COULDN'T BE BETTER

I was doing a little research for a future article and came across an older interview with Team USA Minnesota’s coach, Dennis Barker. The interviewer asked if made any mistakes trying to bring an athlete to a peak. Coach Barker’s response;

The times when the peaking isn’t right tend to be when you get away from what the athlete’s used to. You change things up too much and get out of the regular rhythm.

With just over 3 weeks to go, the timing of that advice couldn’t be better, especially since Tracy just sent me a great workout that I’d like to try. However, it’s a lot different that what I’ve been doing lately, so throwing it into the mix now is not a good idea.

Yesterday I just ran an easy recovery run. This morning was another mid-week, medium-long run, which ended up being 14 miles. It seems my right knee has become my indicator for when I’m nearing “the edge”. It’s been flaring up off-and-on all winter and is more annoying than anything. With a couple of easy days in a row scheduled, it shouldn’t be a problem – just something to keep an eye on.

I just wanted to take a minute to congratulate some folks who raced well last weekend, in Green Bay and Fargo. In Green Bay Jason was 7th in the half in 1:08:51. Ed PRd by 5 minutes, which is a lot by anyone’s standards, let alone someone running 1:09:28. And Kim ran 1:25:00 for 5th woman and 2nd master. Meanwhile, in Fargo, Eric placed 2nd overall in a 2:33:46 debut and Marc may be one of the year’s most inspirational stories. Great job everyone.

A new manager started in my department a couple of weeks ago. She’s a triathlete, so I have to watch what I say now. No more bad-mouthing triathletes. Instead, I’ll provide a couple of links. I’ve mentioned Curt’s blog before, but since he’s one of the best triathletes in Minnesota, I thought I’d mention him again. Also, I don’t follow the sport much anymore, but this gal is spraying champagne on the podium at a World Cup event, so she must be tough.

Finally, if all those links aren’t enough, check out my latest interview.

Quote of the day;

“I went to hear Dick speak at the expo and then I got to talk with him a bit. They had announced that I had a faster half marathon time than his - my time is 1:02:44 and Dick's is 1:02:50 - but later Dick pulled me aside and said that his half marathon time came as a split during a marathon. That was a humbling thought.” – Andrew Carlson, who won the Fargo Half in 1:05:02, talking about meeting Dick Beardsley