There were so many great moments in the 2008 Olympic meet, and, particularly for USA Track and Field, there were several, well, not so great moments. Here are just a few...
Highs:
Shalane Flanagan's bronze medal performance in the 10,000m. From the gutsy way that she ran to the shots of her mother cheering wildly in the stands as she went from a solid fifth, to fourth, and finally overtaking the third place runner to win the bronze; to her priceless reaction as she finished ("Did I get third?") and the clear emotion on her face as she realized she had medaled and draped herself in the US flag. One of my favorite moments of the Games.
The US Men and Women taking gold in the 4 x 400 relays. It was a sigh of relief after an otherwise fairly dismal meet.
Usain Bolt. I didn't care for his over-the-top reactions to his wins, but man, he's fun to watch run.
Ato Bolden asserted himself as a very good track announcer. I hope he continues to be in the booth going forward--NBC's usual T&F announcers leave a little to be desired, to say the least.
The Kenyans. Bekele ran one of the all time great 5000m, and Wanjiru obliterated the Olympic marathon record on a hot, humid, smoggy day. The marathon in particular was just unreal.
Lows:
The US sprinters. Aside from the US sweep in the Men's 400, they were, for the most part, nowhere to be seen. [Edit--we did go silver/bronze in the Men's 200--I guess I was just too distracted by the batons hitting the ground in the 4x100 to remember that]. Dropping the baton in both 4x100 relays has to be a new low.
Bernard Lagat. Running on an injured Achilles, he failed to qualify for the 1500 final and finished a fading 9th in the 5,000. Tough meet for him.
Deena's broken foot. I think I had "sympathy pains" here in Houston when she went down. Man, I hated to see that--she's a favorite of mine.
Lolo Jones/Sanya Richards/US Men's Shotputters. Disappointing results from all.
What did I leave out?
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11 miler yesterday out in the humid. It went ok, but I drank Gatorade to refuel rather than my usual water/Gu, and it didn't sit well for a while. And, well, it was humid. Other than that, though, it went reasonably well. I'm off to do an easy
three or four mile recovery. Swim tomorrow--the water should feel good.
Carpe viam!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tough week of running
My schedule this week dictated that I was only able to run around midday this week. No big deal--anytime you get to run is better than not running at all, by far--but it was just enough to throw me off of my game a bit, and none of my runs felt particularly good. I did a somewhat hilly bayou trail run on Monday, a 4 miler in an absolute, honest-to-goodness gullywasher downpour (complete with big puddles to run through!) yesterday, and a pyramid in the hot in between rain showers today.
All in all, it was pretty good. Character building. The rain actually felt muuuuuuuuch better than the heat did--that was tough. Enough sweat in my ears to kill my headphones.
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As tough as the running has been this week, USATF has had a much tougher (and higher profile!) week. Let's see...
Tyson Gay doesn't make the finals of the 100.
A potential sweep in the shot put becomes a lone silver medal.
Deena Kastor breaks her foot in the marathon and DNF's, and Lewy-Boulet DNF's a few miles later with a knee injury.
Lagat doesn't make the 1500 final.
No medals for the US in the women's 100m.
Sanya Richards settles for bronze in the 400m.
Heavy favorite 100m hurdler Lolo Jones hits a hurdle and finishes 7th
Men's and Women's 4x100 drop the baton and fail to make the finals.
No qualifiers in LJ, HJ, or Triple Jump on the men's side.
We did have a few nice surprises in the Discus (Brown's gold) and the W 10,000m (Flanagan's bronze), and we did sweep the 400 and 400 hurdles. And I still think Hall will medal. But good grief. I can't believe this is all because Masback left, but maybe the USATF just needs new direction.
At any rate, it has been a very disappointing meet.
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Come to HARRA's Party in the Park Saturday morning by the tennis center! All of the running clubs will be out there. Come check them out for yourself--you may find a good fit!
Carpe Viam!
All in all, it was pretty good. Character building. The rain actually felt muuuuuuuuch better than the heat did--that was tough. Enough sweat in my ears to kill my headphones.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
As tough as the running has been this week, USATF has had a much tougher (and higher profile!) week. Let's see...
Tyson Gay doesn't make the finals of the 100.
A potential sweep in the shot put becomes a lone silver medal.
Deena Kastor breaks her foot in the marathon and DNF's, and Lewy-Boulet DNF's a few miles later with a knee injury.
Lagat doesn't make the 1500 final.
No medals for the US in the women's 100m.
Sanya Richards settles for bronze in the 400m.
Heavy favorite 100m hurdler Lolo Jones hits a hurdle and finishes 7th
Men's and Women's 4x100 drop the baton and fail to make the finals.
No qualifiers in LJ, HJ, or Triple Jump on the men's side.
We did have a few nice surprises in the Discus (Brown's gold) and the W 10,000m (Flanagan's bronze), and we did sweep the 400 and 400 hurdles. And I still think Hall will medal. But good grief. I can't believe this is all because Masback left, but maybe the USATF just needs new direction.
At any rate, it has been a very disappointing meet.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Come to HARRA's Party in the Park Saturday morning by the tennis center! All of the running clubs will be out there. Come check them out for yourself--you may find a good fit!
Carpe Viam!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Women's 10K -- Spoilers
I'm irritated that I have to post spoiler warnings here. NBC's coverage of the Olympics is ridiculous. This final started at 10:45 am on the east coast, and despite having, what, 4 channels showing round the clock Olympics, they had to tape delay it until 12:30 am? Awful. Anyway, don't read further if you don't want to know. I accidentally saw the results while I was looking for a TV Schedule, so I'm spoiled...
You were warned...
Shalane Flanagan! Wins the Bronze and sets a new AR! Sounds like she had a tremendous run! From the splits, it looks like Kiplagat set a torrid pace, and lots of runners including Flanagan and Goucher, who finished 10th, set PRs. Oh, and Tirunesh Dibaba won. No surprise there.
Great result for US distance running, though. Maybe this is a good omen for Ryan Hall...
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I guess I must have un-acclimated from the heat during the week I was in Oregon. I cut my 800 session short on Wednesday, and my tempo run today was miserable. Totally dead legs. Tomorrow I'll probably hit the pool for a swim, and save the long run for Sunday. I hate summer.
At least track and field is finally here!
Carpe Viam!
You were warned...
Shalane Flanagan! Wins the Bronze and sets a new AR! Sounds like she had a tremendous run! From the splits, it looks like Kiplagat set a torrid pace, and lots of runners including Flanagan and Goucher, who finished 10th, set PRs. Oh, and Tirunesh Dibaba won. No surprise there.
Great result for US distance running, though. Maybe this is a good omen for Ryan Hall...
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I guess I must have un-acclimated from the heat during the week I was in Oregon. I cut my 800 session short on Wednesday, and my tempo run today was miserable. Totally dead legs. Tomorrow I'll probably hit the pool for a swim, and save the long run for Sunday. I hate summer.
At least track and field is finally here!
Carpe Viam!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Olympics are hurting my training
I was groggy when I got up at 4:45 to head to the park to run this morning. Why? Because I was up until 11:30 watching the US women's gymnastics team stumble their way to the silver medal in the team finals. And I'm not really crazy about gymnastics. There's just something about the Olympics that will put me on the edge of my seat for team handball, in spite of the fact that I don't even know what team handball is.
I did turn off equestrian the other day. I like horses and all, I just don't really see cantering a horse around a ring as a medal-worthy event. Of course, YMMV.
So anyway, I went out to do 6 x 800 this morning, but I cut it short after four because I wasn't hitting my times, and the fourth one wasn't close. My legs are still tired, probably because of all of the hill running and racing I did last week. I'll probably swim tomorrow and then see where I am on Friday.
Carpe Viam!
I did turn off equestrian the other day. I like horses and all, I just don't really see cantering a horse around a ring as a medal-worthy event. Of course, YMMV.
So anyway, I went out to do 6 x 800 this morning, but I cut it short after four because I wasn't hitting my times, and the fourth one wasn't close. My legs are still tired, probably because of all of the hill running and racing I did last week. I'll probably swim tomorrow and then see where I am on Friday.
Carpe Viam!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Back from vacation
*sigh* It was tough coming back to Houston on a 96 degree day when I left behind the sunny skies, mild temperatures, and low humidity of central Oregon. But it was a great trip. We spent the first four days on the coast next to Beverly Beach State Park.
We hung out at the beaches and enjoyed the scenery, watched for whales (got to see a couple of big gray whales spout several times and then throw up their tails to head down for a deep dive), and checked out the tidepools at Cape Perpetua.
After that, we headed inland to the town of Sisters, east of the Cascades. It shares a name with three nearby 10,000 foot mountains.
And, I got to try out a new sport--standup paddleboarding on the Deschutes River. It was flatwater, which was good since I'd never tried it. Maybe next time I'll give it a shot in the surf...
Finally we headed to Eugene to spend a day before we flew out of Portland. We hung out at the Saturday Market, "window" shopping and sitting in the grass eating fresh berries and then some lunch from one of the food stands.
Of course, since this is a running blog, you had to know that I made a pilgrimage to Hayward Field.
We didn't go see Pre's Rock, though--a little morbid, I think.
Oh, and I did some running as well. On the hills in Beverly Beach State Park as well as out on the beach. Some trails and a few roads around Sisters, which were surprisingly flat given their proximity to the mountains. And for good measure, I threw in the Scandia Run 10K in Junction City (northwest of Eugene). I was amazingly tight, since I had run every day and spent two hours paddleboarding the day before. But it was fun--a very flat course that was entirely through farm fields. Beautiful scenery with the hills in the background and a strong smell of mint--which they grow a ton of in that part of the country--on the air (which, of course, was much cooler than the air here in Houston). All in all a very nice race.
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I'll probably be changing up my training a bit for a couple of months. I'm excited about it. Stay tuned for further details.
Carpe Viam!
We hung out at the beaches and enjoyed the scenery, watched for whales (got to see a couple of big gray whales spout several times and then throw up their tails to head down for a deep dive), and checked out the tidepools at Cape Perpetua.
After that, we headed inland to the town of Sisters, east of the Cascades. It shares a name with three nearby 10,000 foot mountains.
And, I got to try out a new sport--standup paddleboarding on the Deschutes River. It was flatwater, which was good since I'd never tried it. Maybe next time I'll give it a shot in the surf...
Finally we headed to Eugene to spend a day before we flew out of Portland. We hung out at the Saturday Market, "window" shopping and sitting in the grass eating fresh berries and then some lunch from one of the food stands.
Of course, since this is a running blog, you had to know that I made a pilgrimage to Hayward Field.
We didn't go see Pre's Rock, though--a little morbid, I think.
Oh, and I did some running as well. On the hills in Beverly Beach State Park as well as out on the beach. Some trails and a few roads around Sisters, which were surprisingly flat given their proximity to the mountains. And for good measure, I threw in the Scandia Run 10K in Junction City (northwest of Eugene). I was amazingly tight, since I had run every day and spent two hours paddleboarding the day before. But it was fun--a very flat course that was entirely through farm fields. Beautiful scenery with the hills in the background and a strong smell of mint--which they grow a ton of in that part of the country--on the air (which, of course, was much cooler than the air here in Houston). All in all a very nice race.
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I'll probably be changing up my training a bit for a couple of months. I'm excited about it. Stay tuned for further details.
Carpe Viam!
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