FLOAT ON

Recap to come..

2nd, 13:29.94

2:38, 5:20, 8:04, 10:51, 60.XX last lap. light rain and breezy, 16C.

All alone in the coffee shop today.  The last couple of days I’ve been here with Kiwi’s and Aussies but they’ve left for a race in Ostrava.  Carmen Douma-Hussar and her husband we’re also here yesterday but today they are exploring the english countryside.  If you want to catch up on the weather I’ve been having here just check out Wimbledon as I’m pretty close by.  Anyways, its been raining quite a bit and sometimes only getting up to 15… I guess I’ll take that over scorching hot temps right now.  There are tons of runners around here as I saw a few Kenyans in Bushy Park and Mo Farah on my way back to the B&B.  They should put on a race right here at St. Mary’s as there are probably 10-15 guys who could break 13:20 right here in Teddington. 

Finally got a proper 11pm to 8:30am sleep last night.  No waking up for a couple hours in the middle of the night was nice.  So now I should be used to the time difference.  I have one small track session (300’s and 200’s) tomorrow before I leave.  My session on sunday went well as I hit (or came close enough) to my targets.  With getting over travel and coming into my taper I should only feel better come race time.  Last week was still 140km (86 miles) but, since I travelled later in the week the mileage was front-end loaded. 

I rode on the upper deck of a double decker bus yesterday to do a little tourist stuff since I’m here. And I’m quite enjoying the accent here.  Instead of saying eh they say right.

The startlists are up! 2 guys with 13:09 PB’s, a 13:15 guy, one more Moroccan (who should be good since he’s coming all the way from Morocco) and then myself and Paul Morrison.  The good part is that there is a rabbit supposed to go through 3000m in 8:03.

upcoming blogs:

Triathletes and their need to wear visors. With guest writers.

My mom being the number 1 for comments on my blog: pride vs. embarrasment.

Paul Morrison and his love of funny names.

Man are things expensive here in Teddington.  I just had dinner at an Indian restaurant and my bill came to 14 pounds… that’s about $30 for dinner, with a tap water.  It was a good meal and I still wonder why nan bread can’t taste like this in Canada?  Now I’m sitting in a cafe and the wireless here costs 10 pounds a day ($22), luckily I’m able to connect to a free server in the area. 

My first run here felt fine for the first 5km then I started to feel tired and hungry from the day of travelling.  There are tons of parks and trails here and all very close to where I’m staying.  Interesting enough, Kelly Holmes stayed at the same B&B before the Sydney Olympics where she got a bronze medal.  I had to sleep for an hour and a half this afternoon so I hope I’ll be able to get to sleep at a decent hour tonight and get used to the time change.  The B&B I’m staying at is quite nice and reasonable.

On Wednesday at St. James I set PB’s over 600m, 1:24 and 500m, 1:10.  I still felt a little slow compared to Milne’s 1:21.  It was a good workout for the whole group and it felt good to really turn it over.  Workouts like that remind me that the big races are coming up and its time for a little taper.  I’ll do one more decent workout and one small sharpening session before the race next Friday.

Cheerio

It was an exciting race last night as Shadrack Korir pulled off a very quick last lap to run 3:56 and win the Mercedes.  I ran my fastest time on that track in the three years I’ve raced there and it felt easier than the other years.  I think I was 4:10 but haven’t seen the official results (edit: 4:10.31).  My splits were pretty even as they were all 62-63.low without a kick as I was all alone my last two laps.  Right after the race Cal Staples (my training partner) started asking me questions with a video camera and I was joking around with him.  At the end of the interview he told me it was for Flotrack.  I thought he was just goofing as opposed to a real interview, so I started to think about the crap I just said… well it isn’t too bad. Interview.

On thursday I head off to Europe where I sill stay in London for 5 days and then head to Arhus, Denmark and race a 5000 on June 29th.  Once again I think racing the shorter stuff is going to help my 5000 and I was pleased with the way I felt last night.  The race came at the end of a good week of training where I had a Fartlek session Monday, long track intervals Wednesday, in the 30C heat, and by the time I’m done my long run this afternoon I should cover 145km for the week.

Mark from Flocasts is in town to cover the Cambridge Mercedes-Benz Mile.  Flocasts has been doing a great job of covering track and field this year and its great that the Cambridge Mile is getting some exposure.  With Shadrack Korir running 3:52 for a mile last weekend it is likely that he will drive away with a new car (ie. take the cash equivalent) tonight if he has a good race.  For me… well it should be fun to mix it up a bit with some world class milers and get the wheels spinning.

COVERAGE

—–I had to pay good money for them to say nice things about me in the press release so I thought I’d post it here too. More bang for my buck —–

Reid Coolsaet joins the field

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:00:00 EST

One of Canada’s most accomplished distance runners Reid Coolsaet (Rbk) will compete in his 3rd Classic Mile event. coming off a tremendous 27:56 clocking for 10k this year Coolsaet is in fantastic shape and will step down to the mile distance on June 16th.

Lord, won’t you let me win a Mercedes Benz? 

I just wanted to say that the dude, Shadrack Songok, who beat me at Mt. Sac 10 000m with a strong last two laps just won NCAA champs over the same distance.  That makes me feel good.  Also, the Speed River training group is running very well at the moment.  Taylor Milne ran 3:42 last night to win the Harry Jerome 1500m and Eric Gillis ran 7:58 last sunday to finish second at the Kajaks meet.

Next up for me will be the Cambridge Mile on June 16th. This is a very fun event on a clay/gravel track that adds anywhere from 5-10 seconds on your mile time.  Seemed like it added 15 seconds for me last year!  The winner, if under 4 minutes, will drive away with a Mercedes.  After that I’m flying to Europe on the 21st and racing a 5000m in Arhus, Denmark on June 29th.  The meet director says the meeting record of 13:27 should go down this year… it better.

Got these pics from EliteRunning.com.

 Early on in the pack 

looks like I’m enjoying the heat…

finish.

Reebok Grand Prix 

If you would have asked me a week before what I would have thought of running 13:50 in NYC I would have considered it a complete disaster.  After the race is said and done I wouldn’t go as far as to say “complete”.  Of Course the time is way slower than I was looking for but that was the case for all the competitors, some more than others.  You could tell which athletes are not acclimated to the heat and most of those are based in North America.  I think it was still about 26 C (close to 80 fahrenheit) and very humid when the race went off.  The 13:50 was actually somewhat competitive as I placed 8th and my PB ranked me 16th going into the race.  I would say I’m happy with my performance but the race itself was a disaster, luckily not as much for me as some of the other competitors (like 13:00 Geneti, who I beat,  had to be carried off in a stretcher).

After talking to Hilary and DST about qualifying for World Championships it seems as though I either need two B’s or ONE “A” (13:19.70).  I didn’t read the line at the top of the qualification document that says

   that said period is from June 1st to July 29th.  That rule gives me a better chance and more hope to qualify.  So now half the battle will be getting to the right races and having decent weather.  I’m hoping to race my next 5000m in Ostrava, Czech Republic on June 27th.  If not, then either Malmo, Sweden or Arhus, Denmark in late June/early July.

Going to NYC was once again a treat even though for the most part I was just sitting around waiting for the race.   The meet hotel was the Grand Hyatt beside Grand Central Terminal and it was a great place to stay.  I took the subway up to Central Park for a couple of my runs.  The meet itself was also awesome as every event was stacked with top athletes from around the world.  World record holders, Olympic and World medallists were all over the place.  My coach, DST, was also able to make it to the meet to watch Hilary run the 1500 and my 5000.  It was good to have him there as he doesnt get to see Hilary and I race as much anymore now that my schedule is all over the place and Hilary is living in Switzerland.

  1 Tariku Bekele                ETH                   13:04.05C
  2 Micah Kogo                   KEN                   13:13.53
  3 Edwin Soi                    KEN                   13:16.68
  4 Jonas Cheruiyot              KEN                   13:28.68
  5 Boniface Songok              KEN                   13:34.74
  6 Boaz Cheboiywo               KEN                   13:36.41
  7 Adrian Blincoe               NZL                   13:48.88
  8 Reid Coolsaet                CAN                   13:50.89
  9 Markos Geneti                ETH                   13:53.79
10 Anthony Famiglietti          USA                   13:54.92
11 Josphat Boit                 KEN                   13:56.47
12 Jorge Torres                 USA                   14:05.97
13 Seth Summerside              USA                   14:11.42
14 Martin Fagan                 IRL                   14:19.31
15 Ryan Kirkpatrick             USA                   14:44.85
– Laban Rotich                 KEN                        DNF
– Said Ahmed                   USA                        DNF
– Alistair Cragg               IRL                        DNF
– Steve Hallinan               USA                        DNF
– Bolota Asmerom               USA                        DNF

post race pic of my back… hopefully more to come…