Quote Of The Day

"In the last few years, the jump I've made from being a good international runner to being the best has come down to sharing some more of that burden with my coaching staff and my wife, and having them keep me calm."

- Nick Willis in a Recommended Read where he briefly talks about learning to accept coaching and being fine with not training at altitude. Willis will return from a long layoff when he faces a tough men's mile field, including Leo Manzano, in Boston this weekend (TV ESPN2 Sunday 2-4pm). We think finding a coach that you trust and believing in him/her 100% is one of the most important steps to becoming the best you can be. 

Track and Field: USTFCCCA Convention-Bowerman Award Presentation LRC Reebok Boston Indoor Games Preview The Reebok B.I.G. should be a great meet for distance fans. We show you the distance startlists and give you some of the storylines. LRC will have 2 reporters at the meet to watch Tirunesh Dibaba go for the 5,000m world record, Anna Pierce take on top Americans in the 1,000 and hopefully Galen Rupp vs. Bernard Lagat and int'l studs in the 5,000 that might end up with a new American record. Plus more, men's mile and women's 3,000.

Recommended Read: Nick Willis On Accepting Coaching And Passing On Altitude Training Willis will run the mile in Boston.
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Alberto Salazar Says Rupp Is Sick, But If He Shakes His Cold, Look For A Big Boston Performance

Dusseldorf Meet - Fast Distance Times *Full Results

Track & Field News Updates List of Every American Sub-4:00 A record 15 Americans joined the sub-4:00 club in 2008, then a record 17 in 2009. Already in 2010 we've got 4 new Americans in the club bringing the total number to 333.
*LRC Boards: Paul McMullen the biggest 4-minute miler??

Antonio Vega Profiled By Sponsor Mizuno Vega's story is a worthwhile read for those who take up running late (like in their senior year of high school). Patient buildup is a theme we see over and over again with the successful runners. We recommend coaches and athletes really look at their plan and try to be patient.

Perfect For LetsRun.com
Sacramento Cowtown Marathon Forced To Rename - Wants Runners To Rename It
This announcement just made us laugh.

Governing Bodies And Sport - Like Usual, A Mess

European Track News

Research Shows Distance Running Keeps Cells Young The "largest research on runners" provides some of the most clear evidence that we've ever seen of how consistent, long-term endurance exercise affects the body at the cellular level.

New: Episode #3 - Training Talk With Brett Gotcher & Greg McMillan
Training Talk made its first appearance of 2010 on Wednesday night and the featured guests were Brett Gotcher and his coach Greg McMillan. The show was so good we went on for an extra 30 minutes. Along the way, we talked about greats such as Arthur LydiardRod Dixon, Steve Jones, Galen Rupp, Vin Lananna, Dathan Ritzenhein, Ryan Hall, and Alberto Salazar. In terms of training advice, McMillan tells you how much you need to run to be great and whether or not he thinks the Africans are beatable. Text highlights of the podcast appear at the link above or you can download here. *LRC MBoard Thread On Greg McMillan Here.

Top NCAA Results *All Results Nationwide Here

1. Aussie Ryan Foster (Penn State) Sets 2nd National Indoor Record In 2 Weeks (1,000m And 800m) Is Penn State going to win the NCAA DMR?

Track and Field: NCAA Championships 2. Oregon Duck Ashton Eaton Breaks World Champion Decathlete Trey Hardee's NCAA Heptathlon Record

3. Top NCAA Lists After Busy Weekend - 6 7 Collegians Go Sub-4. That's a lot of NCAA guys cracking 4 in January.

4. DII Jessica Pixler Goes 4:33 For Mile At UW, Wins By Over 10 Seconds DII Adams St. guy almost took down Rupp in UW 3k, too.

*UNM's Britons Rory Fraser And Lee Emmanuel Run 7:56 And 3:57 Fraser says Dorian Ulrey should be the NCAA favorite. Ulrey won at Texas A&M this weekend in 7:55. Emmanuel is going for German Fernandez's indoor NCAA record but says he needs the right race.

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Binghamton's Eric van Ingen Runs His First Sub-4 With 3:59.58 Win At Penn State 2 other things caught our eye from this meet: #1) 3 Penn State guys ran 1:48 or better, including 2 ran 1:47, and 1 was true frosh Cas Loxsom from CT #2) Sam Bair, Jr. needs a few beers, as he AGAIN just missed cracking 4:00 at Penn State to join his dad in the sub-4 club (4 times he has run between 4:00.14 and 4:00.87 on that track).
*Oregon Women Run 5th-Fastest Indoor DMR In NCAA History With 10:59 In College Station

Latest International Results

*Kenyan Civilians Earn Jobs With Police By Winning XC Race
*Amane Gobena (Left) Wins Osaka Women's Marathon In 2:25
*4:03 1,500 For Gelete Burka and 1:45 800 For Borzakovskiy In Fast Karlsruhe Indoor Meet
*Gladys Chemweno Continues Strong XC Running In Kenya - Possible Worlds Threat?

Great Britain Beats The US In Aviva International Team Challenge In Glasgow, Scotland

Heptathlon Star Jessica Ennis Might Soon Break The World Record Ennis tied Chaunte Howard at 1.94m in the high jump and beat Lolo Jones in the 60m hurdles. Heidi Dahl beat world medallist Lisa Dobriskey to take a nice win for the otherwise lackluster American team.
*Results From Aviva International In Glasgow

Hall Backs Out While Wanjiru Signs Up For Mardi Gras Half Marathon Disappointed after his Phoenix 64-minute half, Ryan Hall told New Orleans he's out. But along comes the half marathon world record holder Sammy Wanjiru, who is returning from a back injury sustained in Chicago.

 

LRC Vote:
Who Were The American Distance Athletes Of The Year In 2009?
What Was The LetsRun.com Quote Of The Year In 2009?

We ask the most knowledgeable distance fans in the world to pick from Jenny Barringer, Shannon Rowbury, Anna Willard and Kara Goucher on the women's side and Dathan Ritzenhein, Meb Keflezighi and Bernard Lagat on the men's side. The quote of the year nominations come from the highest vote-getting quote from each month. No registration required, we want to see what you think!

"Racing Weight" - What Is The Healthiest Way To Reach Your Race Weight? A Taboo Subject, But We Think It's Good To Get It Out There

It's Official: Barefoot Running/Minimalism Has Gone Over "The Tipping Point"

LRC The Week That Was We start our weekly recap by breaking down Bernart Lagat's historic win for you. Then we move on and hand out a Double Thumbs Up to Alan Webb, as our spies in Fairfax have some very good news for Webb fans. We also give out praise to the Penn State men,  the Indiana men, and the Villanova women. But too much praise makes us sick and thus we have to rip some people. Amongst the villians - the Millrose Games organizers for disrespecting Asbel Kiprop and WADA for manipulating a very important drug test that you probably haven't heard about. We also try to stop a London Marathon controversy before it even starts, as we rally to the defense of the greatest single race on the planet. Plus, we try to introduce anyone born after 1980 to one of the greatest music videos in history - the Super Bowl Shuffle. All that and more.

Usain Bolt Coming To adidas New York City - Get Tickets Soon The one, the only, Usain Bolt announces he'll be coming in for the new Diamond League meet in Icahn Stadium (now called adidas NYC). There is unconfirmed speculation that a Bolt vs. Tyson Gay vs. Asafa Powell matchup is likely.

LRC Co-Founder Wejo Interviewed - Talks Running And LetsRun.com
Best way to get on the homepage is to let us talk about ourselves. Perhaps the best part is that the transcript refers to Rojo as Ronald.

US/Great Britain Relations - Hey, They're Taking Our Medals

Womens 4x400m Relay Finals *Veteran British Sprinter Donna Fraser Hoping To Get Upgraded To 1st Olympic Medal After Losing To American Cheat(s?) In 2004
*Way To Go USADA! Crystal Cox Given Retroactive DQ As She Tearfully Signs Admission We of course hope USADA got this right, but if they did, we give them credit for not giving up on catching and proving the cheats from our own country from several years ago. Many countries refuse to investigate and punish their own cheats.

AVIVA International Match *Jessica Ennis Rival - American Heptathlete Hyleas Fountain Sets Big PR And WL At Penn State The British press and public love Jessica Ennis. We're not sure we know a single person who follows Hyleas Fountain, but they should have a close indoor Worlds rivalry.
*Jessica Ennis Sets National Record In 60 Hurdles In Glasgow

*GBR Team Of Men And Women Defeat US Team At Aviva Intl.
The Charles van Commenee effect? The US did not send a top team, but still it has to feel good to beat the big dogs.

USADA Hands Down Retroactive Drugs Bans After BALCO Investigations

*Crystal Cox Says She Tearfully Signed 4 Year Ban Though She Never Did Drugs Cox was selected to run on the US 2004 Olympic final relay team that won the gold medal. She also gained notoriety on the show Survivor.

USADA Bans Garfield Ellenwood 2 Years For Non-Analytical Positive Ellenwood's quick file is interesting: was fired in 2009 from coaching Bethune-Cookman, coached the Liberian Olympic track team in 2008, was a low-level elite sprinter who testified in the Balco case against Trevor Graham, and coached an NCAA champion, Ronnie Ash, in 2009.

Big Drug Reversal From Europe
*Dutch 8:04 Steeplechaser Declared Fully Innocent In Major Drug Doping Case
*Dutch Article On Vroemen Translated

Millrose Games And Wanamaker Mile
*Results: Men Pro, Women Pro, Other

Track and Field: 103 Millrose Games Lagat Gets #8 3:56.34 runaway win over Olympic champ Asbel Kiprop was the highlight of the Millrose Games.
*LRC Recap Of Distance Events And Other Action From Millrose We made sure we were there to take in one of the best indoor meets in the world. It was well worth it to see the Kiprop/Lagat duel come down to the last lap.
Recommened Read: Irish Times On Eamonn Coghlan Writer Ian O'Riordan recalls being a runner at Brown when Coghlan was a hero running 4:00 miles at the age of 40.

More From Millrose
*Good Recap: Pat Schellberg's Win Over Anthony Kostelac In Millrose HS Boys Mile nj.com
*NYTimes Devotes Its Lead To Christian Cantwell's Third Win In Shot Put All 4 throws of his were over 70 feet and would have won.
*USATF Winner's Quotes
*Dyestat Recap: Trevor Barron New HS Record In Boyd Racewalk (6:03!) - Just Kidding; Pat Schellberg Runs 4:14 In Boys Mile Tim Seaman ran/walked 5:52 for the mile.