Attractive is Not Relative

Fast is relative.  Does anyone know why I say that?  I say it because how fast a time is depends on a lot of other factors.  Lets look at the 100 meter dash for a second.  10.5 second 100 meter dash.  Is that fast or slow?  You don't know yet.  Who ran it?  A girl?  Holy shintos that is BLAZING.  A guy?  Not bad at all.  An Olympian?  Did his hamstring fall off during the race?  How old is the dude?  12?  My goodness.  40? ...  See how this is going?  Each result is relative to a lot of factors, and another one is how good you look.

I posted one of my long time phrases about track in my last post.  Track is about two things; being fast, and looking good and not necessarily in that order.  I am a terrible indoor sprinter.  I suck at the 60, I run a bad 200 with those tight turns, and I'm just not a 400 guy.  After just about every indoor race I ran, Robbie Golabek would come up to me and say, "Hey, at least you're sexier than everyone."   It's better to be a sexy third placer than an ugly fast dude.

No one wants to be the ugly fast dude.

This is why every sprinter's most important decision to make before going to a meet is... What are you going to wear?  I've been known to make wardrobe changes mid-meet.  Let me break it down for you.

Let's start out basic.

 

This is your simple track team jersey.  Sometimes, when you compete you are required to wear certain threads.  If you're running for a Division I track team you're going to have to wear this thing.  Every time you step on the track, it is an opportunity for you to express yourself.  Don't let being forced to wear something cramp your style.  Mix it up with different short/socks/spikes combos.  Don't go overboard though.  Shooters' sleeves are never ok.  And be careful!  A lot of times you can not wear your school jersey at open meets, it can even lead to eligibility problems.  But not wearing your school jersey is a good thing because you now have the opportunity be creative.

Next.

For those people who don't care about how they look when they run.  Like the people who wear basketball shorts and a beater.  You can get around the rule about not wearing your school jersey by turning it inside out.  I guess it's a nice shout out to your school if you're into that.  

I don't have a picture for you, but wearing your high school jersey to meets after you're done competing for your high school is absolutely fine.  I don't have one because my high school didn't have a track team and my attempt to steal a cross country jersey failed miserably.  It's always cool to give your past a little publicity.

Moving on.

I have seen a lot of people that I know and like compete in their Empire State Games jersey.  Don't do it.  You look like a douche.  We get it.  You want us to see that you're good because you were in the Games.  Instead, just run really fast and let your times prove your point.  I loved the Games and would do anything for them to come back.  But lets keep those jerseys restricted to just the Games.  However, if the games do not come back any time soon, they'll become a sort of retro statement in a few years.  Then you can proudly bust these ones out.

Lets look at another fan favorite.

 

You're a fan of Team USA.  I get that.  That's why I own this.  But do not ever, ever, compete in a Team USA speed suit.  That's like getting an Olympic rings tattoo on your chest when you have zero chance of competing in them...  And if you do, you had better win.  By a lot.  A lot a lot.

Not all national teams are out!

 

You can't lie.  This is a bad ass jersey.  If you rock a Trinidad and Tobago or England or French national team jersey.  Respect.  I would love a Lemaitre jersey.  The Team Jamaica jersey is on the douchier end of the national jerseys spectrum because they are so fast that you're making a statement about yourself.  I can pull it off because I'd be the lightest skinned Jamaican of all time.

Every athlete has people who have supported them throughout their life and athletic career.  Sometimes, just wearing a shirt to promote the business of someone who has supported you can go a long way.  This is my beautiful Absolute Performance shirt.  I'll be wearing this at RIT this year.  May not be racing in it but I will have it with me.  Got to support my boys out there at AP.

Yes.  I rocked this when I raced that girls 4x100 and got my ass handed to me.  But I looked good.  MJ.

 

This is by far my favorite jersey.  It's my Dad's Niagara Wheatfield High School jersey from 1981.  It has holes, is not spandex and is not particularly comfortable.  It has a number on the back, deuce deuce, 22.  My high school football number.  I love it.  This is the exact kind of jersey that you should try to find for yourself.  It has history, makes a statement and has a story behind it.  Perfect.

But, even the perfect jersey needs to be rotated out.  Here's my dream jersey.

I would do anything for this Braves jersey.  I love Buffalo (got to rep the 716 and section 6), it has history, and is just plain sexy.  Only problem is that everything I look at for this is way way too big for me to sprint in.  Got to finds a kids XL, like my Jordan jersey...

Alright, well this is my take on it.  And it's pretty much dead on.  Hopefully this gives you a sort of guideline as to what you should do for your upcoming meets.  Remember, what you wear when you compete is an expression of who you are.  There's a reason that when you get sponsored they give you a jersey to wear.

Priorities

Sprinting is about two things: being fast, and looking good.  And not necessarily in that order.

All Day I Dream About Sprinting: Jesse Owens

Do you know what ASICS stands for?  It's an acronym for a Latin saying, "anima sana in corpore sano" and it means "healthy mind in a healthy body."  I think the Latin grammar and the translation are both a little off but that's really not important to this post.  Do do you know what Adidas stands for?  Is it All Day I Dream About Soccer?  Maybe it's All Day I Dream About Sports.  Actually, it's the nick name of some German dude, Adolf (or Adi, thankfully for him, don't think too many people would be rocking their Adolfs at track meets...) Dassler.  Adidas was derived from the first three letters of his nickname and his last name.

Dassler made a wonderful business decision when he decided to go to the Olympic village in Berlin in 1936 and offered a shoe sponsorship to Jesse Owens, making him the first male African American athlete to receive a sponsorship.  Owens went on to win four gold medals and embarrassed a different Adolf, Hitler, in his own city.

But this wasn't really the greatest athletic achievement of Owens' career.  At a Big Ten meet in 1935, Owens broke three world records and tied another, all in 40 minutes... The 100 and 220 yard dashes, the long jump, and the 220 yard hurdles.  If this guy had specialized in the sprints (whether you want to believe it or not, hurdling hurts your sprinting, sorry Jamiee), had the training of today, as well as the apparel, not to mention the drugs that these guys are on?  Oh my God.  Usain who?  This guy went 20.3 over 201.2 meters.  In 1936. In dirt.  This man literally dug a hole to put his feet in instead of using blocks.  And not on a scholarship! Goodness!

My point is, fast is relative.  The fastest man in the history of the world may have only run 20.3 in the 201.2 meter dash.

This post, and really this is the beginning of a series of posts, was inspired by a few former teammates of mine from UB.  An unnamed very good female sprinter at UB didn't know who Michael Johnson was.  So, I hope that I touch on all of the important people that all sprinters should know about.

I'll leave you with Owens' self proclaimed reason for speed, "I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible.  From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up."

A Glimmer of Hope

I would be lying if I said my training was anything better than sporadic, but here is a little glimpse of strength; pulling 455.

Bills vs. Oakland: Tigers United

This week, the Buffalo Bills host the Oakland Raiders at the Ralph.  Don't be surprised if you see CJ Spiller talking with or hugging Oakland's number twelve, Jacoby Ford.  Spiller and Ford were teammates at Clemson in both football as well as track. 

CJ Spiller is one fast dude, he has gone 10.22 in the 100 and 6.58 in the 60, that 60 time making him the fifth best 60 meter sprinter in the history of Clemson, a ridiculously good track school.  But, if you look at the school record holder on that list, you'll see the name of the fastest man in the NFL, Jacoby Ford.  Ford has gone 10.01 in the 100 and 6.51 in the 60.  The only person ahead of Ford in Clemson's all-time best marks list for the hundred is Travis Padgett, the NCAA record holder.  Dude is serious.  

I am a big CJ Spiller fan and am hoping that he really lives up to his hype in Buffalo.  At the 2009 NCAA East Regional Meet, my 4x100 at UB was in the paddock with Clemson's 4x100.  Any time that any of my friends or even strangers (like the team at the World KanJam Tournament with the name that referenced Spiller) bring up or mention CJ I make sure to tell people that I "raced" against him (it was in heats so I can't say I really raced him.  But I did anchor against Charlie Clark who was in this race which you may have seen before...)  Obviously, Ford was on that team also and it's always felt cool to me to see guys I ran with or against playing in the NFL.

Ford suffered a hamstring injury (go figure) last weekend and may not be in the game.  But if he is, keep a look out for Spiller showing some love for his former teammate.

In the meantime, here's a wonderful video of the biggest race in Ford's track career.  Nothing quite like competing well at a big time meet...

Oh, and Trindon Holliday deserves a post of his own.  So that'll be coming soon.

Methylhexaneaminewhogivesashit: Worlds Will Still Suck

This post is for all those people who still think that the people at the top of the track and field world are clean.  They aren't.

Two posts ago, I referenced Steve Mullings, at the time the world leader in the 100m dash.  He just tested positive for a masking agent so he can kiss his promising career goodbye.  It's also his second offense as he has already served a 2 year ban after testing positive for high levels of testosterone in 2004.  Mullings training partner?  Tyson Gay.

Remember Michael Rodgers? He was the feel good story of 2009 track and field.  He used to sell shoes out of the trunk of his car and he won the USA national championships in the 100m dash (no one ever said that he only won because Tyson Gay didn't run in it, but I will).  Regardless, he put himself on the world stage and just qualified to represent Team USA at worlds this year (also because Tyson Gay couldn't run).  Well, that's over now too after testing positive for methylhexaneamine.  Rodgers will claim it was inadvertent (they all do).  Too bad he isn't as good as Carl Lewis or else that claim might've worked.

Yup, Carl Lewis tested positive too.  He failed three drug tests in 1988, the same year Ben Johnson's gold medal was stripped and handed to Carl Lewis.  Watch Bigger Stronger Faster.

At the last world championships back in 2009, five Jamaicans failed drugs tests.

Our sprint squad is now Walter Dix, who is nasty but not Tyson Gay (and also not worth ranting on facebook for weeks about how awesome he is), Justin Gatlin, a former world record holder until he failed a drug test as well, and now Trell Kimmons, a three time community college national champion... yay...

So, to recap.  Six Jamaicans have failed drug tests, one of them is linked to Tyson Gay.  One of our best sprinters just failed a drug test as well.  Another one of our sprinters that will be competing at worlds has served a ban.  Drugs are ALL OVER the world stage.

LaShawn Merritt, former olympic gold medalist.  Michael Johnson has teammates that were gassing on the 4x400 that he had to give his gold medal back for.  Carl Lewis was on stimulants.  Ben Johnson (obviously) was on furazabol.  Dwain Chambers, google him.  These are not just people who gas to be better, these are the guys not good enough at it to get away with it, or not good enough to be protected by their country (minus Carl Lewis who had his covered up and Michael Johnson who never tested positive, probably because he was better at getting away with it).

Guys, the entire track and field world is on something.  I'm sorry if this upsets you.  The truth is, that at that level people aren't on drugs so that they can make it an unlevel playing field, giving them the advantage, they're on drugs to keep up!  If you aren't, you have no shot.

For some reason, people will accept that people like Mullings or Rodgers are juicing but when you say names like Tyson Gay or Usain Bolt or Asafa Powell they get all defensive.  Come on!!  In a gassed out world, these are the best of the best and you think they are doing it clean?!  Yeah right.  Usain and Asafa are just eating yams and taking double x while the rest of the Jamaican camp is on test and running slower.  Please.

With all this being said.  Worlds are going to suck this year, at least in the sprints.  Asafa is out with a groin injury.  Gay is out.  Mullings is out because he has a bad chemist.  So it's the Bolt/Dix show.  Dix is a fine sprinter but he is not on Bolt's level.  Dix should be happy with two silvers and the stick making it around in the 4x100.

Honestly,  I'm hoping that Gatlin is sticking himself with some dangerous levels of testosterone and pulls something serious (other than a needle) out of his glutes and makes some noise.  Or that Usain pops his hamstring off.

Enjoy worlds everyone.


Here are some videos of guys on gas.

Dwain Chambers

Ben Johnson

LaShawn Merritt

Justin Gatlin

Back to Work

After a wonderful summer off, it is time to get back to work.  I had hopes of doing some more racing, both formally and informally, the past few months but my body needed a break.  Track is about knowing when to push and knowing when to rest and I certainly needed the rest.  Tomorrow I start training back up at Absolute Performance in the Eastern Hills Mall with a new coach, Paul Childress.

Fast is Relative.  And right now, I am slow.  Real slow.  I mean I would still beat Jonathan Alexis in a race, but who can't?

Right now I have one meet that I'll be training for.  It's a meet that I have gone to the past few years, the Upstate Holiday Classic at RIT.  The goal is to go sub 22 which I've never done before on a 200 meter track.  I've always had to train through this meet because it's right before the indoor NCAA season so I'm excited to have the opportunity to have it as a target date.

I know this is a pretty lame entry, but I need something that will hold me accountable to training.

Hopefully when my weight training gets less embarrassing I'll post some videos of them.

Don't hold your breath.


In the meantime, here are two videos of my new coach squatting 1125 pounds and benching 800 pounds. Enjoy!

A Call for Innovation?

While looking for the results of the Bolt Powell Lemaitre race I stumbled upon this little article.  It's basically seven short paragraphs of this guy who knows nothing about track sucking Usain Bolt off.  I have some serious issues with it.

First, the picture of Bolt with the cheetah is unoriginal.  Here is a (better) cheetah picture of Frankie Fredericks (the fastest man you've never heard of) of Namibia, the world record holder in the 200m indoors (19.92).

Second, the whole purpose of the article is a call to action to find new ways to challenge Bolt because seeing him beat Gay and Powell meet after meet is getting old.  "Now it's time for a challenge," it says.  It also says his victory solidifies his title as the world's fastest man.  Hold on here.  Usain isn't even the leading Jamaican in the 100m dash this year let alone the world's fastest.  Ever heard of Steve Mullings?  World leader at 9.89.  Also, Bolt's last race before this one was a loss to Tyson Gay.  The man needs to earn the title again. 

Plus, Bolt barely beat Powell.  He had to run him down and it was a pretty exciting race.  He only won by .02.  Here's the race.  Hard to call this a blow out.

My point is, the 100m field this year is not in need of any drama to add to the excitement.  There are plenty of guys going 9.9 and is looking like it's going to be a fun season.

With that being said...  I do think that being innovative about showcasing track speed is always a good idea.  The suggestions about Bolt leaving track to play in the NFL or FIFA, although amusing, are not where they should be going with it.  Anyone racing a cheetah is not exciting because no one can mess with a cheetah.  But... Shawn Crawford, former Olympic gold medalist, did race a giraffe and a zebra once.  Sort of entertaining.

What's funny about this video is that Crawford was actually running sub 10 100m times so he could've messed with the zebra if he ran like he did at meets.  10.86?  That's a high school time.

I really think that the way these guys need to go to keep things interesting is to race athletes in different sports.  People are much more interested in their favorite sports teams than professional athletics and they're much more likely to show up to an event where Tyson Gay races Shaq than they are for Michael Rogers racing Travis Padgett.  It helps promote the sport as well as prove to fans that track speed is a gear of speed that even Chris Johnson can't reach.  The races don't have to be head to head either.  Handicaps or head starts are just fine, might as well try to be fair.

Here are two videos that sort of show what I'm getting at.  This one is Tyson Gay racing Shaq.  Gay runs the 60 and Shaq runs the 30.  I don't know what Tyson was thinking.  There is also some relay I don't get with Chris Johnson and Desean Jackson and Maurice Greene and Dwight Howard.  I don't know the distance or the handicap but the idea is there.  Race supposed fast guys of other sports against track stars.

This second video is this cool race called the super 60m at the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden.  They take athletes from a bunch of major sports and race them.  All I'm asking for is you to let one track star in the heat to embarrass everyone and send them back to their sports crying.

Compare the times from that to the times of the actual 60m.

The dude that won the super 60 wouldve been absolutely worked by the sprinters.  Fast is relative.  Looked awful fast in his heat, would've looked like he was standing still in the real deal.

That's it for now, big race for me tomorrow.  Be back soon to ramble, I'm sure.

Football Players Will Talk

This past fall semester I was practicing on the track at UB during a football practice.  I'm confident we were doing some stupid looking work out, like jumping off of boxes and sprinting for 30 meters or something like that.  Suddenly, one of the football players (with his too-tight spandex shirt raised well over his belly button) screamed out, "Ain't none of ya'll faster than me."

These are the moments when you would do anything for that kid to put some spikes on and just do the damn thing.  I'm fairly certain that the kid that said that was also a linebacker... not generally the swiftest of positions.  I think that football players say those things because they think sprinters are scared that football players have some sort of untapped speed ready to be unleashed so they never want to race them.  I would have, and would still absolutely love to race any challengers on the football team, or any other athlete from any other sport at UB.  As a matter of fact, there was a kid on the football team who just got drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, who was on the track team for a while.  He was plenty football fast, that's why he got drafted.  We raced once in the 200 and I just dusted him.  He went like 22.1 or something.  All speed is not created equal!

I brought this up because I wanted to post this video that I love.  It's my favorite sprinter, Wallace Spearmon Jr. talking about how much Chris Johnson talks. Follow this link because it's not on youtube.

Just in case you've never heard of Wallace Spearmon Jr., here are some videos to give him some credibility on the subject...

Wallace beating Usain.

Wallace going 19.65.  I suggest turning the volume down for it.

Moral of the story is: If you're a football player talking about how fast you are, why don't you just race us?  We're not scared.

Welcome to Track-Speed

So this is a little blog that I've thrown together in hopes to relay one simple message: you are not fast.  Why do I say that?  Because I'm not fast and I would tear you up on a track.

You see, fast is relative.  Some people think they are fast because they used to play soccer, or football, or beat their friends in a race once.  Others think they are fast because they don't know anyone faster than them.  I'm here to tell you that if you think you are fast or (even more annoyingly) have friends that you think are fast there is an entire dimension of speed that you are unaware of.

Sprinters (and I mean real sprinters, not kids who try to sprint) are masters of speed.  These are guys who practice day in and out, train, lift, and spend an unreal amount of time perfecting their form.  These sprinters are constantly disrespected by people who think they are fast or who think that stars from their favorite sports teams are faster than them. 

I once saw a youtube video where someone said that Cristiano Ronaldo would beat Ato Boldon in the 100 meter dash.  Outlandish allegations.  Cristiano Ronaldo would be lucky to go 11.2.  I am a Buffalonian, my favorite Buffalo Bill is Roscoe Parrish.  Kid is stupid fast on the football field.  He even ran track at Miami U.  His best 200 time? 21.13. Mine? 21.09. And I am clearly not on the level of Olympic gold medalists.

So it is going to be my goal to give you a new respect for how fast track speed really is.  The best way to prove that someone is faster than someone else is real simple.  You race.  So what I am going to be doing, eventually, is I'll be posting up at Niawanda Park, playing some kan jam, and waiting to see if any "fast" people want to race.  Then we'll post videos of the races and laugh at them.  Obviously I can't do these races until after my NCAA career is over, so it'll have to wait until the summer. 

Update you then.