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Nick Symmonds: Indoor 2009 and Some of Your Questions
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 27)
Posted January 28th, 2009 at 1:30 PM by Nick Symmonds
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Elite Athlete Blogs, Nick Symmonds
Welcome to the official blog of middle-distance track star and 2008 U.S. Olympian Nick Symmonds. Be sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: nicksymmonds.com
Wow! I’m so happy to see how many great comments were left on my latest blog. A lot of great questions were asked and I will try to address them in this weeks blog. In order to tackle the bulk of them, this blog might not have the same flow that I try to keep in most of my writings. I will try to address questions in the order that they were received.
First of all, in regards to my indoor season: I am planning on opening 2009 with a 1000m at the Boston Indoor Games on February 7th. From there I am planing on running an 800m in Fayetteville on the 13th. If all is going well and I feel confident in my ability to race and win I will head to the US Indoor Championships at the end of February. The Oregon Track Club will then be spending the month of March in Arizona for some warm weather training to prepare us for outdoors. My outdoor season will not be set up until we have completed indoors, but I imagine I will kick it off as I always do at the Penn Relays.
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Nick Symmonds:
Race Preparation
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 26)
Posted January 5th, 2009 at 2:11 PM by Adam Jacobs
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Elite Athlete Blogs, Nick Symmonds
Welcome to the official blog of middle-distance track star and 2008 U.S. Olympian Nick Symmonds. Be sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: nicksymmonds.com
I’ll start out by thanking Dylan and John who read last weeks blog and left comments. Im glad to know that fellow 800m runners out there are reading and enjoying what I have to say! I think I can address both of your questions by talking about how I prepare for a race. This is actually a very suiting time to be writing such a blog as I am currently preparing for my first indoor competition which will take place in Boston on February 7th.
As I look to ready my mind and body for a race I start thinking about tweaking a few small things in my training a week out. If it is a race that I am planning on training through, my total mileage for that week will probably only drop about 5 to 10 percent. I typically run 70 miles a week when I’m training at capacity and thus for the week of a race I might only get 60 to 65 miles in. If I am preparing for a big race, such as the trials, the tapering process will be closer to two weeks (i.e. I would go from 70 down to 60 down to 50).
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Mark Rowland Named Coach of Oregon Track Club Elite
Posted December 17th, 2008 at 9:18 AM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
Legendary coach Frank Gagliano, who recently retired from coaching the Nike-backed Oregon Track Club Elite, has been replaced by Olympic medalist Mark Rowland of Great Britain. Rowland will now be coaching athletes like Nick Symmonds and Christian Smith.
“I’m very excited to be joining the OTC and honored to take the baton from Gags,” said Rowland, 45, at a press conference in Eugene, Ore., last Monday. “This has been an amazing process and with the help of Vin Lananna and Nike we’ve managed to create a phenomenal environment for the continued success of national and international caliber middle-distance and distance runners; men and women.”
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Nick Symmonds: A Typical Day in the Life of a Pro Runner (Elite Athlete Blog Entry 25)
Posted December 15th, 2008 at 9:30 AM by Nick Symmonds
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Elite Athlete Blogs, Nick Symmonds
Welcome to the official blog of middle-distance track star and 2008 U.S. Olympian Nick Symmonds. Be sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: nicksymmonds.com
This blog is for Micah who requested an entry detailing a typical day in the life of a professional runner. I’m sure the average schedule varies quite a big based on geographical location and event, but I can tell you that the day I’m describing is very typical for me and is similar to that of many of my teammates.
When we are on the road for a race our days are very unscheduled and you have to learn to adapt to changes. That can be difficult sometime because when we are home our lives are pretty simple and very plain.
A day at home in Eugene typically begins at 8 am. If I have been smart I will have gone to bed the night before around 11 PM and wake up on my own (without an alarm clock) after 9 hours of sleep. I usually try to have a cup of coffee and a banana before I head out the door for practice. Some mornings I will go straight to the gym to lift but most mornings I leave to meet the team for my first workout of the day.
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Nick Symmonds:
Post-Collegiate Running
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 24)
Posted November 18th, 2008 at 9:24 AM by Nick Symmonds
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Elite Athlete Blogs, Nick Symmonds
Welcome to the official blog of middle-distance track star and 2008 U.S. Olympian Nick Symmonds. Be sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: nicksymmonds.com
I am often asked what a post collegiate running career consists of. Sometimes I am asked by a friend or a fan who doesn’t entirely understand how someone can make a living running. Other times I am asked this question by collegians who are interested in continuing their own track careers. Unfortunately, there simply are not a lot of resources out there to help these people understand the options available to athletes interested in running at an elite level after college. While there are many different options out there, I feel I must admit that I know very little about many of them and therefore only have the expertise to explain how my own professional running career came about. Ill start at the beginning.
After a fairly successful college career I had several sponsors expressing slight interest in representing me. Generally speaking, it is through these sponsors that one is able to make a living. I knew that in order to secure a good deal with these sponsors I would need two things: better marks, and an agent. As it would turn out I was able to tackle both of these challenges in the same weekend.
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Nick Symmonds:
Building the Base
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 23)
Posted November 3rd, 2008 at 4:29 PM by Nick Symmonds
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Elite Athlete Blogs, Nick Symmonds
Welcome to the official blog of middle-distance track star and 2008 U.S. Olympian Nick Symmonds. Be sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: nicksymmonds.com
I have returned to Eugene, Oregon and am in the process of building my base. As always, I felt terrible when I started to come back from my time off. Its amazing how out of shape one can get after simply not running for two weeks. I was ten pounds heavier and every step I took those first few days felt like an action that was totally foreign to my legs. I kept complaining about how incredibly out of shape I was to my parents and they just laughed and asked, “Wait, how many miles did you run today?”
That first week back the answer was usually five or six. I know to most runners that isn’t much, but to the average person 5 to 6 miles a day is a lot. I think that just goes to show you how strict our standards are for ourselves as runners. Even now, as I sit on my couch recovering from a 10 mile run I ran this morning I cannot help but cringe at how unfit I am. On the outside I probably look exactly the same as I did the day I won the trials this past July, but on the inside I feel so radically different.
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Nick Symmonds: Preparing for Indoor Track & My Base Training Regimen
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 22)
Posted October 14th, 2008 at 9:30 AM by Nick Symmonds
Section: News & Results, Running & Training, Track & Field, Training Plans, Training Tips, Elite Athlete Blogs, Nick Symmonds
Welcome to the official blog of middle-distance track star and 2008 U.S. Olympian Nick Symmonds. Be sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: nicksymmonds.com
My two week break has just come to an end and, as always, I cannot believe how fast it went by. I had a lot of fun not worrying about getting my run(s) in each day and was able to do some of the things I love like hunting, fishing, golfing, and even getting out for some pick up ice hockey.
As much as I have enjoyed this break I woke up today VERY excited to begin my fall base training. I’ve said before that I truly believe this is where an athlete makes much of their progress. The stronger I become this fall the more speed work Ill be able to put in the spring as well as providing me the fitness to extend my outdoor season well into the summer.
I get messages and email from friends and fans that mean so much to me. Often I am unable to respond due to my busy schedule of training and travel. I apologize! Perhaps the most frequent messages I get are about my training.
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Nick Symmonds:
Off to Beijing!
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 18)
Posted August 11th, 2008 at 10:29 AM by Nick Symmonds
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Nick Symmonds
Welcome to the official blog of middle-distance track star and 2008 U.S. Olympian Nick Symmonds. Be sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: nicksymmonds.com
Note: The following entry was written on August 6th, just prior to Nick’s flight to Beijing. His next entry will be written on Sunday, August 24th and published the following morning on Monday, August 25th.
I’m currently in a dorm at San Jose State getting ready for bed early because I’m waking up at 6 AM to catch a flight to Beijing, China to compete in my first Olympic Games. Its hard to believe myself. The last month has been amazing; Ive put in many miles and had a lot of good workouts including one of the best speed-endurance sessions of my life yesterday. I woke up at 6:30 this morning to sneak in one last run on American soil.
The dorm I’m staying in is apartment style and sharing the rooms with
me are Andrew Wheating, Christian Smith, Dathan Ritzenhein, Galen Rupp, and Matt Tegenkamp among others. Its literally a whose-who of track and field and I suppose you would expect nothing less from the USA Olympic Track and Field team. Watching all of us go through team processing today you would have guessed our average age to be about 8 as we ran around filling shopping carts with the amazing team gear issued to each Olympian. It was literally Christmas in August.
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Nick Symmonds:
Conventional Wisdom
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 17)
Posted July 28th, 2008 at 11:44 AM by Nick Symmonds
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Nick Symmonds
Welcome to the official blog of middle-distance track star and 2008 U.S. Olympian Nick Symmonds. Be sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: nicksymmonds.com
Its July 15th as I sit on my couch in Springfield, Oregon and write this blog. To people who follow my race schedule closely that might seem a bit strange as I was on the start list for the meet in Luzern Switzerland tomorrow. I was actually scheduled to race again next week in Belgium and in London on the 25th as well. Unfortunately, I will not be running in any of these meets. I spent all spring looking forward to my trip to Europe and imagined running a 1:43 or two as I prepared to compete in China, but after the amazing experience of the trials I was left physically and emotionally drained. The combination of training, doing interviews, signing autographs and cheering on my teammates in the second session was simply too much. My usual perfect schedule that includes nine hours of sleep each night, regular meals, and naps in the afternoon was thrown for a total loop. By day 8 of the trials I was running on an average of about 5 hours of sleep and had lost 6 pounds. In training I felt worn out.
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Nick Symmonds: Olympian
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry 16)
Posted July 8th, 2008 at 5:15 PM by Nick Symmonds
Section: Track & Field, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Nick Symmonds, College
Welcome to the official blog of middle-distance track star and 2008 U.S. Olympian Nick Symmonds. Be sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: nicksymmonds.com
I can hardly believe it myself. After dreaming about this for most of my life and specifically devoting two years towards this goal, I can finally call myself an Olympic athlete. The last 48 hours have been unreal and I would very much like to share with you what has been going on, but first I need to talk about how I arrived at this point in my career.
Growing up in Boise I was blessed with an amazing family that made me want for nothing. I had love from my sister and parents and they supported me in any goal I set for myself, but more importantly made me believe I could accomplish these goals. When I told them that I would one day like to be an Olympian they just smiled and said, “then do it.” When other people laughed or doubted they just kept smiling, almost as if they knew it was destined to be. They have made this possible and of the 20,000 people at Hayward Monday night I don’t think any were as happy and proud as they were. Mom, Dad, Lauren: I LOVE YOU!!!
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Great review, I wrote one on the Ironman Road Trainer HRM, which is similar to this one, without the...