Wow…I haven't been too active on the site for a while. I think it's been something like 10 days since I last signed in. That's probably a record for me. I came down with the flu and then made a spring break training and competition camp down in Miami. My normal HPCsport consulting duties, combined with our 2-a-day workout schedule and a 3 day meet kept me quite busy.
Coming from NY it sure was nice getting to some warm weather to train and compete. The contrast was unbelievable. When I left NY it was 3 degrees and when I arrived in Florida it was 80 and sunny. It really makes clear why so many of the fastest times each year at the age-group, high school, collegiate, and professional levels are made by athletes from the South or out West. Track really is a warm weather sport. Don't get me wrong, I love indoor track, but if I had the choice of being able to train outside all winter and compete in the occasional indoor track meet or be forced inside and have a complete indoor track season I'd choose the former hands down. Not only is the warmer weather more conducive to injury prevention and better performances but it also provides a much better training environment. Training in the Northeast is good for one thing…making you creative. Even in the best of scenarios, cold weather training forces you to find alternatives to what you'd ideally be doing if you could train outside on a daily basis. For me, finding alternatives and controlling volumes for running workouts on the tighter turns and harder surfaces of indoor tracks is the hardest thing to do.
I'm back in NY now (the temp is now up to a blistering 38 degrees) and while we're still forced to train inside, it's nice to at least know that the end of tight turns, hard surfaces, and bundling-up to go outside is near.