The day before Saturday's Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile in New York, we had the opportunity to sit down with four of the men's entrants and cover a range of topics. Nate Brannen of Canada, a former NCAA champion at the University of Michigan, was the 2006 Commonwealth Games 1500-meter silver medalist and a semi-finalist at the 2008 Olympics and 2009 World Championships; he was third in the Fifth Avenue Mile in 2008. Leo Manzano, a former University of Texas star, was second in the 1500 at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials and 2009 USATF Championships and 12th at the World Championships in Berlin. He was second at this month's World Athletics Final in Greece. Matt Tegenkamp's successful September include his first sub-13:00 clocking in the 5000, a 12:58.56 in Brussels, and a victory at the USA 5K in Providence; he was eighth in the 5000 at the World Championships and he was third in the Fifth Avenue Mile in 2006. Tegenkamp holds the American two-mile record of 8:07.07. Chris Solinsky, who is Tegenkamp's training mate in Portland, Oregon, won five NCAA titles at the University of Wisconsin; he was 12th in the 5000 at this year's World Championships.In Saturday's Fifth Avenue Mile, Manzano was third, Tegenkamp seventh, Solinsky eighth, and Brannen 14th.How much of being a good miler involves being able to deal with the traffic on the track, knowing where to position yourself and how to get out from the inside when you have to. One would imagine you've been in races where you don't get free of the traffic, right?
Nate Brannen: When it comes to championships racing, it's not who on paper is the fastest. It's positioning, where you are at the bell, how much traffic you ran into for the first 1200 and if you had a clean run, as opposed to someone else who was in the pack getting bumped around. The nice thing about championships racing is you can have a guy who's ranked 12th, 13th going in who finishes top three. That's why you race, to see who's the best in those conditions and those circumstances on that day.
Leo, have you had experiences when you can't get out of traffic on the track?
Leo Manzano: Yes sir. My prelim and my semifinal in Berlin, I thought went really really well. I was able to get in and out of traffic and just move around. I thought I had pretty good tactics. I made it to the final and I think I was just forcing it to much and got into some really tight traffic. It's kind of tough when you're running against the best in the world and there's all this pressure on you to perform. Usually, with 400 meters to go, everybody just wants to be up towards the front, and everything has to go into play to have good positioning and make a good move.
Do you prefer that kind of racing or a pace Grand Prix type race (in which runners tend to be strung out in a line, one behind the other)?
LM: It really depends.If I'm looking to run a good time, I'd really like to have a rabbit or get going. But I think in championships racing, it's very important for it to BE a race. Everybody has a different tactic. I don't want to say it's kind of like playing poker - who's going to go next, or when am I going to go? And everybody kind of keys off of everybody else.
Is the emphasis on times a matter of diminishing returns? If people go to races and they don't see a fast time, they'll say "ah, that kind of sucked." What do you guys think about that?
Matt Tegenkamp: There should be more of an emphasis on racing. It's great to see fast times. The world records now are so ridiculous. It's going to be few and far between, when you see those really improved, and it shouldn't be set up to go for it every single time, 'cause it's not going to happen. A fast time is great, but if you make it more of a championship style event in the Golden League or in the Diamond League next year, it's still exciting if you've got five guys with a quarter mile to go trying to battle it out. The crowd will still get into it quite a bit.
It's interesting how exciting the middle distance and distance races were at the world. They were fast, but they weren't super fast. But that ought to be enough for people. For the mile, there was a period when a 3:58, just because it was below 4:00, was noteworthy. But now, how many people really know what's the difference between a 3:49 and a 3:45 mile?
MT: Unless it has a WR in the paper the next day, they don't now how it's really related (ie, they can't relate to it). I don't care which way it goes, but actually competitive just RACING still has a lot of incentive.
Leo, you just took second at the World Athletics Final in Greece. It seems like you've been able to remain sharp until the end of the season.
LM: This year, the beginning of the year, my training was (designed) to maintain fitness throughout the year. We've done a lot of base work and strength worth so it would be possible to carry on into the finals and the Fifth Avenue Mile
Chris, how'd you feel when you walked away from your track season after Greece (Solinsky was sixth in the 3000 at the World Athletics Final)?
CS: It was a good capper on the track season. It was a season of ups and downs from me. It was a season of pretty good highs and mediocre lows. To finish off pretty well there was satisfying. It let me know that there's still more to come. It was a kicker's race, and that gave me a little bit of confidence coming in here (to Fifth Avenue)
How will you guys approach next year? It's a non-Championship year.
NB: For these guys (the Americans) it is. We (Canadians) have Commonwealth Games (in India).
And that's late in the year?
NB: Mid to late October, yeah. I don't know, that could really change things. This year's not done. We haven't really talked about next year. It could really change when we start racing and training.
Not that you need to, but have you really settled the issue of whether you're an 800 or 1500-meter runner?
NB: Yeah. You can't train the eight and the 15 together. It's one or the other. Even in college, I trained for the 1500/3k and ran the eight., just to keep me and Nick (Willis) separated. But, yeah, it's 1500 (now) with the odd eight in there.
Matt, What's your outlook for next year?
MT: I'm not sure about the winter yet. We may choose between indoor and cross (country). And then in the outdoor season ,there's the U.S., Championships, but it not being an (international championship) year, we don't have to run our primary event. We can choose to drop down if we want. Going into the season. We can try and get comfortable running fast over and over again. That 13:00, we can do it three times over the summer.... And we don't have any defined points we necessarily have to peak for. If we can get more comfortable running fast races, it's only going to help us when championship races come along.
Could there be talk between the various camps in this country, yours and Dathan Ritzenhein's and Bernard Lagat's, saying "why don't we set up an American race where we try to shoot for 12:50?"
MT: I think next year, because of the Diamond League, New York will end up having a five (5000) and Pre will have a three. So there will be some great races here in the U.S. next year, especially with Pre being a week after U.S. nationals.
Have any of you given thought to going down to Australia and New Zealand for what is their summer season?
NB: Yeah, I was supposed to last year and tore my plantar and missed that. That's the plan me and Nick (Willis) and Rob Myers, our training partner, had, to go there for two months and do some racing but most of all get the warm weather training there instead of going somewhere south in the U.S. Nick had that plan just because he's from New Zealand and wanted to go back each there. He's trying to get a bunch of us there, to have a bunch of American-based guys go there and get some good races in.
Can you fill us in on Nick's progress? At one point, he said he wanted to come back and run the 800 at the Worlds because he calculated he wouldn't be ready for the 1500, just a few days earlier. And then he said he wanted to come back for this Fifth Avenue Mile.
NB: Nick gets all these ideas in his head, way before he should be thinking about that stuff. It's good, though, because it gives him something to keep going for. But about four weeks ago, he decided not to do this race. I think he's fit enough (that) he could come here and challenge for a good place. He's running up to 15 miles a day. He's basically fully back painfree. He just hasn't done any workouts (ie intervals or speedwork) though. He's getting his mileage up. He's ready to go. He's fit and he'll be good to go for next year.
Leo, How does training with Shannon Rowbury work out for you?
LM: It's a bundle of fun every day. She's just very positive about everything. She's a great person and we keep ourselves motivated and always look forward to working together. Both of our workouts are always different, but we always finish our workouts with cooldowns or strength sessions in the gym.
Her flexibility drills are pretty impressive. Can you do all that stuff?
LM: Probably not. I don't think I'm as flexible as she is.
To counteract tightness in hips and back that are inevitable from all of this straight ahead running, what do you you do?
NB: Physio, massage, chiro (chiropractic). It's really a 24/7 thing. Proper sleeping and eating, that sort of thing. Everything to help recover ultimately helps your range of motion.
And Matt and Chris, you must have more opportunities for that kind of support now in Portland.
MT: We were doing a lot before in Madison. Pascal Dobert (a former USATF steeplechase champion) had been working with a physical therapy group in Indianapolis and he came back to Madison and worked with us.Just strength work using your own body weight, similar to Pilates. It combines Yoga and a whole bunch of different stuff. Yeah, we've definitely increased it (in Portland)
CS: We can get to the (Nike) campus at 9:00 (a.m.). I've gone there all day to 4:00. You do stuff and grab lunch and have another session and then go for your run and then you head home.
Would there be any reason you'd go on the Alter-G treadmill even during a healthy period, when you weren't rehabbing an injury?
CS: Supplemental mileage. If you want to increase your mileage but somehow not beat yourself up so much, you can jump on there and get an extra five miles in where it doesn't completely beat up your legs so much.
THX RunnersWorld!
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