January 19, 2021 Homepage Archive

LRC Nick Willis Sets World Record by Breaking 4:00 in the Mile for 19th Straight Year Willis, 37, ran 3:58 in Florida to break a tie with fellow Kiwi legend John Walker.
*MB Nick Willis is going for history tonight. Will he set the all-time record of most seasons with a sub-4 minute mile at 19?

What a Weekend!

Recap Track Is Back, Baby! Athing Mu 2:01, Selemon Barega 27:58 at 7,700 Feet, & Recapping Track’s First Big Weekend of 2021 With limited competition opportunities in 2020, many athletes are desperate to get back on the track in 2021 and we saw a ton of top performances last weekend, from a triple jump WR to an NCAA pole vault record, some crazy-fast high school races, the return of Conner Mantz and…Tom Brady (?!?) running 7:58 for Michigan.

International Action – New Triple Jump WR!

World Bronze Medalist Hugues Fabrice Zango Breaks Indoor TJ Record With 18.07m He crushed the previous record by 15cm which was set by his coach Teddy Tamgho 10 years ago.

Renaude Lavillenie Soars Over 5.92m PV In Bordeaux
World Champs 10,000m 4th Placer Rosemary Wanjiru Wins Kenyan Prisons Cross-Country Champs She dominated the race, winning by 34 seconds over 2017 world XC bronze medalist Lilian Kasait Rengeruk with 3-time Berlin Marathon champ Gladys Cherono third and 2016 African XC champ Alice Aprot 4th in her first race in 17 months. 5,000m Olympian Charles Muneria won the men’s race.
MB:15-year old Aussie Imogen Stewart runs 4:38 mile
Australia’s Rohan Browning Runs Wind-Assisted 9.96 To Win The 100m At The Illawarra Track Challenge He ran this aided by a 3.3m/s wind, doubling back from winning his 60m heat two hours earlier (he went on to win the 60m final in 6.55).

Distance News

Alexi Pappas’ Memoir Bravey Is Out – 5 Things Women’s Running Learned From Reading It You can purchase the book here.
*Outside Q&A With Pappas About Book: Alexi Pappas’s New Book Tackles The Heavy Stuff
Runner’s World: A Long Look At How Alexi Pappas And Mary Cain Became Friends The article reveals that Pappas is the one who got Cain in touch with the New York Times and also states that Alberto Salazar put Cain on a Greyhound bus to travel to World Juniors. *Discuss
Pat Tiernan Q&A: Tiernan Talks About Joining The OTC And Being Engaged To Angel Piccirillo He also reveals he thinks he can medal in the 10,000 in Tokyo.
A Look Back At The Era Of Ron Clarke Clarke once raced a horse and is the last person to set a WR on the grass (13:34 5,000).
Dutch Athlete Who In 2018 Was Asking Eliud Kipchoge For His Autograph Joins NN Running Team After Running 2:11 Marathon
Japanese HS 5,000 (13:34) And LJ (8.12 m) National Record Holders Commit To Toyo University
4 HS 800 Superstars Will Race Each Other On Saturday Night In VA, Then Team Up And Go For U20 4 X 800 WR On Sunday Roisin Willis (2:03), Bailey Goggans (2:04), Juliette Whittaker (2:03) and Sophia Gorriaran (2:03) should have no problem getting the 8:37.71 WR.
The Stats Are In:Thanks To COVID-19, Colorado Parks, Trails Saw Record Usage In 2020 Usage was up by at least 30% and sometimes more than 50%.
UTEP Cancels 2021 Indoor Tack & Field Season

Non-Distance News

South African Paper Reports That Suspended Long Jumper Luvo Manyonga Is Batting Drug Addiction Once Again And Nike Didn’t Renew Him Let’s hope this doesn’t get any more tragic. A source close to the situation said, “Nike has zero tolerance for drug abuse,” which made us laugh.
Chaunte Lowe To Be Presented With NCAA Inspiration Award During Virtual NCAA Honors Celebration Despite a double mastectomy and six rounds of chemotherapy, Lowe has continued to train for a fifth Olympic berth.
Andrew Pozzi Talks About How He’s Thriving Under His New Cuban Coach Santiago Antunez In Italy They’ve made it work even though Pozzi didn’t speak Spanish or Italian as Antunez has coached 2 of the last 5 Olympic 110H champs.
Iceland Has Only Had 1 Male Track Athlete Medal And That Was 65 Years Ago; Could Gudni Valur Gudnason Change That This Year? The discus thrower credits his success to drinking 2 liters of milk a day as a kid.
Chaos Ensued At 1st AK Relays Series Over The Weekend AK Relays Series and they had to stay in their lane during the relays.
Vaulter Olivia Gruver Is Excited For 2021

Other News That Passed Our Vetting Process

LRC This Week’s Podcast: Doom And Gloom? Or Hope And Light? Boston 2021? Tokyo 2021? Olympic Trials Without Fans? Covid is wreaking havoc but vaccines are going into people’s arms as we speak. What does it mean for the running world?

Meet The Indiana Man Who Has Won 114 Marathons In His Life And Is Aiming For 200 As A Local Pizza Restaurant Will Let Him Eat For Free Justin Gillett has a 2:25 PR.
Want To Host A Worlds In Your City? World Athletics Open For Submissions To Host Three Championship Events Don’t forget to include the $70 to $80 million with your application.
HOKA NAZ Elite Adds Jenna Wrieden As An Assistant Coach A college coach since 2006, she was a college teammate of Amy Cragg and Des Linden.
Tokyo Olympics Organizers Say The Idea That The IOC Is Going To Meet In February To Discuss Canceling Olympics Is “Fake News” They also dismissed a poll saying 80% of Japanese want it cancelled or postponed. “The number of people calling for it to be canceled has only risen by about five percent.”
“Breaking Bad” Star Bryan Cranston Reveals He Once Ran A 3:20 Marathon
Q&A With 400 World Champ Steven Gardiner On What His Life Has Been Like During Covid-19 The Florida-based man hasn’t been to the Bahamas in over a year.
Catching Up With World Athletics Refugee Team During Covid-19

Assorted Distance News

Tsigie Gebreselama Keeping Focus Despite Challenges From Coronavirus And Ethiopian Civil War “I never stopped my training since the beginning of COVID but I had to stop my training for a little bit when the war started.”
Nick Willis Says He’s A “Believer In The New Spike Tech” He says he ran 2 seconds faster than expected for his time trial a couple of days ago.
Q&A With Andrew Bumbalough On His Retirement From Professional Running Bumbalough is getting into coaching, but says he wants his career to be working in sports industry footwear and reveals he worked with the team that developed Nike’s Next% shoes. *Bumbalough Video Chat
Former Two-Time World Marathon Champ Abel Kirui Wants Athletics Kenya To Provide Athletes With Medical Coverage Kirui is 38 years old and even though his first world title came over a decade ago, he says he still “has energy to run” and “ambitions to feature at the Tokyo Olympics.”
AW Weekly Round-Up:Eilish McColgan Runs 31:08 To Win SuperSports 10k In Dubai McColgan was frustrated that it won’t count as an official PR, though, because race marshals sent her the wrong way on the course (even though she still ran the 10k).

Give The Gift Of LetsRun.com This Holiday Season

More Results From A Jam-Packed Weekend

Women’s Under-20 World 4 X 800 Record Goes Down As Well As #2 And #3 On All-Time Indoor 2-Mile List At Virginia Showcase High schoolers Roisin Willis (2:05.97), Bailey Goggans (2:20.49), Juliette Whittaker (2:05.25) and Sophia Gorriaran (2:05.49) broke the 30-year-old record with 8:37.20 despite a weak second leg due to Goggans’ injury. In the 2-mile, Sydney Thorvaldson ran 9:4795 to beat out Brynn Brown (9:51.00). Only Mary Cain has run faster.
*MB: SYDNEY THORVALDSON: 9:47.95 2 mile to beat Brynn Brown!

World Bronze Medalist Gudaf Tsegay Runs 4:02.35 All-Comers 1,500m Record To Highlight Ethiopian Pre-Olympic Trials Meet In Addis Ababa Other highlights were Selemon Barega in the 10,000m (27:58.48) and Diribe Welteji in the 800m (2:00.50). All of this at 7,700ft elevation.
MB:Parker Stinson Wins Naples Half Marathon In 63:33 Lindsay Flanagan won the women’s race in 70:23. *Results
*MB: footage : 2021 Naples Half Marathon : Parker Stinson
16-Year-Old Sato Runs 8:00.09 U18 Japan National Record
RRW:Calum Neff Gets Canadian 50-K Record in Houston Neff ran 2:51:27 on a looped course.

Lots Of Amazing US Indoor Action

MB:Athing Mu Runs 2:01.07 PB in 1st track meet for Texas A&M Pretty close to the CR.
*Local Recap:Athing Mu, Bryce Deadmon Set World-Leading Times To Open 2021 Season Deadmon set the 400m WL at 45.68.
MB:Juliette Whittaker ran girls 800 meters indoor US HS #3 all time 2:02.07 at 2021 VA Showcase!
MB:Texas Tech’s Takieddine Hedeilli runs 1:45.98 indoor 800!!!!
MB:Conner Mantz just killed a 3k (7:58.03 at BYU) Worth 7:47.50 using NCAA altitude conversion.
MB: KC Lightfoot breaks indoor collegiate record in pole vault with 19-5.75 (5.94m)
Kentucky’s Abby Steiner Runs 22.83 To Win Rod McCravy Invitational 200m Elsewhere in Birmingham, Alabama, World 400m champ Steven Gardiner won the 300m with 32.70.
MB:Tom Brady runs 7:58 3k for Michigan
Arkansas Men And Women Win Home Invitational In 7-Team Competition *Women’s Recap Arkansas takes first five spots in the mile, led by Krissy Gear‘s 4:38.22. *Results
Kansas State Retains KU-KSU-WSU Triangular Team Title They won with 261 points to Kansas’ 203.5. *Results

COVID Stuff

2021 New Balance Nationals Indoor Championships Cancelled Due To COVID
RRW:Boston Marathon Race Director Now Directing Mass Vaccination Sites McGillivray’s event management company, DMSE Sports, is working with others to run a mass vaccination site at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. Their goal is to vaccinate 7,000 people a day.
The Armory Converts To COVID Vaccine Site For NYC
Birmingham City Council Leader Isn’t Sure The 2022 Commonwealth Games Will Happen Due To COVID

Sprint News

LRC Olympic Champ Brianna Rollins-McNeal Is Provisionally Suspended For An Anti-Doping Violation For Second Time One of America’s 4 individual track gold medalists in Rio, Rollins-McNeal is accused of tampering and most likely is facing a 5-8 year ban. *Discuss

MB: 16-year-old Erriyon Knighton turns pro with adidas This summer at age 16, he ran 20.33 for 200 and looked like a man among boys at 6’2″.

Today’s Free Training Advice

What Runners Need To Know About Hip Injuries
A Look At How The World’s Top Marathoner In 1899 Trained As Compared To Kipchoge
A Look At Why You Run Slower In The Cold Your VO2 max drops below 50 F (10 C) and your muscles get weaker.
25 Training Session Ideas From AW
4 Core Exercises That Are Good For Runners

More Free Training Tips

Former 1:58.20 800 Runner Becky Lyne’s Five Tips To Improve Your Running Form
Free Book Excerpt From Running Periodization: Training Theories To Run Faster By Jason R. Karp, Ph.D. We enjoyed this piece as it explains why you should alternate higher and lower mileage weeks – a key concept of the LetsRun.com coaching philosophy. The article focuses on “Balancing Confusion vs. Habituation in Training.”
Scientists: Endorphins May Have Nothing To Do With The “Runner’s High” Endocannabinoids may be the key to feeling great after exercise according to a new study by David Raichlen of USC.
MB:New study says there is no limit to exercise that will help you, dispelling myth you can do too much…. Or does it?
How Often Should You Replace Your Shoes? Podiatrist Says Every 500 Miles (800km) But she also recommends buying two pairs at once.

Listens

Sprint Stuff

Usain Bolt Gets His Own Online Slot Machine Game Bolt said, “If you are over 18 then try your luck and have a spin.”
World Athletics Profile On Italian Sprinter Edoardo Scotti Scotti talks about how he achieved a lifelong goal by winning a race inside Rome’s Olympic Stadium when he took the 4oom at the Rome DL in 45.21 this fall.
UK’s Former 400H World Champ Dai Greene Is Worried Athletes Won’t Be Able To Qualify For The Games If There Aren’t Enough Events “That’s the big thing that’s probably playing on my mind. It’s not will I be in shape, won’t I be in shape, will I be fit? It’s can I get into a race at the right time, early enough in the season. Will there be enough on?”

Training Group News

Alexa Efraimson Makes Training Move, Joins Pete Julian’s Group Efraimson has been training with the group since the fall and says “the transition has been really smooth” and that she wanted “a group of teammates that were going to push me every single day.”
*MB: EFRAIMSON joins Pete Julian’s group!!!
Olympic Marathon Trials 10th Placer Matt McDonald Joins Team B.A.A. The former Ivy League 10,000m champ has a 2:11:10 marathon PB.

Congrats To Ken Goe!

Ken Goe Named Oregon Sportswriter Of The Year For 2020 Goe recently retired after a 43-year career with The Oregonian. Listen to his interview from November on the LRC podcast here.

The Latest Olympic News

Sonia O’Sullivan: How And Why Tokyo Olympics Need To Go Ahead She writes that the “strict testing and quarantine protocols” used in Australia are a great example of what to follow.
Japanese Minister Casts Fresh Doubt Over Olympics, Saying It “Could Go Either Way”
AP Gets Advance Copy Of CAS’s 186-Page Decision On Russia Which Blasts Them For A “Cover-Up Of The Cover-Up” But Still Cut Their Ban In Half
After Meeting With Donald Trump In 2017, IOC Head Thomas Bach Reportedly Said, “Pray for our world.”
Alan Abrahamson Is Upset The USOPC Hasn’t Condemned The Capitol Riots
Dai Greene: “In order to keep my intensity up I have to believe Tokyo is going to go ahead, even though it’s kind of at a tipping point.”

Nostalgia

Outside Devotes 4,000+ Words To The Rise Of Tracksmith – “Tracksmith Made Running Culture Something You Can Buy” The author seems a little disturbed by the fact that things are for sale. A non-running co-founder disagrees. “Tracksmith is run by a bunch of people that love running and live and breathe it. And that comes across. You can’t fake that stuff.”
*MB: Outside Tracksmith Article

Kevin Beck Recalls His 1st Road Race And The Days When It Was Typical To “Run Under 7:00 Pace For 5 Miles And Be In The Slower Half” Of A Race “Road races, especially marathons, have become a popular way for people to convince other people they’ve done something remarkable when they haven’t.”

Start Off The New Year With A New Book

LRC Out of Thin Air Book Review: A Deep Look Into Ethiopian Running Culture Despite producing 42 of the 100 fastest men’s marathoners of all time and distance legends like Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie, few English-speaking writers have truly explored Ethiopian running culture. Michael Crawley changes that with his new book. 5 stars out of 5. Purchase here.

LRC Free Book Excerpt: Why “Idil” Is More Important Than Talent For Amhara Ethiopian Runners We greatly enjoyed Michael Crawley‘s new book on Ethiopian distance running and this free excerpt will show you why. Did you know that most Ethiopians don’t believe in the idea of “talent”? Plus Crawley explains why pursuing a running career isn’t always an option for Ethiopians.

Sponsorship Changes

LRC Keeping Track Of Pros Who Have Switched Sponsors In 2021 A number of pros are no longer being sponsored by Nike. A bunch of them including Sandi Morris and Gesa Krause have signed with Puma.