Month: July 2024

I’ve read this single, entire article, and if the premise is going to be consistent, I can’t think of a single positive outcome other than advertising and sponsorship revenue.

The gist of the “Enhanced Games” is that it will be much like the Olympics, but athletes can use performance-enhancing drugs that have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, such as anabolic steroids and growth hormones. The idea is to break the records achieved by otherwise clean athletes, and pay the participating doper $1 Million.

Here’s what’s wrong with this whole premise:

• It’s still cheating. An athlete would be achieving some goal in a way that he or she couldn’t otherwise attain without chemical intervention.
• Records would be broken, and that would discount all previous records and attempts. Someone will break Eliud Kipchoge’s 1:59:40 in the (unsanctioned) marathon. Someone will break 9 seconds in the 100 meters. But why? Just to say it’s been done?
• It won’t count. Will we need another column in the future record books that shows a real record and a doping-assisted record?
• It glorifies this trend in society where we need it now. What’s the point of months and years of hard, dedicated, consistent work to achieve a goal?
• I could go on and on with this list but, to me, the most important is that it teaches our children something very, very wrong. Kids idolize athletes. If a child’s hero smashes a world record and did it by doping, what does this teach the child?

It’s a disheartening state of affairs when and if an athlete would even remotely consider being rewarded for doping because they need or otherwise feel they deserve the money.

Sha’Carri Richardson makes $50,000/year from winning national and world championships in the 100- and 200-meters, and from brand endorsements. NBA player Stephen Curry makes $50 Million. There’s a discrepancy there. I’ll argue until I’m blue in the face that Richardson works just as hard as Curry. Richardson’s net worth is more than $50k, and Steph’s is more than $50M, and the exact dollar amounts aren’t the point. The point is, one athlete is glorified and earns more than the other for the work, points, time, achievements, and titles. Sha’Carri can’t just up and join the Golden State Warriors so she can earn more money.

But now I guess she could dope, run the risk of destroying her body, and possibly kill herself in the name of a buck.

And why? To break a record and create a spectacle. Investors invest and will want a handsome, fast return from sponsorship and advertising dollars. The rest of the world can sit on our asses while we watch our hometown dopers compete against each other, and be enticed to buy and consume products that make all of our lives “better.”

I’m calling for a boycott now.

I’m not going to get into the intricacies of last week’s race, but Jenny didn’t get the 3:40 in the Foot Traffic Flat Marathon. Part of me is surprised, but I’m also well-aware that the marathon owes you nothing. Jenny was surprised when she realized the wheels were already coming off at the 5k mark, and rightfully disappointed and mad when she crossed the finish 12 minutes past her goal time. She let herself be angry for the just right amount of time, but she didn’t wallow. She told me she’s going to be ready for round 2.

Round 2

This morning I listened to The Real Science of Sport Podcast’s episode “How to Make an Olympic Athlete” with Mark Coogan of New Balance Boston as the guest of honor. I’m not much of a Podcast listener; mainly because I don’t have the alone downtime to pay attention to lengthy talking. And I’m pretty confident that I have undiagnosed ADHD. I’ve tried to listen to Podcasts on base runs, but I’ll invariably get lost and distracted in my own head or by the landscape. I made myself listen to every word of Coogan’s interview today. I’m a huge fan of Mark’s coaching philosophy, but that’s not what I took away from the interview.

My job in coaching is to get an athlete to the start line happy and healthy. The strength, strategy, speed, and confidence are all secondary. We did our job in this 16 week training block leading up to Foot Traffic Flat, but fell short on one (or many) secondary jobs. So now we have to figure out what to adjust and work on.

I like the data that we can get from GPS watches and apps, but I don’t obsess over or rest on that data. However, there were a couple things that stood out to me when I was looking at Jenny’s race data that was captured by her watch:

1. Ground contact time increased steadily and significantly early on
2. Cadence decreased steadily and significantly early on

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no expert in biomechanics and physiology but to me, the work needs to be on, simply put: fast feet. And my assessment is non-generic. It’s athlete-specific because I’ve watched Jenny train for six months. She nailed every interval, hill, and tempo workout. She got in her long runs. Her weekly mileage was where it needed to be. She stayed healthy, fed, and rested.

The only time I questioned any part of her training was in her interval workouts. I second guessed myself in her prescribed pacing for 800-meter repeats. I don’t think they were too easy for her, but I think she’s more than capable and easily willing to demand more from her legs. She going to need to learn to turn her legs over faster and push harder on toe-off in each stride.

Faster, more intense interval workouts and strides.

Of all things, my takeaway from Coogan’s interview was strides. To open up the stride, slightly over-extend, engage and build fast twitch fibers, and promote recovery; once (maybe twice) per weekly microcycle after finishing a long run.

I love running because we’re literally in flight when we do it; It’s what differentiates walking from running. One foot on the ground versus no feet on the ground. Farther, faster, in the air. You put in the work and you’ll get there.