Archives for April 2014

April 24, 2014

With the annual Penn Relays Carnival taking place this weekend in Philadelphia, I figured this would be a good time to share one of my Penn Relays memories. Having grown up in the Philly suburbs, I attended the meet fairly frequently, although I never competed there.

The year that stands out the most to me is 1991. I was in my last year as a hurdler at nearby Cheyney State University. Four of my teammates would be competing in the 4×4 against other DII schools. So I hopped into my Chevette, picked up my girlfriend and my hurdling partner and drove into the city to support my teammates.

Three things stand out to me about that meet, and I’ll list them in no particular order:

The biggest shock came when Carl Lewis and his 4×1 teammates on the Santa Monica Track Club walked onto the track in skin-tight, skin-colored uniforms that created the illusion that they were about to run the race butt naked. Now that they had everyone’s attention, they went out and blasted the competition in a dominant performance. read more

April 20, 2014

David Oliver’s hurdling style has often been compared to that of two-time Olympic champion Roger Kingdom, and in the two photos above you can see why. In a previous post I discussed Oliver’s “shoulder lean” style based on the above photo (on the left), and you can see that Kingdom (on the right) had a similar shoulder lean, putting his upper body weight over his lead leg, pushing that leg back to the ground, thereby reducing hurdle clearance time.

In these two photos, Oliver and Kingdom are almost at the exact same point of clearance. I would say though that Oliver is a slightly improved version of Kingdom. D.O.’s trail arm is tighter, with the elbow rising straight up for a quick punch back up instead of flaring out for balance. His lead leg is descending whereas Kingdom’s is straighter. Oliver’s lean over the thigh is deeper. And although the trail legs are almost identical, D.O.’s ankle is flexed so that his toe is pointing up. read more

April 17, 2014

“You can’t make a living running track.” That’s what one of my friends said to me one fall night in my sophomore year of college. He was laughing. I had just gotten back to the dorm after doing a set of 10×150 on the track by the light of the moon. We were a small DIII school; official practice wouldn’t start until after first semester exams. So in the fall I did much of my training on my own. That time of year I preferred to run at night because I could pretty much have the track all to myself. I was the only fool who liked to train in the dark.

That night I had a particularly exhilarating workout. I had been able to hit my target time for all ten reps without adding  a longer recovery period in the last few reps. I felt like I was really rounding into shape and that I was on pace to reach my goals.

So I walked into the dorm on a runner’s high, feeling like I could run another ten 150’s. But as soon as I hit the door, my friend – a pre-med student – grimaced when he saw my sweaty frame. And I’m sure I didn’t smell all that great either. read more

April 14, 2014

I was listening to the song “Shoulder Lean” by Young Dro last night as I was putting together the finishing touches of the latest issue of The Hurdle Magazine. As the hook settled into my consciousness – “let your shoulder lean, shoulder lean” – I found myself unconsciously relating the message to hurdling. Let your shoulder lean.

I found myself thinking back to my college days, when I was adjusting to running over 42’s. To avoid hitting hurdles while still maintaining momentum, I learned to shift my weight slightly to my lead leg side as I took off. So, as a right-leg lead, the right hip was slightly in front of my left hip, and my right shoulder was slightly in front of my left shoulder.

Both hips and both shoulders were still facing the front. I wasn’t twisting my hips or shoulders. But by shifting my weight to the lead leg side, I felt like I had more power and speed going into the hurdle. And as long as my trail leg didn’t delay in driving to the front, I never had any issues with balance. read more

April 9, 2014

In my senior year of high school, my coach would have the hurdlers – all three of us – run one 400 at the end of every workout as a way of improving our late-race endurance. One day, for like the third time in two weeks, only two of us lined up to run the rep. When our coach asked us where the third kid went, we answered that we didn’t know, but “I think he went to the bathroom,” my teammate said.

Coach hesitated for a second, scowling at the fact that this kid was ducking the hardest part of the workout yet again. But then Coach’s face lightened as he shrugged and said, “that’s par for the course.” He had the two of us line up and we ran the rep.

Our coach could have had sent someone to the locker room to bring the delinquent hurdler back to the track and demand that he either complete the rep or face a harsh punishment. That’s exactly what a lot of coaches would have done, and many would argue that it’s what he should’ve done in order to maintain his authority. read more