Okay so I coach track and I love track and I talk track as much as I can stand. I have sacrificed a lot for this passion of mine, and I regret some of it too. However, I will make this work and I am making it work and I am so pleased some of you can enjoy my work, i know I do.
So let me touch on a few topics. Where to begin.
Drugs. Let's start at the bottom and work upward. Everyone get off of Marion now. We are human no matter how much we like to be perfect we all falter, ALL OF US! Some of you are at fault now for carrying your anger despite the fact that she has been caught and sentenced to prison in connection to her cheating. Outside of going back in time and rerunning races there is nothing more you can demand as repentance. Nothing more folks. You will "block your blessings" harboring anger at this level. I am disappointed, I am hurt, and I do feel sorry for her as a person. She is a mother and a wife, for me that is greater than the athlete, and her family and her are suffering. That I cannot dismiss as a consequence of her transgression, even though it is, I see it for what it is tragic.
BALCO is the worse and best thing that ever happened to the sport. The soft under belly has been exposed from top to bottom and now we are dealing with the healing of the tragedy. The fallout is ugly and sinster, but how much longer would we go on living the lie without Kelli White and Victor Conte being exposed. And not just track but all the sports, cycling, body building, football, soccer, baseball, etc.
What I love about track is.... I don't know. All of it. I mean being at the meets, training the athletes, traveling, and competing. The individuality and the raw clash of the human spirit is not comparable to any other sport in the world. We grow up racing from light pole to light pole, across the school yard. We always want to know who is the fastest one, who can jump the highest, the farthest, who is the strongest. I get it all in one setting. Track is universal. No language barrier in track. Hell you can blow your whistle twice and fire the gun! It is pure fun for me.
The guys I spent my young adulthood with had a saying, "When it becomes work it is time to retire!" They are all retired now. It is work for me, but it was always work for me, of course I was not the one running everyday then or now. LOL So I keep doing it.
Track has ALWAYS been a family affair for me. I grew up looking at my uncle set the wr on the wall of my house everyday. I started running because he ran. I started coaching because he asked me to. Now I have my own legacy to pass on. I married one of my athletes, and we have a son. He will run. Not because I want him to or will ask him to, I just know he will by looking at him. He knows his mother runs and he is my son. We are loyal and very inspired by what our parents do in my family, he is the same way. I will not be the soccer dad or stage dad, I will let him be himself and stay out until he ask.
I love hurdles. I was a hurdler in high school and I love it. I relate to it, it makes sense to me. Long and short hurdles. I understand it like breathing. I feel it, I do not even have to think hard on it to figure it out or make plans for my people. It is my little corner of the track universe. Just as Poli Sci was easy for me as a major, hurdles are easy for me as a coach. Being a hurdler I can talk to my athletes like I wanted to be talked to, other events are not the same.
Enough for today, time to work or do some honey-do's... I will try to keep this blog fluid and not all about track so stay tuned you never know what I might talk about. It is election season and I have plenty of.... more later
3 comments:
I agree with you about Marion & the drugs. It's time to forgive and more forward with that situation. The story won't go away--what do you think track should do to spin the story off this negativity and on to all the sport's talent?
T.E. thanks for the response and questions. I am tired of the negativity. People automatically assume that a bad story is negative. No it is just bad news, the label of positve or negative is determined by how you deal with the news and control the information.
Track has been at the fore front of the drug scene for decades, that is the first spin you make sure everyone knows. We need to push the FACT that we are the most tested sport in the world and have had unannounced testing long before anyone else.
From here we need to throw numbers at them, like 1000+ tested in Osaka alone! However many OOC test during the past years, etc.
We continually get caught up in the minuteae of the stories and miss our chance to shine through this mess.
Marion never tested positive but she was tested over a humdred times during her career. This puts the onus on the designer drug program that she was on to avoid testing positive.
As far as exhibiting the talent these issues are mutually exclusive and should always be that way. That is another story to tell in another blog one day.
Coach D
Hello Coach,
I have some concerns.. For the first time in my life.i was able to have a full base training for this current track season. I am a 400hurdler, but I run the 800 and 400 as well. I have 400m pr's of 48.56 and a 400h p.r of 55.53. Last year after three years off I ran 49.78 and that was the first year of running the 400 hurdles. My goal is to run 51.80 in the 400hurdles.
I started training may 14th of last year for my season, doing about 25 miles a week of running and from there I progressed into sprints and plyometrics. I lifted and I dieted to prepare myself for the fall training i was going to do.Also I transferred schools so my coaching is different and so are the training styles.
Our coach has a system of long intervals. On Mondays we do short sprints no longer that 60m and there is some block work mixed in.(in the fall it was hill sprints).On Tuesday we do long intervals. So each new cycle begins with 600's and the the next week 500's and then all the way down to 300's. Then wednesday is a rest day, thursday is a short sprint day(70-150).then friday is faster shorter intervals..Something like 3x200x3..
On october 2nd i ran 53.1 sec time trial and I am a 48 second 400m..I was devestated and people said it had a lot to do with the mileage i did in the summer and no speed work. I keep training with the hopes that things would get better.
In december we had 800 time trial in which we ran 1:30 for 600 meters and then kicked at the end..I ran 2:04 which was 2 sec p.r me and it gave me some hope. I ran over the break and rested a little before I came back to school and january for our indoor season.
My first race indoor, I ran 2:06 for 800 and a 51 split for the 4x4. My second race I ran 1:26 for 600m.Last year I ran 1:24 that same time of the year. I am in the best shape of my life.I am stronger in the weight room and on the track and I feel great..Yet,my results arent showing it. My first race was 800 m and I ran 2:06 and I died horribly at the end,and I had a 51 second split for the 4x4. My second meet was yestersay I ran the 600m. I ran 1:24 last year off basically no training and this year with training I ran 1:26.17. my splits were 25,28, and 33..The 53 for the first 400 feel so easy and the last 170 i feel apart and faded so badly!! And on my 4x4 anchor leg, I ran 51 again!! Then I ran a 1:17 in the 600 yards, then the next week I ran 53.18 for the 400 open and a 52 split in the 4x4.Our training has not changed much, except the intervals have gotten fast and rest has gotten shorter. I have ran horrible and left off my conference team and have lost a little bit of my confidence. I feel like my season is a waste. I am no where I was last year.
I was just wondering if you have anything thoughts for my season and why I may be running so sir. I appreciate it.If I am in the best shape of my life, why am I not running well like I feel I should?It is really discouraging and I dont get it..Im just looking for some type of answers..
Howmanyukno@aol.com
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