Track and Field Blogs - Flotrack Blogs

The motivation for running a marathon has begun to stick in my soul like honey on ham. It has been a difficult and long road, but I have finally arrived to a peaceful state of mind. I returned from Cuba a little over one month ago, and have struggled to find my stride. The body hurts, my achilles pains, and my form feels stiff; yet these past weeks I have gradually progressed to 2 hour long runs, 5 minute miles, 1 - 10 minute hills, and 70 second quarters. The past two weekends I have climbed mountains, canoed rivers and… more »

The first race of my final College Cross-Country season goes off tomorrow. I am excited and can't wait to see where my fitness is. In the last few weeks our team has had a few tough workouts. Last Tuesday we did 4 miles of two minutes at race pace followed by 1 minute (still) rest where I averaged 4:40 miles and followed by a full mile (uphill) in 4:45. Brendan (Scanlon) was very close and the rest of the top group was between 15 and 20 seconds behind him. Last Friday the team did a 10 mile tempo where I… more »

Well it’s feeling more and more like fall around here, and though now my cross country season consists of about two races in the winter, I can’t help but think back on the days when the turning leaves made my stomach turn in nervousness and excitement for what was in my opinion the biggest and most important season of the year. I remember all those long, grueling workouts on hills, grass and muddy fields. I remember looking down a lineup of over 200 girls thinking I was trying to beat all of them. But never was I more nervous than… more »

XC season is about to really begin and we are starting to ramp things up here in Austin, TX. I returned to the good ole US of A on Aug 26th from China after 20 days in Beijing. Beijing was quite an experience to say the least and I have the photos to prove it. The best thing about Beijing was that your money went so far. Beers at the stadium were 65 cents and hot dogs (actually they were called sandwich hot dogs?) were $1. I felt like a king buying rounds and sandwich hot dogs for everyone. After… more »

So in San Francisco on October 19, my sister-in-law Sara is running the Nike Women's Marathon. It's her second marathon, but the special thing about this one is that she's doing it with Team In Training. Her inspiration is that her cousin Mike Schierenbeck was diagnosed and is being treated for a rare form of leukemia. She's been training hard, and she's almost reached her fundraising goal. I'm putting this online to try to help her get that last little bit of fundraising done since the deadline is September 24. I just looked and she's got $695 to go. That's… more »

Well, I have decided to write a small blog post on how Beijing went for kibet and I in case anyone who voted for us in the Beijing Video Contest wanted to know. To be honest with you it was one of the most unforgettable experience of my life so far. Arriving home and having time to think over the two weeks I was there really hit me hard. After winning the contest everything seemed like a dream, I somehow in the back of my mind couldn't believe that I was actually going and for that reason didn't get too… more »

With the 20k champs behind me, I’m looking ahead to the rest of my fall training. I’ll be racing two more high profile events. The first is the US 8k national champs in two weeks. In the past, shorter distances like this haven’t been my strength. However the course has some hills so it should help me perform well against some quicker ladies. The second race is the World Half Marathon champs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This will be my second World Half team. Second to the marathon trials, there was one more thing I wanted to accomplish this… more »

Cross Country is here and it is time to get excited. This will be my last collegiate cross country season and it could also be the best. This will be my third week of workouts as I try to catch up to my team and the rest of the NCAA who; for the most part, had the whole summer to train. Our season was kicked off by a weeklong camp by Lake Tahoe before school started. This gave the team a chance to congregate after a summer spent spread out in various locations, as well as a chance to meet… more »

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold… more »

Cell phone alarm goes off 4:45AM. Very tired. Back is a little off from the springs in the hotel fold out couch. My roommate, top masters runner and all around nice guy Paul Aufdemberge heads out for a quick shakeout, I have decided to forgo the normal AM wake up 15 minute jog in favor of an hour later wake up call, anytime the alarm goes at 3:45 I find myself unhappy, and a little breakfast a power bar and two pop tarts from the gas station up the road from the hotel. I do AIS stretching while Paul jogs… more »