KIMbia Athletics

Michelle Sikes, Rhodes Scholar-extraordinaire, has spent the past few weeks in and around western Kenya  pursuing some first-person scholarship about the rise of the female Kenyan distance runner.  Between dozens of interviews with local running legends, she has even managed to fit in some training, and shares below…

We ran up a mountain today.  Godfrey (Kiprotich) was EXACTLY on-time – 8:30am on the dot.  Thinking that he just might happen to arrive late, I went off to breakfast in order to have a pre-run coffee.  However, just after I left the room, he pulled up in Ben Maiyo’s faithful white truck!

We took our usual seats, in our usual order, in the cabin of the truck.  From left to right, we sit (fellow Oxford student) Jonathan, then me, and then Godfrey behind the wheel (the driver sits on the right in Kenya!  Another legacy of the British…)  We passed the Viewpoint and from there, it was down, down, down…The Viewpoint was to be our finish line.  Our starting point was a primary school 2000 meters below it. Read the full article

You rang and, now, he answers. Tim Nelson is a former Foot Locker finalist, a multiple-time All-American at Wisconsin, and just the 14th American to break 27:40 in the 10k.  The California native and former Badger takes on your questions, below. Read the full article

My most memorable running experience of 2008 would have to be the Cardinal Invitational when I raced against Lagat, Songok, Boaz, and Abdi. It was my best race of the season and sort of a breakthrough performance for me individually.

My first big goal for 2009 is to qualify for the world championships in cross country. I would like to compete well at the USA championship and be near the lead the last 2K.

My main goal for 2009 is to get the “A” standard in the 10,000m and compete in Berlin at the world championships. I would also like to better my 5K PR, hopefully under 13:10.

Most memorable running experience of 2008: The Olympics; pretty obvious why! Believe it or not; I still have not seen the first two hours of the opening ceremonies!

First big goal for 2009: Get the 5,000m “A” standard for this year’s World Championships in Berlin. Yes, I screwed up last year and did not get the time out of the way. Last year was considered by most to be a successful year because of making the Olympic team, but when I look back I see many issues from 2008 that will be addressed in 2009.

Main goal for 2009: Represent Team USA in the 5,000 at the World Champs in Berlin. Prep for this started right after the Olympics with a different focus in training, and it has been going great. It is going to be an exciting year, and I’ll be ready to kick it off sometime in February with a few indoor races.

Most memorable running experience of 2008: Olympic Trials final in the 5K. I would say that this is memorable because I made so many mistakes in the race and was still within seconds of qualifying for the team. I learned a lot from that race and the rest of the summer season. That race alone will serve as plenty of motivation for me for many years to come, especially the next four years. I’m going to remember all the emotions during and following the race and use them as motivation to never feel that low again.

First big goal for 2009: Not only make the 5K team for the World Championships in Berlin, but make the final and be a factor in the final for one of the three podium spots. I would love to be a part of this summer’s 5K team because we have 4 entrants going and I would love to be part of that history, and if we could all make the final and do well in the final, that would be incredible.

Main goal for 2009: My main goal is to overall improve. I want to become a complete runner. I made so many mistakes last year throughout the entire year, and I want to make sure I learn from those and do not repeat them. Additionally, I would like to have a successful debut in the steeplechase this year and possibly open up a potential new event for myself. Finally, enjoy the sport, to not forget why I started this sport and why I love it so much. Sometimes when things go bad it is easy to lose that, and I don’t want that to be the case. I know I was supposed to have only one main goal, but these three are what have been on my mind as an overall theme for me for this year.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season.
Chris

My most memorable experience of 2008 is also the one I most want to forget about. The U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials just did not go my way. I saw something I had worked so hard for just slip away. Any other day, maybe the result would have been different, but for the Olympic Trials timing is everything. This leads me to my major goal for 2009. I have some unfinished business in the marathon. I hope to return to Boston and run the Boston Marathon. I still believe I have a better one in me.

Merry Christmas,
Elva

I can’t believe we are almost in the last week of 2008. Let me just begin by thanking three amazing people who volunteered to coach me in three different times in 2008. The first person is Matt Holappa, who helped me recover from a potentially career-ending Achilles injury and helped restart my training. Then I had the opportunity to go Oregon to train with Alberto Salazar, which I was really grateful for. In April I began training with my current coach, Brad Hudson, who coached me before the Kenyan Olympic Trials and my marathon debut.

This has been a year for changes for me. My most memorable experience for 2008 was one day, when I was training for my first marathon, I ran 26 miles in 2:32. Running by myself on the dirt road around my house in Michigan, this day really stood out for me as a turning point in my career. Up until this point I didn’t really know if I had marathon potential, but on this particular run something clicked and I thought, “I can really do this.”

My first big goal for 2009 is to run a fast 10,000m race on the track, which will possibly be at Stanford. I will probably run a 5,000m race before attempting it. Then I will be choosing a marathon to focus on, which is the ultimate goal for 2009.

Matt Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky and Tim Nelson are back from their altitude-training stint in Flagstaff, Arizona. How did it go? Read on to find out, and keep the questions for our heroes coming in the comment section below.

How is your training different than what you would have normally done at this time of the year in Madison?

As you would guess, we are in base phase right now, and the last 7-8 weeks have been a steady climb in mileage. A few things are different this year than in the past; one was that my break after the season was shorter because of the impending altitude stint. It was a good thing, though, because in the past taking a lot of time off—which is a nice feeling after such a long season—I would get lazy and it would be hard for me to get going. This year I got back on the horse 10 days after the 5K road championships.

Second, the biggest change was altitude. It was our first time up and something that we wanted to experience during our off-season to figure training out. We are very excited to see the benefits!

Third, we are doing real workouts now, actually using spikes, doing repeats on the track, and getting turn over work. Not to say that we are stoking and getting too fit too early, but in the past we would get the mileage up and only add one progression run in a week. The lack of workouts in the winter was mostly due to our Northern location in Wisconsin. We could not get outside to do track muscle memory work and the body can only take so much of the indoor track! We know this is still base phase so we are still logging the miles and putting in the big volume repeat sessions, long tempo/progression runs and combining it with 5K muscle memory work all year round.

How long is this stint at altitude? And why did you decide to add that to your training schedule now?

We were in Flagstaff for 5 weeks. I think it was a little bit of our ego coming out because our group had a lot of success without going to altitude. We figured we had a good thing going, so why try to fix something that wasn’t broken. Over the past couple of years we have been focused on developing our finish and training has been geared toward that. Now we need to get to that last kilometer as comfortable as possible so we can use our kick.

I will say that the aerobic system lost a little ground in that type of training, and that is what we are focused on now. Altitude is a proven method of increasing the aerobic system, so we wanted to take full advantage of that. It may be late in game, but we are looking at the big picture of training different energy systems and think we are on the right track. Hopefully this year we will prove that once again.

Matt, I hear you had a few injuries during college. I am just recovering from a stress reaction and so would like to know how you built your training back up to normal levels sensibly and what sort of crosstraining you did.

Hopefully by now you are back training, you found what worked for you training wise, and everything is good. I probably bucked the trend with injuries because I would not crosstrain! I took the mindset that my body was hurt and it wanted rest. I could have crosstrained, but who is to say that it would not have taken longer to heal. Plus, you can kill yourself crosstraining and still feel horrible once you are running again, so I said the hell with it.

Once I started running again I was a bit crazy. The first few week would be very low mileage, running every other day. During these weeks, since the runs were short I would run pretty hard (sub-6:00 pace) if I could manage it. I wanted to feel like I was getting something out of the short runs. After a couple week the mileage would go up steadily and I would have to start throwing in some easy days to recover. After about six weeks I felt like I had worked the rust out of my system and was ready to start training again. I think it is really important to push yourself pretty hard when coming back from time off.

Where in Portland did you guys move to? Have you done any training there yet? Do you like the area?

I’ve been to Portland many times and love the area. We are still in a transition period with some of the group already moved and some still in Madison. I am still in Madison, mostly due to the altitude stint, so I have not been around to take care of logistical issues that will be involved in the move. I hope to be out in Portland permanently after the start of the new year.

During your altitude training, is your diet and fluid intake the same as it would be at sea level?

I would say that I ate about the same (a lot) but the fluid intake was much higher. It is very easy to get dehydrated at altitude so we were taking in a lot of water.

What will your highest week be during altitude training, mileage wise?

Nelly 120, Solinsky 112, me 100. All of that was done using the famous Badger miles system.

Any altitude sickness?

We think our wimpy coach might have, but the athletes were just fine!

Matt, 10K?

In the future. What do you think I could run?

Are you planning on racing more indoors this year? Will you head back to altitude at other points throughout next year?

Don’t really know our plans yet. We are just focused right now on getting the most out of our training and getting ready for a big year!!

Are you guys concerned about iron levels at all? Teammates of mine have struggled with altitude and iron/ferritin. Any precautions? Is it even on your radar?

We are keeping a close eye on our iron stores and we were taking liquid iron while we were up at altitude. We would not get the benefit without it.

Matt, you seemed a bit shell-shocked after Beijing. What’s your opinion now, several months removed? You were talking about adjustments, but what can you do to compete with someone whose last 3K of a 5K is equal or better than your 3K PR?

As of right now I am not worried with beating the best runner in history; I just want to get myself back to medal contention. Things did not go all that well last year, but it happened and we are making the necessary adjustments. It is going to be a good year for the new Oregon Project group.

While Matt Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky and Tim Nelson gear up to answer your questions via video, here’s a first round of queries with Matt done old school, pen to paper. (Well, fingers to iPhone.) Keep your questions for the trio coming in the comment section below. For now…

How soon into your first run at 8,000 feet did you get hit with the feeling that something was different?
First off, Flagstaff is at 7,000 feet, and we are to scared to go any higher at this moment. We will be experiencing our first taste of 8,000 on the long run this Sunday on the famed waterline route. Overall, though, we adjusted just fine, which is great since this is our first time at altitude.

Are you training with any of the many other runners there in Flagstaff?
We meet with other Flagstaff locals on the Thursday bagel run, including Martin Fagan and Andrew Lemoncello. It is a good run and nice to visit with others. However, I think we got in trouble last week because we (I) ran too hard. Hopefully they won’t mind next week. I promise to run easier!!

Now that you’ve been there awhile, are you starting to feel different while running?
If you mean, are runs getting any easier, I would say no, we are still breathing heavy and hills suck. I don’t think that will change while we are up here.

Other than the altitude, how, if at all, does that differ from what you were doing at the same time last year?
In the past we did not visit the track during base-building period. That is different this year, and I am very happy about it. The reason that we did not use the track much in the past was due to the Madison winters, which would put us indoors, and the body can only handle so much of that. The reason that I still like using the track during base building is because we spend eight months out of the year trying to sharpen up on the track, and by the end of the season you have taken training to a new level. Then, in the past, we left the track for four months, and it felt like you had to start all over the next season. Now we get to build off of our previous track season.

Which of you, Chris and Tim seem least affected by the altitude?
It’s hard to say because we are all doing different milage. Tim is doing the most by a lot, and I am doing the least, so I would say I feel the least worn down. But I really think we all adjusted to the altitude very well. We are looking forward to seeing the benefits.

Have you run into Jack Daniels yet?
We did run into him one morning, and it was the first time we officially introduced ourselves. He was looking out for us, making sure we had everything we needed and gave us some pointers (as well has a few a few stories). He has a great thing going in Flagstaff and we want to thank him for helping us out during our stay.

With being away from home during base training, what else do you do all day?
Not a lot, we our kind of treating it like training camp. However, Solinsky and I came prepared; he brought his PS3 and I brought the Wii. That helps kill the time. We have had visitors. An old teammate, Tim Keller, came up, and my wife did another weekend. Both will be back for Thanksgiving. We have been downtown a few times and have spent hours in the grocery store. (I take forever but save a lot of money finding deals.) We are planning a trip to the Grand Canyon next weekend, which will be a great experience. I am sure we will get down to Sedona as well. The time is actually going by pretty fast.

Boaz gives his take on his marathon debut in New York City, where he placed 19th in 2:21:40:

I am recovering well and just regret not being on top of my game that day.

My plan was to run behind the leaders and stay relaxed. I missed fluid stations at 5K and 15K, which was a mistake. Everything was going well until I fell along with Abel Kurui at the 20K fluid station, but I got up quickly and went back to get my fluid.

At the half marathon, I closed on the leaders and we crossed at 66:06, and I was still very comfortable. Right after this they quickened the pace, and I held back a little bit to run a more conservative pace, thinking I would reel them back. Things were fine until the 14-mile mark when my legs cramped, and they just got heavier for the rest of the race. I kept going because I kept thinking the cramping would dissipate if I worked through it, and I was doing okay until somewhere around 17 or 18 miles. Right around here my toenail fell off as well, which didn’t help anything. The rest of the race was just brutal for me and my legs were totally dead. I decided to finish the race the best I could so that I wouldn’t have dropping out haunting me for future races.

With training going so well, I had envisioned being very competitive, as Brad Hudson and I thought the top five was realistic. I come away from New York disappointed, but I hope the experience of my first marathon will be a building block for future marathons.