Track and Field Blogs - Flotrack Blogs

I don't know who says it the best but Notorious B.I.G.'s "Sky's the Limit" track comes to mind as he says "your brain was a terrible thing to waste." You learn a lot of things on the circuit as you travel from meet to meet. Things about track, about people, about life. There are also things you learn that may not be new, but more reminded or reemphasized. That thing for me this week has been the power of the mind. People say that when you have success there is no magic behind it, no mysterious unknown that guides to… more »

Oh, gee, what is it tonight? At least just tell me what the hell is wrong, Do you want to eat, do you want to sleep, do you want to drown? Just settle down, settle down, settle down... Right about now I’m pretty much in the heart of my marathon build up for the World Championships. The segment started with a few ‘self-esteem’ workouts and a nice and steady increase in mileage. I am now fully ‘in it’ and long ago I kissed the double digit mileage week’s goodbye. These days it’s a healthy diet of high mileage, long strength… more »

Attitude is contagious. It spreads to your performance as well as to others around you, so you have to be careful with whom you surround yourself. My college coach used to tell us religiously, “whatever you surround yourself with, you will become.” It is ultimately true. If you look at groups who spend a lot of time together, they assimilate to one another and take on the group’s identity and personality as much as—if not more than—their individual traits. A large reason for my initial interest in joining the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project stemmed from the success of one athlete—and… more »

“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That’s how the wining is done!”- Rocky Balboa in Rocky Balboa (Aka Rocky 6) I think we all have our ups and downs in sports as well as life. I think running… more »

Since my last blog I’ve had a few changes in my life. I had a baby in May. Elizabeth Brooke McMahan came on May 4th weighing in at 7 lbs and 20 inches. She’s a complete joy. I’m watching her sleep as I type this. Her legs are in my sleep position and her arms are in her Dad’s sleep position. It’s been fun “seeing” ourselves in her. I’m back into running after a few weeks off. It’s not always pretty but I’m out there everyday clawing my way back into shape. I can’t say what is up next for… more »

Hey everyone, I am in Europe on my first European track circuit. We arrived to London (Ryan Ponsonby, Shannon Rowbury and I) about two weeks ago. We are staying south of London in a nice house in Teddington next to Bushy Park. It is a great location especially for a runner. Bushy Park has about 7miles of trail and connects to Holmes park, which is where Hampton Court Palace is located. Since our arrival we've been training and preparing for Heusdon, London, Stockholm and my main focus, the World Championships in Berlin. I kicked off my first competition in Heusdon,… more »

The decision to pass on a marathon this fall was a little difficult. Last fall, I was probably in the best shape of my life, but was probably just a little overtrained going into the actual race. At one point I ran a 10 mile tempo in 49:30, then came back and did the 26.2k simulation run and came through the 25k split in 1:18 (thinking to myself, how comfortable I felt). But I left the race out on the dirt roads north of Rochester. I was 11th at NYC, but never even put myself in a position to finish… more »

I've been watching the Tour De France every day on Versus as have many of my current and ex-teammates. The Tour has been an interest of mine for a few years now, ever since Miguel Indurain impressed me with his ability to push a 60 tooth chainring when most guys were using 52-56 teeth on the front. Although they're both long distance races, riding the Tour, and running a marathon are quite different. The adavantages from drafting in bicycling are amazing. Bob Roll said the other night that a drafting cyclist gains about a 30% advantage over the guy he… more »

? I apologize for the time in between blogs here. There is only so much a video can show and I need to do better on letting you know the day-to-day happenings out here. At this point I've been to Oslo, Lausanne, Rome, and Liege. Its been a lot of fun traveling and getting to know certain athletes better. There are definitely some characters out there on the scene and I hope you'll get to know some of them better. People like Dexter Faulk (hurdler) and Bianca Knight (sprints) are pretty hilarious, as you may have got a taste of… more »

The end zone dance. The press conference trash talk before a boxing match. Pointing for the fences when stepping to the plate. These boastful acts are sports staples and every sport has its own cocksure characters. In track and field, sprinters are the ones who stereotypically fill this role. Maybe it is because they race entirely in lanes and some pre-race bragging is the only tactic a sprinter can employ on their competition. Perhaps the short race time leaves them with more energy and adrenaline unleash in post-race interviews. Or it could be that many sprinters did other sports, such… more »

I'm very fortunate to be in a position (as a runner) to approach everything I do with passion and have the freedom to race in a way that truly challenges me. I had put myself in a great position this year coming to Eugene having qualified to race in the 1500, steeplechase, 5k and 10k. I had the freedom to compete in any event I wanted to and had either the 1st or 2nd best time in 3 of those events coming into the meet. Having this freedom allows me to make racing decisions many others can't afford to make.… more »

When I went back home to Schaumburg after the Boston Marathon this year, I had one person I had to see right away. At 3:00 on the first afternoon I was home, I drove over to the high school to watch the track team run their last workout before the conference meet and to gain insight from the man I would credit with transitioning me from wrestler to runner, my high school coach, Jim Macnider. “Mac” is one of the most inspirational yet realistic people I know all wrapped into one. He has never been one to give somebody false… more »

I finally have a few minutes to sit around where I am not feeling like I am falling asleep. The first day and a half was tough on the body getting used to the time change. I learned after the trip last year how important it was to get on a good schedule right when you get overseas. I got in on Thursday and kept myself up all day after only sleeping maybe 2 hours on the whole trip over here (23 hr total from door to door). Right when I got to Oslo we were greeted by some workers… more »

I’ve been thinking a lot about fear the last few days. Surprisingly, it was sparked by an article I read in one of the pile of mostly trashy magazines I brought on the odyssey of a plane ride home from Eugene last week. As entertaining as they are, normally I don’t come away from reading Us Weekly or Star with a realization any deeper than “man Paula Abdul is ALWAYS on that embarrassing outfits page in the back”- but this was an Oprah approved article so it was pretty insightful. The article was about how sometimes people use a fear… more »