Start From Scratch

Time to jump back on the blog train.

I had a great summer back in Calgary. I really enjoyed spending time with my old friends from high school, and stepping away from being completely surrounded by running, and runners.

Biggest news; I left my old training group in Arizona and have moved to Toronto to train with Athletics Toronto under the guidance of Dave Reid.

At different points during my season last year, I had thoughts about possibly leaving the training group in Arizona. There were many reasons that played into these thoughts. One of the biggest factors, as with any decision an up and coming athlete in Canada, was money. My parents have been overly generous over the last two years, sacrificing a little on there end and funding me while I was down there. Each month they gave me $1000, and that is what I lived on. Most of it went to rent, and then rest went to groceries. I definitely wasn't living a luxurious lifestyle; but I was making it by, somewhat, comfortably.

The second biggest reason; overall well-being and happiness. There seemed to be a lot of negativity within the training group, and a lot of it was directed at me. Unlike most groups I've been in where warm-ups and cool-downs are light-hearted and fun, it seemed the ones in Arizona became a 3-mile complain session. If someone wasn't there for whatever reason, the topic of discussion quickly turned to talking behind that persons back.

One thing I've continually said when people have asked me about my move is, "When one of your training partners threatens to 'effing knock you out', after a race, it's probably time to look into a new group."

Please remember, this is just my experience with this group. I believe the coaching, training, therapy, and all those things are really amazing. I wish everyone still involved nothing but the best.

On a brighter note, Toronto has been amazing! I really lucked out with a great apartment and awesome roommate. I have a pretty spectacular view of Lake Ontario and downtown. I face east, so every morning I get to watch a beautiful sunrise over the famous skyline of downtown Toronto.

So far while being here I have met Ty Domi, Adam Growe (the host of Cash Cab), and watched The Tragically Hip play at a very small, intimate venue, for free. I also returned to the desert and saw a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Phoenix, a lifelong dream that definitely lived up to expectation.

On the running side of things, it has been great. Definitely a more old-school, mileage based approach then what I have been used to in the past, which has been awesome. I had a few hiccups when I first arrived in Toronto with being a bit sick. I think moving into a high-rise, and working downtown definitely played a factor in that. Most recently I went to Kingston to run in the Athletics Ontario Cross Country Championship; my first race since moving out here. It went really well. I won the 10km race in 31:15.44. I sat with the back for roughly 7km, when I threw down a pretty decisive move. I broke the field and never looked back. From what I hear Hussein Hashi made a great effort to pull be back. I have to give him a lot of credit, it was a pretty windy day out there, and he was in the lead for a lot of the race.

I'm now 2 weeks out from the Canadian Cross Country Championships and very much looking forward to it. I'll be heading out to Vancouver on the 20th, and staying for a week. The race is November 24th, and Jericho Beach in Vancouver. Anyone who is in Vancouver at that time should definitely come out to watch. It's always a great event, and the races are very exciting.

Thanks for reading, remember to subscribe to my blog to be alerted on updates, and follow me on twitter. I encourage you to share my blog on twitter and facebook and leave questions and/or comments.

Whirlwind Update #2.

Well, Another season has come and gone. All in all, it's been a pretty darn good one. 4 personal bests in 3 events, lowering my own provincial record twice, a senior national team, Olympic trials final, travel from coast to coast of Canada, and most importantly, meeting and creating connections with some truly amazing people.

As I said in my last post, Nationals wasn't the most satisfying race of my life. I am content with my result, but obviously wanted and expected better. I am still young in the sport and am learning more and more each year the importance of patience in championship racing. I am certain in the years to come my placement at Nationals will be a lot for on par with my ranking going in.

After the trials I had a few days to decompress and then traveled out to Moncton for the first stop of the east coast part of the National Track League. Moncton was a slower more tactical race, in which I practiced my patience and ended up 6th in a close race where only 2 seconds separated 1st from 7th.

I then headed to Halifax for NTL #5, the Aileen Meagher Track Classic. This meet did a fantastic job of advertising and getting fans into the stands. Having two locals going to the 2012 Olympics probably didn't hurt. The meet organisers did a great job of creating a really fun, energetic environment. It showed in the results of the races. This race went a quicker and I ended up 4th in my second fastest time of my life.

I was pretty stoked on that result and went into the NTL finale in Toronto feeling really strong and confident. Nate Brannen came to Toronto to race and had Geoff Harris pace. Geoff, along with having a phenomenal season in his individual races, has gotten pretty good at pacing 1500m as well. I knew this was going to be a great race and I needed to take advantage of it. I immediately tucked in behind Nate and decided I was just going to stay there for as long as I could. Turns out, I was able to stay there for the entirety of the 1500m race. I finished second to Nate in a new personal best time of 3:40.15. I was really happy with my performance and very proud of my courage, I just really wish I had of dipped under that 3:40 barrier.

Since then I took two weeks off, during which I realised I must be maturing and growing up. I went back and read a post I put up in 2010 about my 2 week break, you can read it here. This year was significantly different. Instead of pulling all-nighters and drinking my face off, I focused on what this two weeks is actually about, recover. Don't get me wrong, I had a few good nights of going out and being a normal human, but certainly nothing like that of the legendary break of 2010.

I have gotten back to running now, and admittedly probably did a little too much too soon. Can't blame me though, how could I not with the Olympics going on! I have really toned it down and am being a lot more cautious. The season is long, I don't need to get fit in 2 weeks.

Speaking of running, I think I'm going to go for a run right now!

Thanks for reading, remember to subscribe to my blog to be alerted on updates, follow me on twitter. I encourage you to share my blog on twitter and facebook and to leave questions and/or comments. Feedback and interaction with my readers is always encourage.

1500m final

So, the final of the men's 1500, I am proud of the way I ran the race, I'm not overly happy with my 8th place finish, but in content. I found myself in the lead with a little over 400 to go and made a really solid move. I just wasn't quite able to hold on as long as I thought.

I felt amazing over these last couple weeks of training and I thought I was ready for the race of my life. I guess that race will have to wait for one of the meets out east.

Thanks to everyone who has been following me and giving me support. It has been truly amazing and entirely overwhelming. You all really helped carry me through the weekend.

Olympic Trials 1500m Semi-Final

Well, that was a bit of a crazy race. The way it works is there are 2 heats of 12 men in the semi-finals. From each heat the top 4 finishers automatically qualify, and then the next 4 fastest times after that. I had the advantage of being in heat 2. This is an advantage because you get to see what heat 1 runs and you just have to make sure you are faster than the 5th finisher in their heat.

Heat 1 happened pretty much according to plan. They went out fair slow and ended up coming home strong over the last lap and a half or so. The 5th place finisher was about 3:51. So now everyone in our heat who wasn't confident on being top 4 knows that they have to run at least 3:51 or better to make it to the final. Right off the gun Robert Jackson from Speed River took the lead. I knew it was definitely faster than 3:51 pace, but I felt really comfortable and was expecting somewhere around 63 through 400. You can imagine my surprise when I saw the clock and it said 60 seconds. It didn't really phase me, as I said I felt really strong and comfortable and had no problems with a bit of a faster time. Coming around the corner with just under 1000m left in the race, I got clipped pretty bad and almost hit the track. I was able to recover pretty well and maintained by composure and most importantly my position. Jackson maintained the lead through 800m where we slowed down a bit to 63, coming through in 2:03. With 600m to go the pace started to get a little quicker again and from here on out about 5 of us broke away. That group included myself, Taylor Milne, Justin Marpole-Bird, Geoff Martinson, and Charles Philibert-Thiboutot. Coming down the home straight we were all in a group, and I was sitting in 5th. I debated just staying there because I knew the time was much faster than 3:51, but I like to have a big "Q" beside my name rather than a small "q" so I worked my way up in to 4th to guarantee me a spot in the final.

I want to say thanks to everyone who came out tonight to cheer me on. I heard you all and it really helped me out. It was great meeting some of me new twitter followers in person as well!

Lets keep the cheering going. The 1500m final goes tomorrow, Friday, June 29th, at 2:25pm at Foothills Athletic Park. Be there or be SQUARE!

I am all eyes on the 1500m final right now. But just FYI I am entered in the 800m semi-finals at 6:55pm tomorrow as well.

Time has Come.

Well, the time has come. The one meet everyone has been looking forward to all year is upon us. The 2012 Canadian Olympic Trials have begun.

My final preparations leading into the meet have been unbelievable. I have been doing a lot of change of pace sessions to get ready for the tactical races that are inevitable at championship races. In every single one I have surprised myself both with how fast they have been, but also how smooth and just utterly strong I have felt. I have also been getting verbal feedback from some of my peers to reinforce the way I have been feeling.

I would love to have as many supporters out as possible. If you are in Calgary and have the time, why not come watch Canada's best athletes compete for their spot on the 2012 London Olympic team. Tickets are only $15 available at the track.

 My race schedule looks as follows.

1500m semi-finals - Thursday @ 6:20pm
1500m finals - Friday @ 2:30pm
800m semi-finals - Friday @ 6:55pm
800m finals - Saturday @ 3:15pm

Of course both the 1500m, and 800m final are tentative as I do need to qualify through the semi-finals.

Back on the Train.

Jeez, looks like I have a lot to update.

Non-Running

I can't really think of a whole lot that has happened. I'll just start typing and hopefully some things come up. I like to think I don't lead that boring of a life.

I got back with Amy and then broke up within 2 months. It was a pretty bad situation, but sometimes those are the ones you learn the most about yourself, and other people.

I'm back in Canada, so thats pretty cool. It's surprising how big of a cultural difference there actually is between the USA and Canada. I have been saying that since I've been back, and people ask me what the differences are, but I can't say really. It's all the small things. I used to think I could possibly live in the states one day, but after being back this time, I retract that statement.

I have been lucky enough to have had a few really cool people come into my life recently. They are the type of people you make and immediate connection with and can just sense that you are going to get along. That is my main goal right now, to surround myself with people that I have real connections with and have potential to stick around for awhile and not worry too much about the people who are just passing through.

Running


Man, tons of races. All of that have been pretty good, obviously a few I wish I could redo.

In April I had the Sun Angel at ASU, Mt. SAC relays in California, and I was lucky enough to go out to the 2012 Penn Relays as part of Canada's Distance Medley Relay team. ASU and Mt. SAC were both really good. 3:43 at ASU for a season opener was really exciting. That was by far the fastest I have ever gone for my first 1500 of the year. That excitement continued with a new PB at Mt. Sac running 3:41.13. My performance wasn't nearly as good at Penn Relays, but the experience was unbelievable. I really hope I get chosen for that team again. I'd love to experience the meet more and redeem myself a little bit.

After the April races we went up to Flagstaff for a yearly altitude training camp. It was a ton of fun and we had some really solid workouts. One of the highlights being 1x800 at 1000m pace where everyone ran WAY faster than expected. I ran 1:50.8, a PB by over 2 seconds in practice. Then we headed back to California for the USATF OXY HP meet. I really wanted another PB, but running 3:42.35, the 3rd fastest time of my life had to do. After OXY we headed back to good ol' AZ for one last meet in the US. In my previous races I had been going out pretty conservatively and then really coming home strong. This time I decided I'd just go for it. I split through 1200m in about 2:55, which is the fastest I had ever done, and then died a slow painful death over the last 300m finishing in 3:46. It was ridiculously hot, which made flying back up to Canada a few days later a lot easier. I went up to Edmonton for the Running Room Blue Mile. It's just a fun road race that I ended up second in.

That brings us to the current month of June, and the racing has continued. I flew out to the west coast for Harry Jerome and the Victoria Track Classic. Jerome wasn't that great, I had a really weird mind set going into that race. I knew it was going to be fast and I knew that I generally have a pretty good result there, so I kind of thought no matter what I do I was going to run fast. I figured if I just went out, didn't get caught up with a pace that was too fast and just ran my race, I'd come out of it with a good showing. But, I didn't run the race on the track or my race. I kind of just run around in circles for a few minutes and forgot to race. Victoria was a lot better for me. The race wasn't quite as fast but I was actually in it this time. From Victoria I flew up to Edmonton to race an 800. I ran a big PB of 1:49.11 and had a ton of fun doing it! I came home afterwards and registered to double at nationals because I had so much fun.

Now I'm back in Calgary putting in the final bits of training in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Trials here at Foothills Stadium. For anyone who is in town and looking for a way to spend their afternoons this coming weekend, I recommend coming to check out Canada's best track and field athletes try to qualify to represent the country at the 2012 London Olympics.

Thanks for reading, remember to subscribe to my blog to be alerted on updates, follow me on twitter. I encourage you to share my blog on twitter and facebook and to leave questions and/or comments. Feedback and interaction with my readers is always encourage.

Things Are Coming Together

Well, it's been an eventful month. Let me just rhyme off things that have happened in no particular order and then address them in detail after. I'm back to the single life now, training is really coming together, I raced a pretty solid 1000m, I ran a road 5k, I had a few more little hiccups in training, I got older, I had the weirdest St. Paddy's day ever, my tickets for Red Hot Chili Peppers arrived, and I continue to learn a lot about myself.

Non-Running Based Stuff:

So as I said, I'm back to the single life. Which is bitter sweet. Having a relationship end is never easy. A constant in my life for the last year is now gone and it's been tough getting used to it. What's really been helping me get through it is knowing that we made the best decision for both of us. I know she is now able to focus a lot more on herself, and I am really happy and excited for that. It was crappy and hurt, but for the long term it will be a lot better for both of us. Being in the sport of track makes it really hard to have a relationship and be fair the to the other person. Especially when you don't really live in one place for very long like I have been doing. I have determined you either need to have the most understanding partner in the world (extremely hard to find), or be in the same training group to make things work.

Some of you may have read the very introspective post I put up and then took down. I just sat down one night and put pen to paper with no real vision of what I was going to write and just let my brain tell my hand what to do. The result was a very personal and, I think, interesting look inwards on myself. I got a lot of positive feedback on it, and I really appreciate that. Since it was so personal, it was kind of hard for me to put it up. I decided to take it down after a few days because, with the positive, came the negative feedback. Some very important people to me read it and came away with a bad experience. I never had any intention of that and I decided the best thing would be to take it down. I have been debating sharing it on an individual basis based on interest. If you would be interested in reading it, please either comment below or contact me via e-mail, twitter, or facebook.

Over the last month, I have continued to do a lot of self reflection and I have had some really amazing chats with good friends whose opinion I really trust and appreciate. I have learned a lot of things about myself and am really excited to get back to focusing on Peter.

What else, I turned 23! I know I'm still a baby, but I sure am starting to feel old. As most people know along with my birthday comes St. Paddy's day, my week birthday anniversary. I can say, without a doubt, that this St. Paddy's was by far the strangest I have ever had. Started out normal enough with Geoff Harris, Olivier Collin and myself going to a little pub I'd been meaning to check out for a long time now. It didn't disappoint, we had a couple cleansing ales and played a few games of pool. Around 8:30 we decided we wanted to go somewhere else. I knew of this bar that is just a bit outside of Old Town Scottsdale, which would have been crazy on St. Paddy's. We decided we see how it was. Turns out, they were having a theme night! The theme was "Gothic Surgical Green and Black Medical." Needless to say it was no the normal Scottsdale crowd. Long story short, after a few drinks we started mingling with the crowd, and ended up getting in on a little photo shoot they were having in the back of the bar. I asked the photographer to find the craziest dressed people and have them take a photo with us because it would be a pretty funny contrast, he just looked at me and said "Dude, you guys are the craziest dressed people."

And last but certainly not least, actually probably the most exciting thing of all... MY CHILI PEPPERS TICKETS CAME! It's official, in september I'll be coming down to the desert with a buddy to take in the Chili Peppers and have a bit of a vacation!

Running Based Stuff:

Just before and for a little bit after my 5000m in Seattle I was plagued with a few really strange little injuries that kept me from training at 100%. For a little bit leading into the race my Achilles was acting up and as stated in my race report, Wynn found a bunch of weird things wrong in my stomach that was affecting a ton of other stuff. I quickly sorted all of that out and got back into things. And then my lower legs felt as though they were casted in cement. So my training took a bit of a hit with that as well. FINALLY, as of a week or so ago, I have everything sorted out and feeling good. Training has been going really well and I have finally been able to fight through that pain at the end of workouts and finish strong instead of giving up like I was mentioning before.

I ran a 5k road race here in Scottsdale at the beginning of the month. It was a lot of fun. I won the race a got a sweet plaque that I have no idea what to do with. And this past weekend I ran 1000m race at the ASU Invitational. It was pretty much a team time trial. It was 6 guys from the training group and 1 kid from Minnesota. We also had Andrew Ellerton pacing us through 800m. I ended up 4th in 2:23.05. Which is right where I ideally WANTTED to be, but not exactly where I expected to be. I wanted to run around 2:22.5 +/-, but in all honesty, I wasn't entirely confident I could actually run that. I figured I'd be about 2:24. In the race that lack of confidence came through and I was quite as aggressive as I wish I would have been. But I have a lot of confidence coming out of the race. I went through 800 in about 1:54 feeling super comfortable and relaxed and was able to close in about a 27 feeling really strong. Splits, from what I got from the video were, 28.3, 28.7, 29.0, 28.5, 27.9. So my last 400 was my fastest with the last 200 being the fastest of all. You can watch the race HERE

That about sums everything up. We're getting into race season now, which seems crazy. Speaking of crazy, the Olympic Development camp, that I am a part of, is starting this week here in Phoenix. There are a bunch of athletes down training and attending seminars and talks put on by different people. Should be a lot of fun, and a little hectic.

Thanks for reading, remember to subscribe to my blog to be alerted on updates, follow me on twitter, check out my donations page, share my blog on twitter and facebook. I encourage you to leave questions or comments in the section below, or feel free to email me. I really want to get more involved with my readers.

For What It's Worth.

It came to my attention that my last post was inappropriate.

For this I sincerely apologise.

Update since the Race

I haven't put a recap of the race or anything up yet because as soon as I got home from the race I got pretty sick and didn't really do too much of anything. So here it goes now...

I'm content with the race, not particularly happy nor disappointed. I wanted to go out and churn out 68's and hoped to run around 14:10 or so. I went into the race blind in almost every way, other than the literal meaning, I still had my eyesight. The University of Washington often doesn't put seed times on their heat sheets because they want to avoid people whining about which heat they get accepted into and trying to switch. So I had no idea how fast the guys in my heat were. Turns out I had the fastest seed, which would have been nice to know just to have the mental victory over everyone leading into it. I also had no idea what type of shape I was in. Since I had a little hiccup in training leading into the race I had missed a few workouts. I had really only done one 1500m workout and about half of a 5000m workout before the race.

Holding onto 68's and running 14:10 didn't happen. Instead we went out and I got spit into the lead, but really didn't want to front run a 5k and kind of put the breaks on. Finally someone took the lead, but we still only went out in about 70 or 71. Soon we settled into 69's, which felt really comfortable. After about 1500m I guess they decided they didn't want to run 69's anymore and I decided I wasn't going to keep messing around and just stayed at 69. I was then on my own for roughly the next 3k hitting 69/70 easily and comfortably. With about 2 laps (approx. 600m at the Dempsey) the rest of the pack caught up. As soon as they did I just tagged on to them without much effort. With just over a lap to go (300m) a guy from BYU made a fairly solid move. I didn't think he had it in him to hold it and figured he'd come back... He didn't. I was able pass every one again, except the BYU kid and felt strong in my last lap. Just at the line someone out-leaned me and I ended up 3rd in 14:26.

I learned a few good things from the race and came to a few realisations. Firstly, I need to not worry about the seeds times and start going into races assuming I have the fastest seed. Secondly, never assume the guy is going to come back. Third, not that I ever really doubt my training, but I just have to trust my training and know that my coach wouldn't let me go into a race if I wasn't ready to run well. I also realised that in the early season I often times don't have the "fight" in the last bit of races that I need.

All in all it was a positive experience and I'm really glad I did it. Minus the fact I became ill afterwards. I took last week pretty well entirely off only running 3 or 4 times. I am now all better and getting back into the swing of things. I was having a few issues and say both our massage therapist Garfield Crooks on Friday and Wynn yesterday for treatment. Turns out I had a lot of weird things going on. Garfield told me he had never felt anyone have a gluteus medius as tight as mine was. He couldn't break the muscle apart with his hands or elbow, so instead he had me lay on the ground and was getting the heel of his foot into it. Then yesterday Wynn found a plethora of problems in my middle body ranging from my hips to my intestines, glutes, everything. After the race I could feel my right glute was really tight and my leg would go pins and needles randomly through the day and if I tried to run. After treatment with Wynn yesterday I feel way better. He figures that my intestines were all fouled up and they were pulling on my hip and taking me out of alignment. I've since started to putting the myofascial release ball in my stomach for 30+mins at a time and got onto some anti-inflammatories and a pro-biotic to try and sort things out.

Thanks for reading, remember to subscribe to my blog to be alerted on updates, follow me on twitter, check out my new donations page, share my blog on twitter and facebook and leave any questions or comments. I'd really like to get more involved with the people who visit and read my blog.

15,000

Ooooh dang, my webpage has hit 15,000 views! That's huge and exciting. Just wanted to say a quick thank-you to everyone who follows me and my supporters.

I'm really looking forward to tonight and getting after it in this 5000m. This nice little surprise will definitely help.

Flotrack Husky Classic

The time has come, my 2012 debut.

I am currently rushing to type out this post as I'm heading to the airport for flight #1 of 2012 to Seattle for race #1 of 2012.

There will be live coverage on Flotrack, which you can find HERE. And the schedule is HERE. Unfortunately my race won't be live. Hopefully they'll have it up shortly afterwards. The 5k's start at 7:30PST, I'm in heat 2, so I'll probably be going around 7:50 or so.

Thanks for reading, remember to subscribe to my blog to be alerted on updates, follow me on twitter, check out my new donations page, share my blog on twitter and facebook and leave any questions or comments. I'd really like to get more involved with the people who visit and read my blog.

My Four Cents.

After my last post, I started talking with some of my training partners and friends about some of the things I said, as well as some things other athletes have blogged about. Naturally, tons of ideas started flowing. I'm just going to talk about a couple of the ideas we got most in depth about. I'm pretty much going to focus on two things; One, I'm going to throw out a few more ideas of how Track could possibly be better marketed/televised. And two, an entirely new way to structure Track and Field to possibly make it something people want to follow and more spectator friendly.

As I said in my previous blog, the marketing of Track could be way better. Some of the things that came up in talking with people were simple things to add that just made watching Track a little more exciting and give more things to the spectators to pay attention to and follow. It would be really cool to get the athletes "mic'ed up" so to speak. Again, it's as simple as looking at sports that are already BIG in the world and taking some things from them. I think throwing some microphones on athletes, like they sometimes do in Hockey or American Football, to actually hear the race would really add a new aspect to viewing track that has never been done before. While we're at it, why not take some notes from Soccer and throw a heart rate monitor on them, or put a chip in their spikes that counts how many steps their taking? Adding these things would add such a neat element.

Little things like that would add huge elements to T.V. viewing. I love to watch Track on T.V. however, to someone who doesn't really know much about the sport, I can see how it would be quite boring. For one, the commentators often don't really know what they are talking about. Giving these stats to the commentators they could easy look at the information and analys the race a little more, without necessarily knowing more about the sport. With the chips in the shoes you could easily give stats like how fast Bolt got from 0-20mph, exactly how many steps he took to cover 100m. With the chips, and probably with the heart rate monitors as well, you could look at each 50m/100m/200m/1000m interval of a 1500m or 5000m race and see the exact spot where the pace slowed down and picked back up, or where the final move was made. Plus, it would give the weekend warrior a chance to compare their information from their beloved Garmin to the stats from the elite athletes.

Truthfully, I don't know much about Soccer. Having a British roommate, I have started to learn a little more. Even with the limited knowledge I do have, watching Soccer is really entertaining because they have all these little gadgets. Hell, even NASCAR hooks the drivers up and gives you their vital stats. It just gives people something to relate and compare to between each athlete and race. Another example of this is the Tour de France, they have those guys linked up to everything!

Speaking of giving spectators something to relate to and compare between athletes and races, Track really isn't making that easy at the moment. Even if a Diamond League event happens to be aired on television, it's impossible to really follow anything because the next time it airs NONE of the same athletes are competing. It makes it really hard for spectators to get involved, follow their favourite athlete, or compare them head to head.

A way we thought to fix this, again kind of stolen from Soccer, is implementing some sort of a league system. The way we imagined it working is splitting athletes up into divisions; div.1, div.2, div.3, and so on. Div.1 would be the best of the best, div.2 and lower would be the up and comers. One of the con's of this system would be that whichever division an athlete is designated to, is the only the division the athlete could race in. To make sure an athlete isn't stuck in a division they are too good for, there would be some sort if point system. In each league race you'd earn certain amount of points for placing and maybe a couple times a year there is an evaluation and the top 3 or 5 athletes in each division get to move up and the bottom 3 or 5 get moved down. That way there are always the incentive to move up into higher divisions and an even bigger one to stay in the top.

Now, I'll admit, there would be some pro's and con's. The biggest being the previously stated fact that athletes are somewhat stuck in a division until an evaluation comes along. However, drastic changes will have to be made if we want our sport the thrive. Even though it might be a slight con for athletes, I think it would be a HUGE pro for spectators. Doing something like this format would really give people something to pay attention to and follow. They'll be able to check in after each race to see the point totals, get excited if their favourite athlete is getting close to being moved up, get nervous if that athlete might get moved down.

There are also some pro's for athletes. It would open up a whole new set of records, like "div.2 record." It would set up some new championship races where athletes can add "Div.2 champion" to their running resume. It would also give the opportunity to have things like dual meets, where the top athletes from Div.2 in North America go up against the top from Europe. Again, some more exciting races for the athletes, as well as giving spectators more races to follow. Everyone likes to see USA beat Canada, or England beat France.

It would also put a whole new spin on the sponsorship side of things. I think in a format such as this it would really make it easy for sponsors to really see who the up and comers are, see who is able to perform under pressure and that sort of thing. Right now it just seems agents approach sponsors with an athlete who has maybe had one really great race or season, saying they have the next best runner and the company, for the most part, just has to believe it and hope for the best. In the league system there would be a lot more racing and sponsors would be able to more easily see who performs consistently.

One last thing that was talked about was making the track more like a horse track. If people were able to put money down on the athletes, I can guarantee they'd want to follow the sport more. Being able to bet on a particular person to win the race, putting money down on the time they'll run, betting on the top three. Really when you think of it, there are endless things people could bet on. Realistically, horse racing isn't all that exciting, but people keep going weekend after weekend to place money on them. Not only would it bring spectators, but a great opportunity for revenue as well.

Getting out there and clocking countless miles with my training partners and having the great chats that come along with it, is one of my most favourite things to do. I will be sure to share any further ideas that come up in our miles.

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My Two Cents

I'm just sitting here shortly after reading Scotty Bauh's blog "Why isn't the Track Season more like the Tennis Season" and watching The Winter X-Games. Not only does every athlete in these games have multiple sponsors, but the event itself does! Just on their bibs they have America's Navy, Casio, JEEP (for the 10th year), they also have EA Sports as a main sponsor. Obviously the reason these big sponsor are getting involved is because of the exposure they are getting from the live spectators and even more from the TV spectators. Pretty much every commercial I am seeing is for one of these 4 companies.

As I type this they just switched from being aired on EPSN to having special coverage on ABC. Now, granted this stuff is probably a little more exciting to watch to the general public, regardless the marketing is way better. People in the X-Games are known and they are made known by the advertisements and marketing. Google "Shaun White Commercials" and 6 different commercials for a couple different things pop up right away; HP computers, Target, Oakley, his OWN VIDEOGAME! Another really cool thing I saw they are doing is as they are introducing an athlete on the screen is their Twitter name. Just another easy way to get the athlete's names out there. I also think Redbull is doing a great job in the "extreme sport" world. I'm excited to see what they will do as they are slowly working their way into our sport sponsoring people like Lolo Jones and Trey Hardee among many others.

I like, agree, and have previously thought about what Scotty says in his blog. The big names don't compete enough and there are no REAL rivalries. Whenever track is aired on TV the commentators always talk about some of the rivalries, which in my opinion are more theoretical than anything, like Bolt v. Gay v. Powell. As Scotty says, they never really race each other and in fact seemingly TRY to avoid going head to head. The IAAF did try to promote more head to head competitions with the change over from Golden League to Diamond League. However, even with the inception of the Diamond League some of the bigger names still managed to avoid each other. That is where the IAAF, USATF, Athletics Canada, or who ever needs to get more involved in some of these meets and, in a way, make athletes race each other. I couldn't believe when I saw Defar and Dibaba at the same meet but running different distances that are only 200m apart. In an event like that, someone needs to step in and just say, "No, you two are racing each other, decide if you want the 2mile or the 3000m." Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt should not have been in different races at the Diamond League final in Brussels last year.

Side note, while doing some research and looking on the Diamond League website, they need a new website! I want to go through all the results and see how many times big names actually went head to head last year, but I can't be bothered to spend the amount of time it would take. That must be the slowest website on the Internet.

Long story short, our sport could use some improvement.

Anyway, that's my little rant there. Other than that things are are going good as far as training is concerned. I had a little hiccup over the last couple weeks with my Achilles. It was really weird, I was fine one day, ran like 18miles and then the next day could hardly walk. I took a few days off and tried running again and went straight back to square one. I got in and had some massage from Garfield Crooks and some treatment from Wynn, took another 5 days off and then as quickly as it came on it disappeared. I am back to running full on and doing workouts. I think it was a bit of a blessing in disguise. As annoying as it was to miss out on some workouts and what not, I was starting to feel a little run down and I think the rest was a good thing.

Just heading into an intensity week, which is my last hard week before a nice recovery week and then heading out to Seattle for my first race of the year! WHOO DEBUT! Although it's an indoor 5k, so... maybe just lowercase whoo. I'm just kidding, I'm really excited to get out there and mix it up. I'm most interested in seeing where my fitness is at. I have been having good workouts, I'm hoping the race will go the same way the workouts have.

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Shiny Side Up!

Well, here we are months down the road and I've gone against my word yet again!

Christmas was a really fun time. I went to Iowa with Amy to spend Christmas with her family. It was a great time. Her family is a farming family and lives basically in the middle of no-where. When say farming, I mean legit farming. The same farm has been in the family for generations and looks as though it will continue that way. It was really cool to step out of the city and go somewhere much more laid back and my style. Plus got to ride in a tractor to feed cows and cruise around on a 4-wheeler, so how could it be a bad time??

Arriving back in Scottsdale it was go time. Everyone got into town in time for our first workout on Jan 3. It was really great to see everyone again, plus a few new faces as well.

As far as "go time" is concerned, I was having great success until about a week ago. I was very pleased with how my sessions were going. I was/am miles ahead of where I was last year at this time. And then out of no where, my achilles starts acting up. I have never in my time running had a issue with my achilles. I still haven't fully sorted out what the issue is. I'm hoping within a couple days to pin-point it and get it sorted out as I have resgistered for and booked flights to the Husky Invite in Seattle on Feb 10.

Here is to hoping! To quote my good friend Sean Van Der Lee, I just need to keep the shiny side up.