's been a tough time for me lately, working hard to get back into shape after a long layoff. I'm finally moving my mileage up and should be in the 90's or more very soon. I'm pretty darn happy that things are finally coming around. When Rachel doesn't have us going out of town visiting friends, I'm finally able to run with the team again every day. It's like the dawn after the night that seemed it would never end. Hopefully the sun continues to rise on this runner. I've had trouble thinking of something to blog about lately,… more »

The question of whether to join a team or to go it alone is probably the most fundamental question that the post collegiate runner faces. It is a question that has many facets and to which the correct answer depends largely on the specific situation of the athlete and the athlete him or herself. For me this question has been rolling around in my head for a bit. When I came out of college the choice was pretty easy to make. Frankly there were no teams in New England that was developing guys to a national level, except what was… more »

needless to say, it's been a busy month. but the days are drawing nearer to the start of my journey to beijing! only 4 more days until i leave for proccessing in san jose, ca. i will keep you guys up to date on all the goings on in life and travels from here until i compete in china! so keep checking flotrack.com for my blog. BUT... TREYHARDEE.COM just launched!!! on TREYHARDEE.COM you can read my blog, view more photos, videos, and ask me questions about running, lifting, or anything else you could possibly want to know. i plan on… more »

Arcata, July 24, 2008 I have been staying with long time benefactor Dave Figueiredo, owner of Figeiredo's video here in Arcata. http://www.yelp.com/biz/figueiredos-video-and-dvd-arcata We are conspiring to run a second marathon this year? Where? How? Why? http://www.runcim.org/ http://www.seattlemarathon.org/site3.aspx http://www.nycmarathon.org/home/index.php We believe the exposure will be good for my training, good for Saucony http://www.saucony.com/ and good for the sport! I have been participating in the local dance camp this whole week, dancing up a storm! Chango! http://www.humboldt.edu/~extended/afrocuban/links.html Next week and the week after I head down to the city, San Francisco, to get a second years training in the Orff Schulwerk method.… more »

Man I totally forgot all about this blog. I have been trying to keep up on my personal blog. Well I made the Olympic Team and am so stoked to go compete. My wife and I have been very busy getting stuff ready for Beijing, a move to Memphis once back, and then all the newspapers and media stuff. We have been in a little town called Mt.Pleasant, UT for the last 2 days at a high school cross country camp. It's been nice to get away and have no cell phone reception. We head back tomorrow. I will jump… more »

This past Tuesday I returned to Mammoth Lakes to put in my last hard month of altitude training after spending a week in Eugene to watch Sara compete in the Olympic Track and Field Trials. Watching the trials was one of the most emotional week-long experiences of my life. Watching some of my teammates and friends qualify for the Olympics kept me up late at night as a result of my excitement for them. However, my heart broke with my wife and some of my other teammates who failed to qualify. I could feel their pain as my own. I… more »

It’s been a while since I posted a blog but I figured it was about time to jump back on the wagon and start this up again. I don’t really have an excuse for not posting other than, oh yeah, chasing an Olympic standard for the last 2 months. And when I say chasing, I literally mean chasing a standard. Let me summarize, I began my outdoor track season with the Hillsdale Gina Relays on April 25th, with somewhat of an unexpected 3:38.41. I knew I was fit going into this race but since it had been awhile since I… more »

I have been training in North Lake Tahoe for a week now and I just completed the highest mileage week ever in my life. I have been coming to train here every summer since 2005. Owen, my 3-year old son, has made all four consecutive years to my training camp. North Lake Tahoe is located at 6,000 feet of altitude, but I do not come here because of the altitude. I absolutely love to run in this area and I always come back fit, recharged and ready to take on the world. I only spend 3 weeks here at a… more »

Hey everyone! Well, it's finally starting to sink in that I'm going to Beijing! I had kind of a reminder this morning that yes, workouts do tend to hurt. I think I was running on adrenaline all last week after making the team and now my body is finally adjusting! I'll be leaving on July 29 and I'm getting excited to get over there. I can't believe I've already been home for over a week . . . time flies! I'm fortunate to have some family going over to watch me: my husband, Mark, his mom, my parents, and my… more »

my sister recently gave birth to a 7lb 15oz little man. i'm an uncle! so with the trials, my sister having a baby, beijing preparations, moving apartments, and training all happening from july 1st to the 29th... i'll be pretty busy. i'm trying not to lose sight of the forest because of the trees, but sometimes it can seem overwhelming. there are minute details that provide a certain level of comfort that you're accustomed to when you travel or compete. well, i am learning, when you go to china on someone else's bill, those things go by the wayside and… more »

My longest break since the last USATF Championships (where I took a week of and a week really easy) was four days after the Chiba Ekiden. I also took three days off after USA Cross and two days off after Stanford and a few other random days off. I haven't run a step since I finished cooling down after the Trials. Coming into the trials I still had high hopes though. I had strung together a few good workouts and was ready to have a decent race. I wasn't ready to have the race of my life however and if… more »

As a pole vaulter in Europe you get to experience all sorts of different competitions. Sure you get to compete in big stadiums in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans for big prize-money and I'll get the chance to do this on Friday when I compete in the Paris leg of the Golden League series. As a pole vaulter though, you get the opportunity to compete in competitions that few other athletes would experience and these are the 'town square' competition. They are held in town squares, shopping centers, airports, breweries or as the case was in Jockgrim,… more »

I just arrived at the home base of Leuven, Belgium on Sunday, and it feels like just yesterday that I was living the simple life in the sparse dorms, eating waffles and busing to Flanders Cup meets every week. I came from running a 3000m in Cork, Ireland, and despite the relatively short distance between central Belgium and Southern Ireland, it took about 12 hours and a plane, train, bus and a good walk to get here. The race in Cork was my first race after traveling from the States, so I knew it might feel rough from adjusting to… more »

Hey Everybody, I haven't written in a while but don't worry I am ok. I recently got 5th place at the olympic trials and have been writting letters to the usoc to get them to allow 5 athletes per event. They have not responded. OK, i am kidding. Getting 5th is almost as painful as getting 4th but I am slowly recovering. Lets go back to Eugene and see what happened shall we: In the qualifying round I felt a little weak and a pretty close to soiling my speedsuit (at least Nike Unies are not white this year). You… more »

It has long been said that state cross country championships are won in the summer and it’s as true now as it was 30 years ago. In high school I was lucky enough to be a part of two state champion cross country teams and honestly we didn’t train any smarter or harder then the other schools in our state and I very much doubt that we had more talent then the other schools just because we had less then 370 kids in our entire high school. What we did do was meet up every night at 6pm in back… more »

Eugene, July 9, 2008 The Olympic Trials were hugely dissappointing. I am already plotting out the training with coach Dick Brown for this summer to race a 21K this fall and a go at Club Nationals XC in November. At the moment I am on a regime of 3-4 weeks active rest to heal the achilles injury that has plagued me the past year, and rejuvinate the soul. I am heading down to Sonoma Cali for my cousin's wedding, to be followed by a Cuban Dance and Drum camp in Humboldt followed by Orff Schulwerk music education training in San… more »

There was so much excitement going on the last few weeks that I put off writing this until now. I've been watching the Olympic Track and Field trials for quite a few years, but the thrill this year was on a whole new level. That was due in part to the excellent post race coverage and background stories on numerous websites like Flotrack. Although, it was mostly because I actually got to experience an Olympic Trial myself, first hand. I can identify with the daily dedication it takes and the sacrifices made year after year, just to earn the opportunity… more »

I was really excited to run in Eugene. The last time I ran there was at the 1996 NCAA Championships where I ran the 5000 and didn’t make the final. I was looking forward to redeeming myself on that track. My training up to the Track Trials had been going fairly well. I recovered from the Trials Marathon nicely and ran a solid 10k at the NYRR Mini in early June, but other than that, I hadn’t done very much track specific work. But I still wanted to run well. It is the Olympic Trials after all, and a national… more »

I learned something important about myself on a long run I recently completed a little over a week ago. My older brother, who is functioning as my full time trainer leading up to the Games, and I tried to get up early and beat the heat, however, by the time we started at 8 a.m. the roadside thermator in town already read 80 degrees. The long run route would take me through my local neighborhoods for 3 miles and then around the lake for an additional 15 miles before hitting the dirt road that would lead from my house at… more »

- Focus on the task at hand; you have no control over what others are doing in any race, but you do have control over what you are doing, so run smart. - When my runners are getting ready for an important race, I always tell them: 'There are runners in the race who are not as good as you, so make sure you beat all of them. There are also runners in the race that may be equal to you, and you can beat all of them because you run a smarter race. And, there may be some runners… more »

From Cologne, Germany. After what has been a pretty difficult month and a half I find myself in a really good place. I've finished my first week in Europe and competed in my first competition of my Olympic Preparation. The last six weeks have been tough. I've dealt with an injury that stopped my preparation in it's tracks while my competitors have been putting up big results all over the world. It's been a bit of a battle to get through it and still maintaining a positive state of mind. My back injury is now 99% fine and I feel… more »

I don't really want to get too in depth with this but I figured I'd go on the record (or whatever posting a blog is) in saying that I had a relatively bad experience with John Chaplin last year. I believe I was the 21st athlete in the 5000 last year in a race where they said they were going to allow 18 athletes. I was hoping a few athletes would scratch the 5000 since the 10000 was the day before but since they didn't really have any reason to scratch they didn't bother just incase they wanted to run… more »

um, it's done. i made it! this was the best 2nd place i've ever gotten. i left a lot of points out there and i can't wait to get back and train my tail off to get on the medal stand in BEIJING! thanks to all of you who have supported me, read my blog, or just pointed me out and said, i know that guy if you saw me. it all means a great deal and helped me through a rough off-season. i love you all!! the only other thing i need to do now is get an english-mandarin… 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 »