Optimal Training

Music and Motivation - submit your favorite running song for the London Marathon

I received an email from Lindy working with the London Marathon about a program they're running called Music and Motivation.  They're asking runners to submit their favorite song to run to.  At the end of every month they consolidate the submissions and create a 10 song iMix playlist. 

A lot of songs come to mind for me--Jonas Brothers, Hanson, Nelson...kidding!  To be honest, I never run with an iPod or any other music.  I tried to run with music when I was 15 and found I simply couldn't hear the dogs before they were about to bite me!  (Oh, the memories of running in the desert...)  Anyway, since I don't have a favorite from my actual running, I decided to go with Allman Brothers Band's "Jessica" as my submission. I'm pretty sure it would be a rockin' song to run to.

After watching this video on YouTube I couldn't help but think two things: First, nice 'stache.  Second, when was the last time a major group wrote a 6 minute instrumental? 

After you watch the video don't forget to submit your favorite song!

Two Big Debuts

In my latest article at Runner's Tribe I look at the debuts of Shalane Flanagan and Brett Gotcher and wonder as to just how much we can predict about an athlete's future success based on their debut performances.  Here's a snippet and the little slideshow I embedded in the article:

The fact is, we're only really concerned with two types of debuts: the Superstar Debut and the Overachiever Debut.  The Superstar Debut matters because the athlete has already proven herself over the course of her career at other distances, and built up an expectation of excellence.  Most debuts we remember are Superstar Debuts.  They are recognized by their publicly announced date, fervent debate as to what to expect, and generally, a slight feeling of letdown after the fact.  Flanagan's debut in Houston is a great example of this.

The Overachiever Debut comes about a different way.  The athlete is usually known or recognized in a general sense, but does not have high expectations placed on his debut performance going into it.  He then goes out and runs a time nobody thought possible.  It's not the case that he has actually overachieved, of course, as that would imply he performed better than he was actually capable and that's impossible.  But the fact that he surpassed expectations so greatly makes his debut something to celebrate.  Brett Gotcher's marathon provides us with a fantastic example of this.

Of course, there is also the extremely rare Superstar Overachiever Debut, in which everyone excitedly awaits the performance and yet the athlete still manages to exceed expectations.  A couple examples of this include Ryan Hall's 59:43 AR half marathon debut and Alan Webb's 27:34 10k debut in which he outkicked Dathan Ritzenhein.  I'd probably include German Fernandez's 3:56.5 indoor mile debut as well.  These performances were so stunning that they completely shifted expectations of what we thought the athlete was capable of in the future.  Many of us were hoping to see this from Shalane, but she opted to play it safe (hence the slight feeling of letdown).

For fun, I put together my Top 10 US Debuts of the past decade.  These were the races that made me sit up and say, "Wow".

Bryan’s Top Ten US Debuts

View more presentations from Bryan Green.

Notes on an '09 Calendar...

My latest column is up at Runner's Tribe.  It's my second annual "Notes on a Calendar" post recapping some thoughts about the year past and some hopes for the year to come.

We all have our favorite punctuation marks.  Some people "love" their "quotation marks".  Some, people, love, their commas.  I happen to be a fan of...the ellipsis...

I love the fact that it leaves something unsaid, that it requires the assistance of the reader to complete the thought...

This of course allows me to not have to think up anything profound or witty to end a thought, as that can just be so, well, ...

My affinity for the ellipsis goes back to my childhood growing up reading the L.A. Times and Allan Malamud, who used to write a column called "Notes on a Scorecard"... 

"Notes on a Scorecard" was a collection of snippets about the day's sporting news and each snippet ended with an ellipsis...

You could think of it as being an '80s equivalent to a collection of sports tweets, which begs the question why nobody's tried to do that for a newspaper column yet...

Anyway, this is year two of my yearly homage to Malamud and the ellipsis, with Notes on an '08 Calendar being year one...

Now here are my thoughts on 2009 with a few hopes for 2010...

You'll have to click here to read the entire article!  As always, thanks for reading!