I have really enjoyed watching the World Championships this year. The first time in many years I have actually watched the majority of the coverage. The shots of the action have been super, unfortunately we have to listen to the endless drivel from Dwight Stones and Ato Bolden. Bolden would be OK if he would cut the verbiage down by about 75% and just let us enjoy the action. Dwight Stones is anot [...]

I saw this article on Joe Vigil. It certainly warmed my heart. I am privileged to have Joe as a mentor and and a friend. He is an amazing individual, a role model for all teachers and coaches.‘Dean of distance’ discusses OlympicsBy Mike Touzeau, Special to the Green Valley NewsThough he was impressed — as the rest of the world was — with the pageantry, what legendary dis [...]

I know we're mainly speed-power folks around here but I think if you're anything like me, you can still appreciate a fast paced marathon race. With this in mind, WCSN will be broadcasting the World Marathon Majors (Berlin, Chicago & New York). Universal Sports has partnered with World Marathon Majors to deliver exclusive, season-long coverage of the World Marathon Major series, which includes th [...]

Apparently, the greatest cyclist of all time, Lance Armstrong, is making a comeback. He intends to ride in the 2009 Tour de France. This is interesting and provides for some more discussion material on the differences between seemingly similar sports. Like track, cycling is a physical performance based sport (rather than strategy, gamesmanship, team oriented sports, etc) that is generally quantita [...]

Obviously I believe coaching matters. I saw two prime examples this past weekend in soccer. First my good friend Juan Osorio is now coach of New York Red Bulls. I watched their game against Dallas last Saturday. With the lineup New York was able to put on the field they should not have been on the same field with Dallas, but because of their technical, tactical and fitness preparation they won the [...]

Approximately eight years I had the opportunity to consult for one year with North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, Illinois. Patrick McHugh, the Athletic Director brought me in three different times during the year to do staff development and work on up grading their physical education and athletic program. Patrick is also the track coach and as you know track and field is my passion so we c [...]

In distance running, the deload is one of the most resisted concepts by coaches and athletes alike. The argument often sounds something like this: “If I drop my mileage a bit this week, I won't average 75 miles per week this month.” My opinion is usually that “75” is just a number and an athlete can keep hammering away, but the accumulated fatigue will prevent optimal pe [...]

For some strange reason the myth that you must build an aerobic base for sprinting still lives. All over the country now as high school track practice is starting sprint coaches are working hard to get their sprinters ready. I have had several emails in the past ten days asking me about the need to build an aerobic base for sprinters. It is not necessary to build an aerobic base, you need to build [...]

Like it or not, I think we've all heard the pop radio hit song "Hey there Delilah." I know the song well. One of my past 400m runners was also a gifted musician (vocal and guitar) and he could rock a great rendition of the song. Well, until this weekend, I had no idea just how closely tied to track the song really is. I read in Time magazine that the namesake lady in the song is actually Delil [...]

I rarely do continuous runs over 20 minutes anymore but sometimes I'll throw one in on Sunday evenings. Tonight was such a night. Whenever I'm out on one of these runs, I always wonder what it would be like to run with someone like Morcelli, Bekele, Hachim, or better yet, Geb. Would they even be winded at my modest pace (~6:00-6:40 / mile). Heck, Geb can run 26.2 consecutive miles slightly [...]