Breaking records during a workout?

I certainly wish I could break some records but then again I am not an elite athlete.

This is just amazing stuff:

Dathan Ritzenhein exceeded the U.S. record for 10 miles on Monday in a workout.

The U.S. record holder in the 5,000 meters is gearing up for the World Half-Marathon Championships in Birmingham, England on Oct. 11.

Ritzenhein covered the 10 miles in 45 minutes, 3 seconds -- running 4:30.3 per mile. He did half the workout on the track and half of it on the road. Alberto Salazar administered the workout.

How good is that?

Consider that Deriba Merga's world record for 15K was recently ratified at 41:29. That was en route to a half-marathon. Ritzenhein ran 41:45 for his final 15K on Monday's 10-miler.

I would be willing to bet that something very special is going to happen at the World Half-Marathon Championships. Let's just hope the weather is good for running.

Two Amazing 100 meter performances

Over the weekend the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix 2009 saw something special from the United States two best 100 meter sprinters.

On the women's side Carmelita Jeter ran a 10.64, the second fastest time ever for a woman.

because a possible error in the anemometer that measures wind at track meets.

On the men's side Tyson Gay is healthy again and proving that he can compete with Usain Bolt by running a 9.69.



These athletes are setting us up nicely for next year's competitions and for the 2012 Olympics in London. Just wow!

It was quite something. In fact the only time faster was Florence Griffith-Joyner's time in 1988 which has been deemed as "probably strongly wind assisted, but recognised as a world record"

13 minute 5k

Imagine seeing someone run faster than you are going in your car for three straight miles. Well in most parking lots or school zones that exactly what Matt Tegenkamp did in his sub 13 minute 5k in Brussels.

Here is him talking about the difficulty of such an accomplishment:

Bolt may go for four

If Usain Bolt wants to be a legend then the 2012 London Olympics may be his best chance to prove that he belongs in the company of Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens.

After providing the track and field community with blistering world record speeds in Beijing and most recently in Berlin, Bolt now says he would be open to a fourth event in the 2012 games. It would more than likely fall between choosing the long jump in footpaths of Lewis and Owens or adding the 400 meter race into his repertoire.

Bolt said he has such faith in his coach that he would go against his own wishes if Mills thought it would be better for him to tackle the 400 rather that the long jump. Owens and Lewis each added the long jump to their three sprint events.

Bolt already ran some 400s early in the season to boost his stamina for the 200.

“It really gives you speed and endurance,” the Jamaican sprinter said. “The 400 I don’t want to do, but I think I’ll do it in the future because my coach can be very convincing. And he’ll find some argument for me to do it.”

Bolt would prefer the long jump, relying on his natural speed to send him flying.

“I think I would be pretty good. I tried it when I was young, just messing around,” he said.

It will be a decision that will not come for a few more years and one that will have to be decided between Bolt and his coach. But it is one that many of us look forward to hearing, let alone seeing in 2012. Greatness

A comeback for Gaitlin?

The 2004 Gold Medalist Justin Gaitlin is supposedly considering making a comeback when his four year suspension for testing positive for an illegal performance enhancer ends in 2010.

Gatlin, once on the verge of becoming one of the best U.S. sprinters in history, is now planning to salvage his career and hopes to return to global dominating glory at the age of 28.

His agent, former high hurdles world record holder Renaldo Nehemiah, admits Gatlin faces some formidable barriers in his rare return.

“It’s not impossible, but you have to look at it that he’s still banned from competing in any IAAF meets that will keep him competitively fit,” he said during a phone interview. “We’ve been discussing his options. This is unprecedented.”

It certainly would be unprecedented and nearly impossible for him to comeback at the top. It appears that he would have train with college meets because he is banned at the USA Track and Field sanctioned events.

I know one thing for sure Gaitlin is incredibly fast - performance enhancers or not. I would like to see him some back when his suspension ends but maybe with some more frequent drug testing with the risk of being banned for life if testing positive again. Now we just have to wait until July of 2010.

Walk champ tests positive

This is something that I might try to follow a little bit since drug use, or performance enhancers, have been dragging down track and field.

Athanasia Tsoumeleka, the 20-kilometer walk champion at the 2004 Athens Games, tested positive for a banned blood-booster in a retesting of a sample she provided two days before the Beijing Olympics.

Ouch! At this point it doesn't seem that her Athens performance was aided with any illegal substances but the second test reveals that her Beijing performance was indeed. But her positive test was just one of over a dozen for Greek athletes. Somethings seems rotten but what do we really know if we are unable to compare the ratio of positive tests to athletes with each country.

Tsoumeleka's positive test result was the latest affecting Greek athletes.

Fani Halkia, the 2004 Olympic 400-meter hurdles champion, was dropped from the team in Beijing and expelled from the athletes' village after testing positive for an anabolic steroid. Fourteen other Greeks, including 11 weightlifters, tested positive for the same substance before the Olympics.

Wow. Tsoumeleka also announced that she is retiring from competition. I would certainly hate to go out that way.