Run to Win

The 2^nd annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 18th, 2008 at the University of Southern Maine. This is the third part of my reporting on the clinic; the first part was about injury prevention and treatment, the second part was about nutrition basics and fueling, and the third part was about selecting proper footwear.

The fourth part of this series introduced you to the 3 athletes on the panel, and this final part will summarize their thoughts on training, teamwork, and racing as they answer the questions posed to them by the people in attendance.

What do you wish you knew in high school that you know now?

Lauren Fleshman only had 2 paces in high school, workout and racee. In college, she had 3 paces, workout, maintenance, and racing. She had a much better idea going into each workout what the goal was, and sometimes that was just to prepare for the next workout. She also would like to have known in high school how much better she could recover from two-a-days than doing 1 longer run throughout the day. In college she would run double 3 or 4 times per week.

Matt Lane would like to have known how important consistency in training was, especially having grown up in Maine where consistent running can be more difficult than elsewhere.

Matt did not run on the indoor track team, and instead competed for the ski team. Unless you are Ben True, skiing is not a complete substitute for running. It gives you great cardiovascular fitness, but it just doesn’t translate onto the track.

Matt would basically not run a single step between November and March, and his high school track times suffered as a result. He considers himself by far the slowest guy in the top 10 at Foot Lockers for his track times.

Matt wishes that he knew that running even once or twice a week would have been good enough to allow him to maintain his running fitness between the cross country and track seasons. Going for 5 or 6 weeks at a time without a run just didn’t allow him to do that no matter how well he was cross training. In the Summer, he did not have that same problem, which is why he did so much better in cross country.

Louie Luchini wishes that he had known what a difference a high volume workload can make, and wishes that he had done some harder workouts in high school.

His biggest problem with the extra volume, though, is that he sleeps too much and morning runs are out of the question for him. (Much to the chagrin of his coaching staff.)
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This has been a jam-packed weekend; there was a lot going on! If only NBC actually broadcast the races, I’d be all set. I’d sit there and watch commercial after commercial.

First, the women’s marathon. I almost cried when Deena Kastor broke her foot barely 3 miles into the race. Magdalena Lewy Boulet made it a bit further, but also dropped out due to an injury. Blake Russell was the only American to finish, taking about half a minute longer than it did in the Trials back in April and coming in 27^th overall.

It was an exciting race, though. After a pedestrian pace over the first half of the course (I could have kept up), Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania was the only runner to have the courage to go for it. Nobody ever came close to catching her as she crossed in 2:26:44. The race for the next two medals was close, though, as Catherine Ndereba edged out Zhou Chunxiu for the silver medal. Catherine was the only woman to medal that I had predicted before the race, as Paula Radcliffe fell apart and finished in 23^rd. (Deena was my other pick.)

The men’s 100m proved pretty interesting, as Tyson Gay failed to make the finals so he didn’t win the silver medal I thought he’d get. Usain Bolt ran away with it as expected, though, crossing the line in a world record 9.69 seconds despite showboating the last few steps.

The women’s 100m finals was very interesting, with 3 quarters of the field made up of Jamaicans and Americans. The Jamaicans swept, though, keeping every other country off of the medal stand.

On the 1500m front, Bernard Legat missed making the finals by 0.02 seconds. He didn’t even realize it until after he’d left the track.

And of course, last but not least, we go back to Friday and the women’s 10,000m, where Shelane Flanagan managed to set the American record in 32:22 to bring home the bronze medal.

I realize that I’m skipping over the women’s steeplechase, but I don’t want to know the results of that race until I find a video somewhere of the entire race.

Photo by Erik R. BishoffTwo weeks ago, Alan Webb ran a 3:30.54 in a 1500 meter race in France, the fastest so far this year. Yesterday, he ran the fastest mile this year and broke the American record by running 3:46.91 at the Atletiek Vlaanderenmeet in Belgium. There were less than 1000 people there to see the race.

Webb is having a great year, having already set some fantastic marks in the 800m as well as the 1500m earlier in the season and winning a few meets. Steve Scott, who set the previous mile record of 3:47.69 in 1982, was not surprised that his record was broken.

“I want to personally congratulate Alan,” Scott said. “I anticipated it being broken. After his 1:45 and his 3:30, you knew he was capable of it. It was just a matter of having the right pace and conditions. Even if conditions weren’t perfect, he’s so strong, I knew he could do it. I had a prediction of 3:46.5 for him.

“I’m happy that it was Alan who broke it, and I believe at the end of the day, when all is said and done, that people will consider him the greatest distance runner America has ever had. He has such range, he’s so young and he’s accomplished so much. I have nothing to be ashamed of, losing the record to him.”

The USATF has published a transcript of excerpts from the teleconference with Webb after the run on their website.

Update: There are also videos available of the race itself and his post race interview.

(Sources: USATF – LA Times)

Shani Davis skated 1:42.32 and broke the world record yesterday in the 1500 meter speed skating. He broke the previous record, which he set about a year ago, by 0.36 seconds.

There have been a few records going down recently. Sven Kramer broke his own 5000 meter record on Saturday by about a second and a half, coming through in 6:07.48. That’s over 10 minutes faster than I could run the same distance.

The World Cup finals for speed skating seem to be fast this year.