KIMbia Athletics

Matt Tegenkamp and Chris Solinsky will battle for the 3,000m win at Saturday’s indoor national championships in Boston. At least that’s what he thinks will happen; see below for his speculation about what their mutual coach, Jerry Schumacher, has told them how about race tactics.

We’ll have a post-meet wrap, including video, on Sunday. For now, the return of Mr. T’s musings…

I have been hiding out for a while trying to relax and get myself ready for a big year. Nothing could have helped that more than getting away from this horrible winter Madison has had this year. Well, the perfect opportunity came when my old roommate moved to Tempe, Arizona, so I jumped at the chance to get away and train in perfect weather. I was in Tempe for about two months (December and January), and it was great. I was able to get some great training in and stay healthy while increasing my base mileage. While I was away Jerry had me focusing on mileage with some strength work mixed in. I was doing 45-second hill repeats once a week as well as a 10-mile progression run.

When the time came to head back to Madison I had mixed feelings. I mean it was 40 as a low and 65 as a high everyday…and sunny!!! How could I leave that? But as the old saying goes, there’s no place like home, and I was really looking forward to getting back in my own bed in my own house. On the trip back everyone from Madison was telling us that we were crazy and to turn around, but we made it back, and I could see why they were telling us to take their advice. Before I left my neighbor was saying that there had not been a real winter in Madison for 10 years. Well, this year it’s a “real” winter. Since I have been back I have seen about 20” of snow; ice-covered sidewalks, bike paths, you name it; and days and days and days of below-0 temperatures (not including windchill). All of this in only three weeks; this is why Jerry always said to just to stay and tough it out; warm sunny Arizona made me soft. Hopefully we will not see anything like this again for another 10 years, and I will be retired and will get to laugh at everyone doing their training.

I can’t believe how fast the time has gone by. All of a sudden U.S. indoor champs is here. I really don’t know what to expect from this race other than getting my feet wet on the track again. I got back to Madison at the start of February, and immediately got to work with repeat sessions. Things have been going good so far, and I am healthy still, so that is half the battle. I think the biggest issue right now is battling high mileage but adding intensity in the form of repeats to the training cycle. I have only been doing it for three weeks now, and I don’t think my legs have quite adjusted yet. Nor should they—we are not trying to run the best now!! However, I took a down week leading up to this meet, so that should help. It’s going to be a lot of fun this weekend battling not only the competition but also the teammates; I mean there are a lot of bragging rights tied to this race. We were joking the other day about Jerry pulling us aside before the race and giving us our own race plain and not sharing. Then as the race progresses and the pack starts to shake down and it’s time to make “my” move, I (and the others) realize that Jerry gave us the exact same plan.

I mean, we all want to win, and when it comes down to it we realize that we should all be in the hunt with a lap to go, and from that point on it is whoever has it on that day. I am really excited to get the ’08 season underway, and from this point forward I’m done talking about ’07. It’s a new year with different obstacles and goals. I am on the right track and I am confident I will get things start off on the right foot this weekend!