communication breakdown
no wireless at the hotel but, results will be found here:
http://www.nationalchampswindsor.ca/results.jsp
the weather looks good so the plan is to try and get a decent time tonight as well as compete for the title.
I know I’m writing this Monday, but its late (just got done putting together a new dresser, and yes, it looks great) so I figure you’re reading this Tuesday.
Last night’s race went alright. I wasn’t necessarily pleased with running 3:44, but I was pleased with the way I ran it (ie. making a dumb move early in the race and still holding on and, taking the lead for the hardest part of the race). I was in dead last at 200m (30sec) and then made too aggressive a move and passed the whole field in the next 150m to settle in right behind the rabbits. Coming through 400m in 58 seconds felt fine but I was hurting by 600m (1:28). When the rabbits dropped at 700m and 720m I kept the lead and the pace honest enough until 1100m when fellow Speed Riverian, Taylor Milne, took over. The splits at 800m and 1200m were 1:58 and 2:59. I was still fairly close to Taylor until 300m to go and then I kind of let the intensity go. Kurt Benninger passed me with 150m to go and that woke me up. It was a good thing he was in the race or I would have been 3:45.mid. Since I ran 3:45 off of 10 000m training I wanted to at least see an improvement even if I did run this 1500m in a harder fashion. The race was really good for two reasons; 1)I got the stimulus I wanted out of the race to set up nationals 5000m this coming Friday and, 2) Milne got another carding standard.
1 Milne, Taylor Speed River 3:42.38
2 Benninger, Kurt Saugeen TC 3:44.79
3 Coolsaet, Reid Speed River 3:44.82
4 Poulin-Cadovius, James Quebec 3:48.82
5 Novakowski, Braden Kingston Napanee 3:48.87
6 Emberley, Scott Toronto Olympic 3:49.43
7 deWitt, Nathan London 3:49.76
8 Arnald, Scott Speed River 3:50.57
9 Thorson, Cleve Saugeen TC 3:50.89
10 Kassap, Danny University of To 3:50.99
11 Smith, Andrew Brooks Canada Ma 3:51.39
12 Corbit, John United States 3:57.63
— Osland, Paul Toronto Olympic DNF
— Sherar, Michael Toronto Olympic DNF
The new track at Varsity stadium is pretty cool. It’s a good facility, nice surface and right in the middle of the city (Bloor street by the ROM). Too bad it was raining or maybe more people would have watched, but I doubt many casual spectators would of paid the admission fee anyways. It should of been a free meet so they can build some buzz seeing that its the first meet and all in the new stadium.
I have another 1500m coming up in less than two weeks in Brasschaat, Belgium, and I think I will be able to run a good time (seriously this time, haha). This was my first week since a down week in February that was under 130km (80 miles) and now I’m getting in the thick of the racing season. The races are coming in week after week and that’s what I need to really get my times down. Nationals 5000m is this Friday and I have to start getting pumped up for it… I can’t believe its already here… maybe it will hit me tomorrow when I’m at the track doing a tune-up workout… yeah it will.
You said to ring you up if I was in Torona
Toronto. Go ahead and say Toronto a few times slowly and think of what other people from around the world must think of our great city’s name… Not so weird? Maybe its just me? Or maybe you didn’t really say Tor–on–toe a few times?
I’ve been very pleased with my running since my last 5000m a week ago. On Sunday I had a great long run off the plane, Tuesday’s long tempo went well and then, yesterday, I had one of my best track sessions ever. Cal and I were on the track for 800’s and I felt really comfortable running my repeats and hitting decent times. Things seem to be coming around at the right time and I’m really looking forward to my next races. My next race is a 1500m in Toronto on Sunday night, its supposed to be really hot Sunday but that’s tolerable for a 1500m. Running a PB over 1500m right now is possible but, the races where I ran 3:41 came with stiff competition. On Sunday the start lists look good but not quite as deep as my 3:41 races over in Europe. There will be a nice presence from the Speed River 1500m brigade as 7 of the 15 on the start list are from the group.
Men 1500m
1. Reid Coolsaet Speed River
2. Taylor Milne Speed River
3. Andrew Smith
4. Danny Kassap UTTC
5. James Poulin-Cadovius Quebec
6. Josh Roundell Speed River
7. Scott Arnald Speed River
8. Nathan deWitt London
9. Cleve Thorson Speed River group
10. Angus Macaulay Speed River
11. John Corbit Speed River group
12. Scott Emberley Toronto OC
13. Michael Sherar
14. Paul Osland
15. Kurt Benninger
Here are some pics from my last trip. (click for larger image).
Typical house in Teddington (this one had a nicer lawn).
Hotel room at the Scandic in Aarhus. Ikea anyone?
Downtown Aarhus. Great city.
Aarhus Recap
Right when I woke up in the morning I felt good and was confident I would run well that evening. By the time we started the race there was a light rain and slight wind and about 15C. Compared to my last 5000m in NYC I was very content with the weather. By 200m into the race the top 5 runners were actually lined up by PB’s, Ahmed (13:09pb), Sultan (13:09pb), Monder (13:15pb), myself and Paul Morrison. We went through in 63, then 2:07 and 2:38 for the first km. Before the first KM mark Monder Rizki fell off the pace and I went around him and got right behind the Qatari. Around a lap later the Qatari dropped off the pace and I went around him a little too late. There was a gap to the Morrocan and rabbit, BIG mistake. I was trying to catch back up and I wasn’t really making inroads, but I was at least keeping the same pace. Then the Qatari went back around me so I figured he wanted to get back up with the leader, but instead he just slowed it down. Paul went around him fairly quickly as I said out loud, “this is slow”. It was slow, we threw in a 66 to go from 4:14 (1600m) to 5:20 (2km). The Qatari fell off of us really fast and it was just Paul and I. I did most of the leading and we (Paul and I) went through 3km in 8:04, about four seconds behind the leader. Paul actually apologized during the race that he wasn’t able to lead as he was just hanging on. Then I continued to lead a really slow KM (2:47) and we split 10:51 at 4km. Paul did the math and realized we needed a 2:36 last KM to get the 13:28 b standard and made a strong move past me. I passed him back with just under a lap to go and I ran a 60. to cross the line in 13:29.94, six seconds behind the winner and just over 1 second ahead of Paul.
I’m happy with that result as thats the first time this season I’ve been in that zone and it is my second fastest 5000m ever. A little disspointed that I missed the B standard by less than 2 seconds, oh well. The other good thing is that I feel with a better field I could have held onto a faster pace for much of the middle of the race when I was leading lap after lap. I should get better competition in Heusden.
| 1 |
82 |
Beday, Ahmed |
M |
1979 |
M |
1 |
MAR |
13:23,68 |
|||
| 2 |
92 |
Coolsaet, Reid |
M |
1979 |
M |
2 |
CAN |
13:29,94 |
|||
| 3 |
90 |
Morrison, Paul |
M |
1980 |
M |
3 |
CAN |
13:31,09 |
|||
| 4 |
120 |
Zhaman, Sultan Khamis |
M |
1985 |
M |
4 |
QAT |
13:58,10 |
|||
| 5 |
81 |
Merrien, Lee |
M |
1979 |
M |
5 |
GBR |
14:00,16 |
|||
| 6 |
83 |
Rizki, Monder |
M |
1979 |
M |
6 |
BEL |
14:01,86 |
|||
| 7 |
93 |
Them, Henrik |
M |
1982 |
M |
7 |
DEN |
14:03,25 |
|||
| 8 |
87 |
Murray, Gary |
M |
1980 |
M |
8 |
IRL |
14:08,90 |
|||
| 9 |
91 |
Maher, Bryan |
M |
1977 |
M |
9 |
IRL |
14:13,15 |
|||
| 10 |
95 |
Faurschou, Jesper |
M |
1983 |
M |
10 |
DEN |
14:18,61 |
|||
| 11 |
86 |
Summerville, Dale |
M |
1981 |
M |
12 |
NZE |
14:30,89 |
|||
| 12 |
117 |
Preststulen, Jon André |
M |
1976 |
M |
13 |
NOR |
14:45,39 |
|||
| 13 |
94 |
Kleis, Mikkel |
M |
1980 |
M |
14 |
DEN |
14:56,32 |
|||
|
88 |
Smith , Brett |
M |
1985 |
M |
11 |
NZE |
14:23,05 |
||||
|
114 |
Chirchir, Eric |
M |
1983 |
M |
KEN |
DNF |
Aarhus result
roll with the punches
This trip could of started off a lot smoother. My flight into Aarhus, Denmark was supposed to land at 10:20pm… we got in about 11:30pm. And then I waited around a long time for my bag, watching the conveyor belt go round and round. And round and round and stop. No effing bag! Luckily I packed spikes, singlet, shorts and trainers (trainers usually don’t come on board with me) so I have the necessities. A nice guy from the meet was there to pick me up and he was happy to drive my friends from New Zealand who didn’t have a ride arranged. I didn’t get into the hotel until close to 1am. This kind of stuff happens and you just have to deal with it. It always helps when I look at the big picture and the stuff that really counts (health, safety, family, friends etc.).
This morning I went shopping thanks to my credit cards travel insurance policy and picked up a couple things to run with. They don’t carry Reebok in Aarhus so it seems as though Milne might get some product while he patiently awaits his NB package. The hotel is really nice and the weather report looks promising for tomorrow’s race so I’m thinking that things can only get better from here. There’s a whole bunch of athletes here I know and its fun to catch up and see whats been happening in the past year. Also, Aarhus is a great city! Looking for running gear, boxers and shirts this morning I was really impressed with the shops, buildings, restaurants etc.
There is this guy, Mahir, from Izmir, Turkey. He claims Borat stole his persona… I would agree. Too bad I didn’t meet Mahir when I was in Izmir a couple years back. http://www.istanbul.tc/mahir/mahir/
mind the gap
All alone in the coffee shop today. The last couple of days I’ve been here with Kiwi’s and Aussies but they’ve left for a race in Ostrava. Carmen Douma-Hussar and her husband we’re also here yesterday but today they are exploring the english countryside. If you want to catch up on the weather I’ve been having here just check out Wimbledon as I’m pretty close by. Anyways, its been raining quite a bit and sometimes only getting up to 15… I guess I’ll take that over scorching hot temps right now. There are tons of runners around here as I saw a few Kenyans in Bushy Park and Mo Farah on my way back to the B&B. They should put on a race right here at St. Mary’s as there are probably 10-15 guys who could break 13:20 right here in Teddington.
Finally got a proper 11pm to 8:30am sleep last night. No waking up for a couple hours in the middle of the night was nice. So now I should be used to the time difference. I have one small track session (300’s and 200’s) tomorrow before I leave. My session on sunday went well as I hit (or came close enough) to my targets. With getting over travel and coming into my taper I should only feel better come race time. Last week was still 140km (86 miles) but, since I travelled later in the week the mileage was front-end loaded.
I rode on the upper deck of a double decker bus yesterday to do a little tourist stuff since I’m here. And I’m quite enjoying the accent here. Instead of saying eh they say right.
The startlists are up! 2 guys with 13:09 PB’s, a 13:15 guy, one more Moroccan (who should be good since he’s coming all the way from Morocco) and then myself and Paul Morrison. The good part is that there is a rabbit supposed to go through 3000m in 8:03.
upcoming blogs:
Triathletes and their need to wear visors. With guest writers.
My mom being the number 1 for comments on my blog: pride vs. embarrasment.
Paul Morrison and his love of funny names.
London Calling
Man are things expensive here in Teddington. I just had dinner at an Indian restaurant and my bill came to 14 pounds… that’s about $30 for dinner, with a tap water. It was a good meal and I still wonder why nan bread can’t taste like this in Canada? Now I’m sitting in a cafe and the wireless here costs 10 pounds a day ($22), luckily I’m able to connect to a free server in the area.
My first run here felt fine for the first 5km then I started to feel tired and hungry from the day of travelling. There are tons of parks and trails here and all very close to where I’m staying. Interesting enough, Kelly Holmes stayed at the same B&B before the Sydney Olympics where she got a bronze medal. I had to sleep for an hour and a half this afternoon so I hope I’ll be able to get to sleep at a decent hour tonight and get used to the time change. The B&B I’m staying at is quite nice and reasonable.
On Wednesday at St. James I set PB’s over 600m, 1:24 and 500m, 1:10. I still felt a little slow compared to Milne’s 1:21. It was a good workout for the whole group and it felt good to really turn it over. Workouts like that remind me that the big races are coming up and its time for a little taper. I’ll do one more decent workout and one small sharpening session before the race next Friday.
Cheerio
Shadrack Wins the Benz
It was an exciting race last night as Shadrack Korir pulled off a very quick last lap to run 3:56 and win the Mercedes. I ran my fastest time on that track in the three years I’ve raced there and it felt easier than the other years. I think I was 4:10 but haven’t seen the official results (edit: 4:10.31). My splits were pretty even as they were all 62-63.low without a kick as I was all alone my last two laps. Right after the race Cal Staples (my training partner) started asking me questions with a video camera and I was joking around with him. At the end of the interview he told me it was for Flotrack. I thought he was just goofing as opposed to a real interview, so I started to think about the crap I just said… well it isn’t too bad. Interview.
On thursday I head off to Europe where I sill stay in London for 5 days and then head to Arhus, Denmark and race a 5000 on June 29th. Once again I think racing the shorter stuff is going to help my 5000 and I was pleased with the way I felt last night. The race came at the end of a good week of training where I had a Fartlek session Monday, long track intervals Wednesday, in the 30C heat, and by the time I’m done my long run this afternoon I should cover 145km for the week.
FLOCASTS to cover Cambridge Mile
Mark from Flocasts is in town to cover the Cambridge Mercedes-Benz Mile. Flocasts has been doing a great job of covering track and field this year and its great that the Cambridge Mile is getting some exposure. With Shadrack Korir running 3:52 for a mile last weekend it is likely that he will drive away with a new car (ie. take the cash equivalent) tonight if he has a good race. For me… well it should be fun to mix it up a bit with some world class milers and get the wheels spinning.
—–I had to pay good money for them to say nice things about me in the press release so I thought I’d post it here too. More bang for my buck —–
Reid Coolsaet joins the field
Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:00:00 EST
 |
One of Canada’s most accomplished distance runners Reid Coolsaet (Rbk) will compete in his 3rd Classic Mile event. coming off a tremendous 27:56 clocking for 10k this year Coolsaet is in fantastic shape and will step down to the mile distance on June 16th. |
FLOAT ON 