Coaches’ Blog

I realized the other day that my life seems to be periodized right along with our training seasons.  It functions in weekly microcycles, month long mesocycles, and season long macrocycles.  It even has the transition periods mixed in from time to time.  It was only after a hectic week of preparing for our home XC meet that I put all this together.

 It might seem horribly obvious to most of you out there that this would happen, but it is something that has eluded me until now.  Sure, everyone’s life is broken up into weeks, months, years, and vacations, but it’s a little different for a coach.  We plan so much in advance.  Everything is structured to climax at exactly the right time.  It seems so obvious now that I and my ‘off-track’ life would mirror it. Epiphanies are funny that way.  

The most interesting thing about a coach’s life is that without a great support structure, there wouldn’t even be an ‘off-track’ life.  The USATF makes all Level II coaches read a book called Coaching Mental Excellence. There is a brief section hidden in the far back of this book in the 2nd to last chapter.  It is entitled “Do You Really Want To Be Married?”  It happens to be immediately preceded by “Is a Family Possible?” As I am amidst planning for my wedding, these chapters ring much louder now than in my first reading.  Ultimately, I feel that both are very possible.  I have to believe that because anything else can not be an option. In the end, I feel that there are three foundational elements that are needed for a person to exist as both a coach and non-coach.  

If we envision a coach’s foundation as a tripod, we can see supports being reserved for:

1) Coach

2) Significant Other

3) Assistant Coaches/Managers

Obviously there are many more that can fall into this mix like Athletic Directors, parents, athletes, friends, etc.  This is a simplified model that is geared highly towards my life and may or may not be able to be generalized.  Basically, I have to keep it to three because this blog isn’t long enough for anything else.  

It is important to note that none of these three bases function in isolation.  It is only with flexibility and communication that they can be stable enough to support a balanced, sane coach.  It’s like a suspension bridge – flexibility leads to stability.  

Very quickly…

1) A coach needs to be able to stop being a coach at times.  24/7 seems like a good idea, but it will quickly deteriorate into a sloppy product and limited results.  Those in a coach’s ‘real world’ life don’t want to hear about recruits and PRs so it’s important to be able to shut it off and still have conversations beyond the sport. This is probably the most important element.  The coach as to want a life away from the track in order to make it work.    

2) A flexible relationship is key.  There are times where it will be difficult to shut off coaching.  In cases like these, it is important to have a significant other who understands the unique demands on a coach/teacher and be open to an odd lifestyle at times.  Knowing when to give a quiet push in the right direction and when a swift kick in the pants is needed can be an invaluable tool for someone marrying a coach.  

3) Having assistant who want to and are capable of taking on a variety of responsibilities is critical.  The demands on a coach are never-ending.  There is always another task to do.  That’s one thing I actually love about the job.  However, it would be absolutely impossible to do everything needed to be an effective coach and have a personal life without talented, dedicated assistants.  Many coaches suffer from an inability to stop micromanaging their programs.  They need to be the primary coach for every athlete on the team.  Sadly, the result of this is that you are an effective primary coach to no one because you are spread so thin.

Post DIII NE's Indoors (not pictured, but very deserving of credit Ed Arcaro, Dan Kopcso, Jeremy Arak) (not pictured, but less deserving because this is their first year, Mark Carberry, Chris Combs)

Although they are incredibly cheesy and formulaic, all those movies about dedicated teachers and coaches really speak to me.  Freedom Writers, Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, Lean on Me, etc. However, it scares the pants off me that every single ‘dedicated’ educator seems to choose between their work family and their home family.  Most of the protagonists in these stories all end up divorced and alone by the end of the movie.  They don’t show that in the ending credits.  It’s a part of the middle section where everything seems to be going wrong, but they don’t bring it back up in the end when everything supposedly worked out.  Well…no…they’re still divorced or separated.  

I’m pretty lucky.  I have an amazing fiance who fully supports what I do.  She definitely has the skills to give me a swift kick when I can’t get the job out of my head.  And she understands that coaching is so much more than your average job.  I have assistants that want nothing more than to see athletes grow as students, mature as people, and get faster and stronger as athletes.  They always go the extra mile and put in the extra hour if an athlete needs it.  Their creativity and versatility help make my time here smoother and less stressful.  

It seems like every few months I re-realize how much I depend on those around me to do what I do, but I don’t always take the time to thank them the way they deserve.  To be honest, this blog is definitely not the right way to do it either, but I assure you that I’ll find some way to make it up to them.  

To Marion – Thanks for being my sounding board, common sense, motivator, and fiance.

To Kevin, Mark, Adam, Chris, Ed, Jeremy, and Dan – Thanks for taking the time out of your already busy days to help build, in my opinion, one of the most well-rounded programs in the nation.  Without your help everyday, I wouldn’t enjoy this as much as I do.

So you always hear the stories where the athlete overcomes obstacles, injury, death, etc and still succeeds at the highest level.  However, it is much rarer to hear about the athlete who couldn’t ultimately overcome their limitation to still step upon the medal stand.  Sometimes though, those are the stories that really move you.  

I know that I am very stoic individual.  It is both my greatest strength and weakness rolled into one.  But every two years when the Olympics roll around, I find myself welling up at so many little stories that come out of the Games.  

It is the combination of the the Olympics, sport, goals and dreams all rolled into one that I can relate to.  It just strikes home when I hear about the stories of so many dedicated athletes, their struggles, and how they’ve dealt with them.  Hearing about an MLB or NBA player struggling never gets to me because they seem to get so much attention (and $$$$), so it doesn’t really hit home.  But the idea of someone sacrificing everything in their life to perfect their craft and not receiving any admiration, attention, or money in return – that strikes a nerve.  

To get more specific, I’m talking about the Great Britain Powerlifting Team.  100% of their team is made up of dedicated athletes and amazing roll models.  I even have room in this post for their entire roster:

1) Breeze, Michaela

That’s it.  Michaela encompasses the entirety of the Great Britain representation.  So what choice did she have when she threw out her back three weeks before the Olympic Games.  If she didn’t go, then Great Britain didn’t go.   It’s not hard to see how she threw her back out…she was carrying an entire nation on it. Is there really no one else in all of Great Britain who wants to violently throw some insanely heavy weights over their head.  On a small tangent – I think it should be pointed out that every single one of these lifters (even the light weights) can lift more than 99.9% of the human population.  

Few people deserve the title 'Olympian' more than Michaela Breeze.

Michaela knew she couldn’t go to Beijing and compete at her best.  She knew a medal was out of the question. She knew that anything she did was going to hurt worse than anything she’d ever done.  But still, thats no reason to not go to the Olympics.  I’ve lost count of how many athletes I’ve spoken with who don’t want to run/practice/try because they aren’t in peak form.  I’m always amazed at how someone can see ‘not competing’ as a better choice than ‘competing when they may not be at their best.’  Isn’t that exactly when you’re supposed to compete.  It has nothing to do with PR’s.  It has to do with what your potential may be on that day.  Get as close as possible to your potential for that day.  Obviously, your September 1st race isn’t going to be as strong as your November 1st race.  But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t toe the line until November.  Lace up, step up, and get on the line to see what you can do.  

So many coaches preach that success isn’t in the championships. I’m one of them.  However, some of those coaches have never actually been forced to put that belief to the test.  Some coaches are able to talk a big game, not caring about the W’s and L’s, but they have only coached teams that are always in the title hunt. That’s great, but it isn’t until you take pride and find success in a rebuilding team that you can really say that winning and success aren’t correlated.  Then you have a much different outlook on your sport and your team.  It’s only after you lose something that you can truly appreciate what you have.    

Back to Michaela.  Truly, she is the epitome of this approach to sport.  Even at the highest level, she was capable of seeing beyond the actual results and her finish on a list.  She went to Beijing and did as well as she could on that given day.  It wasn’t close to a PR and it wasn’t close to a medal.  What it was was one of the most inspiring performances of the Olympics.  I’ll let Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe tell you about her day…

She began her day with a modest 80-kilogram snatch, which was a sure sign she was not herself. But after slamming down the barbell, having successfully lifted 85 kilograms on her second lift, she grabbed her lower back and limped off the stage. She was next seen lying face-down in the backstage area, being massaged. She appeared to be weeping, and her day appeared to be done. Under the circumstances, she had performed extraordinarily well.

But when the clean-and-jerk phase of the competition began, who should return to make a lift but Michaela Breeze? The crowd, which had been rather subdued (no Chinese lifters in this group), came to life as she successfully lifted 80 kilograms over her head. The total was absolutely insignificant. Michaela Breeze, in obvious pain, was doing her Baron de Coubertin/Grantland Rice thing. She was taking part.

She hoisted 90 kilograms on her second lift, and when she came out for a third and final time, the announcer greeted her by saying, “Let’s have a big hand for her lofty spirit.”

Michaela Breeze was going to make an attempt at 100 kilograms. She was here, by God, and she was going to do something to justify her presence in Beijing. She got the barbell up to her shoulders as the crowd began to roar. Her right leg buckled when she planted it behind her in anticipation of the second stage of the lift, but she kept her balance. She raised the load over her head, and everything – arms, legs, head – wobbled. Her face was contorted in pain, but she was determined to make this lift. She extended her arms, held the 100 kilograms aloft, and when she threw it down, the judges having acknowledged it as a legitimate lift, she smiled, however briefly, and pointed both index fingers to the cheering crowd.

And then she staggered off the stage.

I feel the need to say that there is a time and a place to compete through injury.  That time is not on September 1st.  The goal is to be at your best when your best is needed most.  There is no glory or honor in running through an injury that makes you unable to be there for your teammates when they need you. Health is the #1 priority.  But when you’ve reached the end of your path, like Michaela had, and you have nothing but a little pain to worry about, that is when you step up…regardless.

Yes the coverage stunk for the 2008 Olympics.  I was expecting so much more.  After watching every heat of every race at the Olympic Trials, I was horribly let down by the NBC coverage for the Olympics. It looked so promising when we found out every single detail of Michael Phelps’ life.  I assumed that we would be getting the same coverage for Track & Field.  Oh, how could I be so naive.

But still, I don’t know how ‘normal’ people do it.  How do they expect you to go from experiencing something as amazing and emotional as the OLYMPICS to simply experiencing a normal day to day life?  Lucky for me, I lead anything but a normal existence.  On some level, I experience the Olympics every year.  The current crop of seniors will always help me satisfy my “Olympic” fix.   They’re people who are in their final season of a four year cumulation – its now or never.  Seniors are guaranteed to realize that college is finite.  The end (and the subsequent real world) is upon them.  This phase of their athletic career coming to a close and they will do anything and everything to make this year the best one ever.  

But they need help.  They can’t do it alone.  They need teammates to help them accomplish all their goals, both personal and team.  It’s amazing how so little of our individual sport is actually individual. Historically, those XC and Track & Field programs that have boasted the best team performances have been those whose underclassmen have realized the finality of each season well before their senior year.  

You may be a freshmen and have 12 seasons of competing in front of you, but this is the ONLY shot for the 2008-2009 teams.  Next year will be your only sophomore year and so on.  Right about now, many freshmen and sophomores are looking at me cross-eyed.  Somehow their denial is so strong they have managed to convince themselves that college will last forever.  They have no sense of an end or urgency to make it something special.  Coaches and seniors can talk about all this until they’re blue in the face, but the fact of the matter is, some people will never realize the impermanent nature of their college years until it hits them in the face like a 2×4.  And that is why there are some programs that continue to succeed while others struggle.  Developing a tradition where freshmen and sophomores are invested in the ‘current’ success of the team (and their personal success) is a difficult undertaking.  

Ultimately, I see developing the team focus as simply building good teammates.  A little bit of empathy goes a long way.  It is rare that I’ll be able to get a freshmen realizing “that they only get one chance at their freshmen year…make it count.”  However, you can accomplish the same outcome by having them ‘do it for the seniors.’  They may not yet see how their apathy is negatively affecting their performance because, to them, they have forever to catch up on training.  However, loyalty is a powerful emotion and most first-years would run through a brick wall if their seniors asked them to. Playing the Honor Card early in an athletes career can help keep the training up until their mind catches up and realizes that they really want/need to be doing all this.     

I have to believe that its an innate problem and, therefore, don’t have any judgement against any freshmen for their outlook.  Very few 18-30 year-olds ever think about saving for retirement.  Why?  Because it is a lifetime away.  Something to be thought about when they actually grow up…definitely not now.  Yet every finance book will tell you that someone who saves $10 a month starting at 18 will always be wealthier than his counterpart that saves $100 a month starting at 30.  If you put the work in early, then you won’t have to play catch up later.  

I learned this lesson the hard way.  Yes, I too succumbed to the same perils of the freshmen year – the invulnerability of being 18.  Personally, I didn’t see the inside of the weight room until my junior year of college and as a 110Her that could be a bit detrimental.  I thought I was good enough without it, I was an immature, arrogant 18-year-old.  Fast forward two years and from my junior year on, I did everything in my power to ensure that I was the best athlete I could be.  I improved at a rate that I couldn’t fathom and eventually I only had one person left to beat, Chris Cobbs.  Yes, I still remember his name.  I only raced him twice in my life – Indoor Nationals ’01 and Outdoor Nationals ’01.  We never spoke, but I have the utmost respect for the man.

To this day, I feel that I had the abilities to be beside him at both championships; however, he was always a couple clicks in front of me.  And it was a direct result of my 1st two years in college.  I put myself in a hole that could not be overcome.  I just needed one more year of training to be right with him or ahead of him.  Regrettably, I had that year and I let it slip past.  I had the opportunity to train for a race against Chris Cobbs three years before I even knew he existed.  I failed to maximize my freshmen and sophomore years and I have the runner-up trophy to prove it.  It’s a good reminder to me to always maximize the present, to not put off living my life.  

If you have a goal…go get it…now…don’t wait.

It’s called kinesiotaping.  It’s been around for ages, but it seems to have just found its way into mainstream professional sports.  If you’ve been watching the Olympics, then you’ve probably seen a number kinesiotaped athletes.  It has a number of uses that range from helping circulation and lymph flow to regulating body temperature.  Ultimately, most athletes use it to prevent overuse or over-contraction of muscles as well as provide increased joint stability.  

2x Gold medalist Kerry Walsh with kinesiotaped shoulder.

It is designed to work ‘with’ the muscles and joints where as the typical athletic taping provides a stiff, rigid support to joints.  Studies have shown that the stability provided by traditional ankle taping is negligible after only 5+ minutes of use.  Odd, that doesn’t stop every football team in America from taping every single ankle on the team before every practice.  On the other hand, kinesiotaping provides no limit to ROM; however, there is no research available to either support or negate the proponents of this technique.     

It’s amazing how something that has been around for 25+ years can still be so underutilized and unresearched.  It’s more sad than anything else.  I can’t help but feel that kinesiotaping is simply another revolution by Eastern medicine that has been steadily ignored by stubborn Western practitioners. I find that odd in this case because kinesiotaping is far less ‘touchy-feely’ than massage and muscular therapy and it has no where near the spiritual foundation of acupuncture.  Needless to say, I’ve had countless athletes find great success in both of these domains when Western medicine alone failed them.

Sadly, kinesiotaping is not a realistic option for the average college athlete. So don’t go running off to your AT demanding the latest taping revolutions. Not only does it require a certification course, but the tape itself sells for about $15 per roll.  The tape has a higher tensile strength than traditional athletic tape, but that is a bit pricey for even the wealthiest of athletic departments.  Especially when it’s effects are temporary at best with highly active athletes.  You’ll notice that Kerry Walsh was rarely able to finish an entire match with her taping still in place.  It is better suited for throwers or jumpers who only need to be in action for one big effort.  

All that being said, as a senior in college, my athletic trainer put together a crude version of kinesiotaping to help alleviate a nagging knee injury.  At the time we called it ‘medical duct tape,’ but it did the trick.  Results of kinesiotaping are mixed (like everything involving sports and humans).  Some people swear by it while others have tried it with no benefit.  

Regardless, it isn’t some sort of voodoo that has athletes clutching at straws.  It’s principles are rooted in anatomy, kinesiology, and physiology.  Simply looking at it logically with an open mind, one has to say that it has potential.  I wonder if the media coverage of the Beijing Games will be enough to bring it all the way into America’s medical repertoire?

No I don’t mean the bible.  I mean Purdy’s computerized estimations for what one PR should translate to in other events. It was first published back in 1996 and I’ve seen many coaches use it extensively.  If coaching is a marriage between science and art then this book is heavily weighted to the science side.  I rarely use this book, but have consulted it to reconfirm some splits and rest intervals.  I’ve also used it to help athletes fight through a plateau.  Some athletes find confidence in the ‘science’ of the book and will attack a race with more vigor if the book says that they can run a specific time.  

All in all, It is one of the most enjoyable books to waste some time looking at.  It gives us plenty to debate about as we try to decide what an All American 200m runner could run in the marathon.  It is always fun to witness a 10k runner going toe to toe with a 400m man deciding whose PR’s are tougher.  

Now that Usain has put together an incredible double in Beijing, we can start wasting some time and let the debates begin.  Could he break MJ’s 400m WR if he wanted to?  I can’t even begin to express how many times I’ve heard cross country runners talking about what Jeremy Wariner or MJ should be able to run in the 800m.  This is the same conversation.  The ‘book’ doesn’t even go to a 19.30.  Continuing out the numbers, a 19.30 should be approximately 1800 points.  That would put Usain at a 43.91 in the 400m and a 1:41.89 in the 800m. Odd that he’s closer to the 800m WR than he is the 400m WR.  Oh, he should also be able to run a 12:51 in the 5k.  Here’s what MJ himself had to say about Bolts potential of setting a new 400m WR.  

Could he do it? 12:51 in the 5k?

I should say that I am not among those people who believe that Bolt would have run a lot faster if he ‘ran’ through the line in the 100m finals.  Yes, he would have gone faster, but I have heard people throwing around sub9.6 times and that is just silly.  Granted, I’m working with my naked eye, but I never saw Bolt’s hips turn away from the finish line.  He has one of the most efficient strides I have ever seen.  For all you young sprinters out there, watch any of his 200m prelim races.  He’s juxtaposed next to Crawford almost every time.  When Crawford ‘lets up’ he decelerates like crazy.  When Bolt ‘lets up’ his legs cycle through like he’s peddling a bike in high gear.  He doesn’t decelerate much.  The quick tap, tap, tap of his top speed is impressive.

I would love to see some film of Guy Drut (1970’s HHer, pronounce Gee Drew) or Dayron Robles running the open 100m or 200m.  They obviously don’t have Bolt’s top end speed, but strides that are as efficient as Usain’s are usually reserved for the most technically savvy hurdlers.  

I believe that, at best, the 100m WR would be a 9.64 or 9.65.  Not to say that he couldn’t possibly run faster in future years, but not in that race.  I really want to see the breakdown for that 100m final.  Show me his speed in 5m and 10m increments.  Show me that he actually decelerated over the final 10m and I’ll start to talk about some faster WR’s.  It doesn’t look like he starts to slow up until the final 2m.

On a completely unrelated topic, my heart goes out to Lolo Jones.  As a hurdler myself, I can’t think of anything worse than what happened to her.  Her ability to save that race and finish was very impressive, but may have made the experience even worse.  There is something about hitting a hurdle and falling that makes you feel like there was not much you could have done.  But to save yourself and then see the field run by you like that; I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.  So to see it happen to someone whom I admire greatly is nothing short of a tragedy.

"Make them think you're weak when you're strong."

Back in the States.  About 24 hours now.  I am almost at a loss for what to write about.  So many little stories, but none that seem totally blog-worthy.  There were a few lessons learned for the first time while others were simply reaffirmed.  A few of the big ones were…

1) Do not mess with a Jumbo.  They may not look as hardcore as you think, but it will mess you up.  No one who knows their stuff messes with a Jumbo. (not from personal experience of course)  

2) Don’t blame sprinters…it’s genetic.  (realized after watching three cheetah brothers lounge in the shade without a care in the world)

3) Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to walk away from it.  I’ve done some of my best workout writing and technique problem solving out of the office this summer in Alaska and Kenya.  

In order to run that fast you have to live the rest of your life a bit slower. It averages the whole thing out.

Ultimately, one of the strangest feelings happened after I returned and landed in JFK yesterday.  It was great to be back in States.  More so, it was great to be home.  Living out of my pack all summer is great, but at heart, I am truly a home-body who loves a good routine.  I started missing the track and I can’t wait to get my hands on the XC course next week, but I digress.  

So we landed in JFK with one final leg left to travel up to Boston.  As I’m walking through the terminal, what would be the first thing that I see, but none other than Manny Ramirez loping out of the dugout in a Dodger uniform.  

First thought: Oh lord, we flew through a rip in the space/time continuum and landed in a parallel universe.  I’m now in the Bizarro United States.  Up is down. Left is right.  I bet the Tampa Rays are even in first place in the AL East and Brett Favre is on the Jets.   

Second thought: Wait a second, Manny is still “loping: out of the dugout with his uniform unbuttoned.  This can’t be a bizarro universe otherwise Manny would already be standing in left field with a crew cut.  We’re all safe.  What? The Rays are in 1st place and Favre is a Jet.  Well, that’s not bad.  

Final thought: I wonder what school I would be coaching at in the bizarro world?  Or would I even be a coach?  It would have really stunk to a job that I would have had to shave every morning for.  See some of you in the next few days.  Even more of you at the Alumni Run.  To the rest of you…I’ll see you when I see you.

Well, the backpack didn’t rest too long in the corner this time around.  Kenya ’08 kicks off tomorrow morning at 10:00AM. Now it’s time to go for the lions and tigers portion of lions, tigers, and bears.  The Kenya pack is a paltry 45lbs.  Feels quaint after the Alaska pack.  The excitement will start with a 1 hour flight to JFK in NY.  Follow that up with a 7 hour flight to Heathrow and a 8.5 hour flight to Nairobi.  Should be an exciting way to spend a day.

I don’t know if Kenya will be able to meet the same level of views that Alaska gave me, but it has some elements that Alaska did not.  First off, I’ll be seeing my fiance for the first time all summer.  She has finally finished her research and we will be able to enjoy the Kenya experience for the next 2 weeks.  

Secondly, the Great Migration will be driving its way right through Kenya while we’re there. Approximately 1.5 million wildebeest and 300,000 zebra and other antelopes gather up their young and trek from Tanzania into northern Kenya.  How amazing is that?  1.5 million wildebeest.  I don’t even know if I can imagine that.  

Basically it is the equivalent of every single resident of Philadelphia deciding to pick up and walk to Montreal at the same time.  Can you imagine sitting on a rooftop in Albany, NY and witnessing all of Philadelphia walking by on their way north?

See you all in a couple weeks.  Hopefully Philly will still be populated when I return.

Grizzly that decided to walk past us on Day 2.

You know in the movies, when the hero (possibly down on his luck) is walking through the casino and looks down to see a coin on the ground.  He picks it up and decides to use it in the slot machine he’s standing next to…BAM…Jackpot.  I now know exactly how that guy feels although I wasn’t really down on my luck.  

This week we couldn’t have messed this trip up if we tried.  It felt like there was someone guiding everything for us.  Grizzlies, caribou, moose, dall sheep – they all found their way across our path and in grand fashion. Mt. McKinley, which is typically covered by clouds for 27 days each month, decided to come out on the one day that we headed out to Wonder Lake.  It rained every single day that we were there and it is currently the coldest summer in recorded Alaska history.  Still it was the best backpacking trip of my young life.  

"This should be a good place to set up camp"

I won’t be able to do the trip justice by trying to talk about it in words, but I hope that the pictures that we took will be able to help.  First, it may help to understand exactly what Denali is like.  

It is 20% bigger than Massachusetts with one road running east to west through it.  They divide it up into smaller back country units that are larger than most counties.  Then they limit the amount of occupants to each unit – typically four to six people.  

Just imagine that you have your own county of some of the most beautiful and unaltered land available.  A place where the wildlife is more curious of humans than they are afraid or aggressive.  Unlike Yellowstone, where wildlife has learned that humans are almost always carrying food with them, the animals of Denali see their human counterparts as no more than another part of the wilderness.   

Good place to stop for lunch.

It definitely feels good to be back in Medford though.  I was probably the only person in all of Denali who packed a pole vaulting book to read in the down time. Ten hour plane rides make excellent times for workout planning.  

On that note, I couldn’t be more excited for the upcoming XC and track seasons.  The combination of getting away on vacation with the workout planning has put us in a great place to kick off another campaign.  

Every year we fight to make a small step forward.  If we do that every year then all our small steps make up some big leaps. It always seems like it may be difficult to build on the previous year’s great seasons, but it should be exciting to see how it all plays out.

2008 led the team to an XC nationals berth, indoor DIII title, NESCAC runner-up as well as a landslide of PR’s and school records.  The guys stepped up at every big meet last year and competed with an absence of fear that we always strive for.  Ultimately, that is the only thing that we can control.  We could bring the same great competitiveness and, in the end, the points may not shake out the same.  But then, that’s why we still have to run the meets every Saturday.  And why I’ll never stop loving this job.  It never shakes out like we think it will.

Thank you to Chris Kantos ’08 and Peter Goransson ’07 for all the blog help.  I definitely understood computers so much better about 6 years ago.  It is amazing how fast you can start to feel old and out-dated when it comes to computers.  I imagine that this site could make drastic changes from time to time as it fights to find it’s way back to equilibrium and functionality.  It has already seen 4 modifications in it’s short life so far.  Hopefully – coachblog4.0 meets your standards in full.  

With so much to happen in the next 4 weeks I apologize if posts are sporadic at best.  After Monday, I will be completely incommunicado for my entire trip to Alaska.  No cell phones, no emails, no TV, no internet…a little slice of heaven.  

To the team: Please keep up with your logging.  I look forward to catching up when I return.  You’ve put in a great summer so far and I can’t wait to read about all that you’ve done.  Remember, every day you can either take a step forward, backward, or stand still.  I’ll be out for one week.  Hopefully, you’ll all be seven steps closer to your goals.   

To the alumni: Keep up the running or start to get back in shape.  We have about 6 weeks until Alumni Run 2008. Remember – you have to earn your burgers and dogs with either a great 5k or a sizable donation to the team.    

To prospective future Jumbos: I apologize for my absence from the office…but not too much.  It is hard to feel too sorry about a hiking trip in Alaska and a relaxing trip to Kenya.  That being said, since becoming a coach, I’ve been working to reestablish the balance between running and life that I had as an athlete. Just as with training, sometimes you need to step away in order to come back with a even stronger performance. We’ll have plenty of time to catch up on my return.  

To all my other readers who don’t fit into these categories: Hello Marion.  Hello Mrs. Engelking.  That’s probably it.

Yesterday was a nice step in the right direction for the sport of track and field.  For the first time, the accountability for keeping our sport clean moved beyond the athlete’s level.  The life ban placed on Coach Trevor Graham is a great move towards reestablishing some sort of trust between fan and sport.  Sadly it will take much more than this to develop that trust into any sort of worthwhile relationship.

Among those athletes that have fallen under Coach Graham’s tutelage are Tim Montgomery (banned, in jail), Marion Jones (banned, in jail), CJ Hunter (frequent BALCO shopper), Justin Gatlin (banned), Shawn Crawford (2008 Olympian, huh?), and others.  Let’s stop and think about that for a second – COACH?!?!  

How much skill does it take as a coach to juice up your athletes?  Do you really feel accomplished when they PR or win races?  What did you do?  Nothing.  I don’t have anything against businessmen, but this could be what happens when you hire a coach who’s degree is in business management.  I don’t even think about telling people how to run their businesses and my consultant friends don’t ever try to tell me what workouts we should run.  When you get sick, you go to a doctor.  When your car breaks down, you go to a mechanic.  When you die, you go to a mortician.  When you want to run a PR, you go to a coach, not a businessman.   

Sure they still ran some workouts (probably some really amazing workouts), but how can he or they look at themselves in the mirror?  This may sound weird, but I’m just too selfish to even fathom using or condoning the use of PEDs.  Being able to look at myself in the mirror is worth far more than any medal or WR could ever give me.  I have to simply hope that the guilt of using PEDs is simply eating up every cheater to the point of insanity.    

I was definitely one of the people who felt that the relay teammates on all of Marion Jones’ medalling teams deserved to have their golds repossessed.  It is critical that teammates and coaches be forced to take some accountability for monitoring each other.  Sure, you may have been clean, but your relay team, the entrant, wasn’t.  

How horrible is it that I can’t sit back and simply enjoy the amazing performances of Dara Torres at this year’s swimming trials.  A 41-year-old sets the world record and qualifies for yet another Olympic team.  She is truly one of the best ever…if she’s clean.  I want to believe she did it clean more than anything.  I really do.  

On one hand she’s given birth, taken six years off, had knee and shoulder surgery (less than a year ago), and she’s 41.  On the other hand, she’s volunteered for the most strenuous testing ever undergone by USADA and the IOC.  I feel so torn.

I feel myself believing again.  But you better not hurt us again, Dara.  Please, I don’t know if we could take it again.  We’ve been hurt so many times.  We’ve had our heart stomped on and our faith destroyed time and time again.  It’s getting harder each time to let you in.