First father/son pair to run under 4 minutes for the mile.

There have been hundreds of young American men chasing the goal of running a mile under 4 minutes in the past few years. Out of those hundreds, only 4, however, had fathers who had run under 4 minutes. All 4 of these guys had run under 4:04, but none had quite gotten to sub4. There was an unofficial race between Joaquin Chapa (son of Rudy Chapa, 3:57.04), Sam Bair Jr. (son of Sam Bair, 3:56.7), Matt Centrowitz Jr. (son of Matt Centrowitz, 3:54.94), and Darren Brown (son of Barry Brown, 3:58.8) to be the first to complete an American father/son pair of sub 4 minute milers. Sam Bair had been agonizingly close several times, running between 4:00 and 4:01.

This weekend, that race ended as Darren Brown ran 3:59.99 at the Texas Relays. Click to see his post race interview.

Note, these are the first Americans. The only foreigners I'm aware of who have completed this are the Keinos of Kenya. Martin Keino ran 3:52.33 in 1996. His dad, Kipchoge Keino, who was also an Olympic Champion ran 3:53.1 in 1967.

Notice that of these 5 pairs of fathers and sons, in all but one case, the dad was the faster runner....at least so far. Some of you guys have dads who used to run or still run. Find out what their times are/were and see if you can take them down:) That was one of many motivators for me in high school. Of course as I got faster, it seemed how fast my dad used to be got faster as well:)



About the meet on Tuesday, the weather's forecast to get nasty, although not as bad as they were saying this morning. Let's hope that forecast keeps getting better and better. If the meet is postponed, there's a good chance that they'll reschedule it for Thursday. If that happens, simply do Thursday's workout on Tuesday, and keep the other days the same.

Some stuff on some on crazy-silly-fast guys.

Just some fun running news for those who are interested. The World Cross Country Championships were this past weekend in Scotland. Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, who had won 5 in a row before losing last year, had his shoe knocked off during the race and still came back to win. These guys race 12K, which is around 7 miles, and the course was pretty wicked. If you think some of the hills you might have run were tough, take a look at the picture of the course above. Here's a picture of Bekele and defending champ Zersaney Tadesse climbing a nasty hill. That doesn't look like any part of Illinois I've ever seen.

Also, American Jorge Torres, who is one of the best Cross Country runners ever from the state of Illinois, was 19th in the race. In high school, Jorge is the only guy to have won the cross country state meet 3 time, and has one of the top 5 or 6 fastest times ever at Detweiller Park in Peoria.

There was also a high school runner runner who qualified for the USA team in the Junior race. The Junior race is basically open for guys who are under 20, so it usually is taken up by good college freshman and young sophomores, with an occasional really good high school runner as well. German Fernandez, one of top cross country guys at high school nationals last fall was 24th in the junior race, against the best young runners in the world, and top man on the US Junior team.

Since we have so many guys interested in the mile, I thought I'd let you know that Alan Webb, the American record holder in the mile(3:46.91) will be racing this weekend. He'll be running a 5000 meter road race. It'll be interesting to see because it's not his normal distance and he hasn't raced at this distance in a couple years. Webb is a guy who is absolutely awesome at the mile, but he's great at just about any distance he chooses to race. He had the fastest time in the world last year in the mile and 1500, and is one of the top 9 Americans ever in the 800, 5000, and 10,000 meters, which are very different events.

That's all for now. The weather looks good for Saturday, so we should have a great workout. If my achilles isn't hurting, I might join you for some of it. I definitely plan on joining you guys for some of these later in the spring when my ankle's better. The workouts will get hard, but remember, I wouldn't ask you to do anything I wouldn't do, and everything I have planned so far is stuff I've done before. I can tell you that it may hurt while you do it, but it makes you stronger.

More World Cross Country Championships Pictures

Results from the World Cross Country Championships

Post meet recap and paces for the rest of the week

I think you did pretty good this afternoon.

First of all the conditions weren't that great. The weather was cold and it was kind of windy. In addition to that, this was your first meet. The first meet of the year is always a little rough as you get used to racing, and you're not in as good shape as you will be later. For some of you this may have been your first track race ever, so it was a learning experience. Against those obstacles, every person finished within 10 seconds of their goal for this meet, and several of you exceeded your goal.

We had some especially great performances from Dave Getz and Nathan Smith. Both of them met their goal for the meet, and they both came pretty close to their goal for the year. Nathan managed to meet his goal for the meet in two different races, with a very short rest in between. Awesome job! What was also impressive was the way they did it. Dave and Nathan both ran very even paces for their whole races, without going out too fast. They both ran perfectly identical laps for their 800s, and ran very consistently during the 1600, each having a very strong second half of the 1600. So what do we do when we meet our goals early? We set harder ones.

With a few exceptions, pretty much everyone ran fairly evenly and did a good job of finding their pace. Also, props to Mark for having an awesome attitude about his races. He was dissatisfied with his 800 during the relay, and thought he would do better in his second race. I made the mistake of telling him not to expect a huge improvement. Instead of getting discouraged, he decided to go and prove me wrong, and he did. He ran the second 800 over 10 seconds faster than the first. Awesome job Mark, and I'm sorry I doubted you.

I've looked over people's times from the meet, and have come up with some paces for the workouts. I've put you guys in groups based on pace and how much training you've done over the winter.

Dave and Nathan Y. - follow the schedule I gave you on Saturday. Go easy Wednesday, then on Thursday, do that long run with thresholds at the end. Try to do the threshold 1600 in about 6:10 and the 1200 in about 4:35-4:40. That's abotu 1:32 a lap. Friday easy, and then on Saturday, we'll be doing the 800s at about 2:40-2:45. That'll be abotu 1:20-22 a lap.

Jordan and Joe - For now, I'd stick to the workouts for the main group. I don't know how much you guys ran over the winter. We can talk about that later and maybe move you into that higher mileage group. Jordan I'd do your threshold 1200s in about 4:45-4:55, Joe in about 4:50-5:00. . Those are about 1:38 per lap. Your 800s on Saturday will be 2:50-55 for Jordan and 2:55-3:00 for Joe. That comes out to 1:27-8 per lap. You should be able to run these together since your paces are similar, just don't race each other; and try to keep in the range of the times I gave you

Brandon - I'd like you to do the main group schedule as well. Your 1200s should be 5:15-5:25 (about 1:45-47 per lap)and your 800s will be 3:10-3:20 ( about 1:35-1:40 a lap)

Nick, Sam, and Nathan Smith - You guys all finished fairly close together and should probably train pretty close together. Stick to the main group schedule, and do your 1200s in about 4:50-5:00 (about 1:38 per lap) The 800s Saturday will be in about 2:55-3:00 (about 1:27-1:30 per lap)

Mark - You should do your work with Nick, Sam and Nathan as well. Your paces are just a little slower at 5-5:10 per 1200(1:40-42 per lap), and 3-3:05 (1:30-1:32 per lap) per 800. I'd run with that group and keep on the back of them. Since you're focusing more on the shorter distances, start doing 8 strides on easy days instead of just 5. 'Blast' the 4 in the middle, getting to your top speed for a little while.

Stuart - Your 1200s should be in about 5:20-5:30 (about 1:47-1:50 a lap) and your 800s will be 3:15-3:25 (1:38-1:22 per lap). I beleive you guys practice at different times, but if you can, it'd be a good idea for you and Brandon to do yours together, since you're at similar paces.

Since I won't be there for the 1200s, remember it's supposed to be a short break in between them, about 1 minute. They should be 'comfortably hard'; so if that gets really tough, slow them down a little from the paces I gave you.

For the guys that can't be there on Saturday, keep Thursday really easy and do Saturday's workout on Friday. Saturday's workout is 4 800s with approximately equal recovery. So if you take 2:50 for an 800, your recovery should be around 2:50 as well. With this workout, the first one will be hard, and the second one sometimes gets a little easier as you're warmed up. After that, they get harder and harder with each one.

Again good job today. We got close to our times, and everybody showed some pretty smart racing. You were showing even pacing, but still being competitive with the other guys in the race.

Remember, no one said that their best races came at the beginning of the season. Everyone said either the middle or the end. Ideally, they come towards the end, and that's what we're aiming for, but either way, your races are goign to be getting better.

Sorry for how late I got this up. Remember, one of the seniors please print this and bring it to practice so people will know what to do. Make sure everyone sees their paces and understands them as well.