Evan Jager Tell Us His Goals For Stockholm & The Rest Of The Season

Jager says he's done with the steeple for 2012 and "I would be very happy running between 7:35 and 7:37" in 3k on Friday

By Weldon Johnson
August 16, 2012

Stockholm, Sweden

On Friday in Stockholm, the American record holder in the steeplechase, Evan Jager, returns to the flats and runs the 3000m versus Olympic 5000m bronze medallist Thomas Longosiwa at the DN Galan Diamond League meet. LRC's Weldon Johnson was hoping to meet with Evan in person to ask a few questions on Evan's goals for Stockholm and what he's been doing post Olympics. Weldon apparently was too busy watching magic tricks and instead the questions were done via email.

LRC: 1) What is your goal for the race? Are you more focused on competing than time?

Evan Jager: I'd have to say that my goal for the race is both time and competition based. It is always my primary goal going into races to get in there and compete, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't care about time. I feel like this part of the season is almost entirely based on trying to run fast times. That being said, if you can get yourself into Diamond League meets, all you really have to worry about is being competitive and if you can do that, the fast times will come. I am definitely looking to improve on my "7:41" 3k (pr) from 3 years ago and I definitely think I'm fit enough to do that. I was talking with (Andrew) Bumbalough about this earlier and I think I would be very happy running between 7:35 and 7:37.

LRC: Do you know what your schedule is the rest of the year?

Evan Jager: Racing plans have changed from what we were planning on doing before the Olympics. Having run seven steeples already this year, we decided to call it a year for the barriers based on the thought that it does beat your body up. Originally I was planning on running a final steeple in Brussels but now we've changed it up and have decided to finish out the season with another flat 3k in Rieti. In between Stockholm and Rieti I will most likely run 2 1500s but I'm not yet sure where those will be at.

LRC: 3) People would be curious what you've done since your final at the Olympics? Did you go to closing ceremonies? Have you done any workouts since then? Where and with who? Just traveling here by myself from London my one thought has been, "Damn it would be hard to travel from meet to meet and still be able to get in the right workouts."

Evan Jager: With my final on the 5th, I only had a couple days in London before leaving on the 8th for my European base in the Netherlands. I gave myself a day off after the final and spent a majority of the free time the next two days with my family. Obviously, I wasn't able to stay for the closing ceremonies because I had to leave to get back to our base and back to training on the 8th. I had a solid 5 or so days of just running before I did a workout again. My first workout back wasn't anything crazy, just some quarters run mostly at 3k pace and I did that workout alone back in the Netherlands. My next workout I was able to do with Andrew Bumbalough and that was just an easy pre-race workout. I think it would be really hard to try to fit in workouts while traveling from meet to meet,but I am fortunate enough to be able to travel back and forth to a European base and I think that makes it a little easier to fit workouts in. Also, at this point of the year, races can almost serve as a "workout" where you are still able to make fitness improvements via the race. Not being able to fit in a ton of workouts at this point of the year is not as big of a deal because "all the hay is already in the barn" and this part of the season you are really only sharpening up. That is why this part of the season is so much fun though. I get to drop the mileage, mostly only do speed workouts, travel and race a lot. This is what we as athletes live for and train for. This is fun.

More Stockholm: Full LetsRun.com Preview of Stockholm


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