Teg ain't run no 10k? "The ten will come."

THX to RunnersWorld

Matt Tegenkamp, who joined an august and elite group when he broke the 13:00 barrier for 5000 meters by running 12:58.56 in Brussels on September 4, will do the USA 5K on the roads in Providence, Rhode Island on Sunday and the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile in New York on September 26. He was second in Providence behind Anthony Famiglietti in 2008; he was third on Fifth Avenue when Canada's Kevin Sullivan won in 2006. Tegenkamp won the 5000 at the 2009 USATF Championships in 13:20.57; at the World Championships in Berlin, he was second in his semifinal in 13:19.87 and eighth in the final in 13:20.23. He was 13th in the 2008 Beijing Olympics after placing fourth in the 2007 World Championships in Osaka. Tegenkamp established an American record of 8:07.07 for two miles at the Prefontaine Classic in 2007. He was the USA Indoor 3000-meter champion in 2007 and 2008 and has a best of 7:34.98 for that distance. He was also the 2005 USATF Club Cross Country Champion. Tegenkamp. now 26, is originally from Missouri and is a 2005 graduate of the University of Wisconsin. He and is wife Michelle have now moved to Portland, Oregon, where he continues to work with his former college Coach Jerry Schumacher, who is now employed by Nike; his training group includes former Wisconsin star Chris Solinsky, who was 13th in the 5000 at the 2009 World Championships.

When did you first think you were ready to break 13:00 in the 5000 - in general, but then specifically as you progressed through this season's meets?
Matt Tegenkamp: I think it showed all the way back in 2006 that I definitely had the potential, and that's been our focus ever since I had that major breakthrough when I ran 7:34 (for 3000 meters) and 13:04. From that point, it was a matter of getting in the right race and training going pretty much perfect. Things have to go very, very well to compete on that level. I had some ups and downs. Once we got to '07, with '07, '08, and '09 being (international) championship years, we definitely chose to focus on the championship races. And if the time came in terms of performance, that was an added bonus. We were trying to maximize our opportunities at the championship races. I will always believe that medals are more important than time. I'm pretty young, still. Jerry, as a coach, is very young. We're both still learning. And this year, we were able to take the things we learned from '07 and '08, some of the stuff that for me, I know, I could improve on as an athlete, and found a way to mesh focusing on the championships races as well as maximizing the opportunities (for fast times) if we got in the right races.

So after the World Championships were over, was this 5000 in Brussels the one you viewed the optimal opportunity to go under 13:00? Did you line up that day figuring "this is the day that it can happen?"
MT: The track season had gone great. I showed at Heusden that I was in really good shape, running 13:07. The U.S. Championships went great. We knew we were on top of our game. Brussels, because it was part of the Golden League, could have been a 3k or a 5k (Kenenisa Bekele, who swept six Golden League races, could have requested that it be a 3k). If Brussels had become a 3k, then Rieti (Italy) probably would have been a possibility (for the 5000). So we were really up in the air what events we would be going to. But at the end of the season, we definitely wanted to get in one fast 5k and really lay it on the line.

Obviously, in Brussels, Bekele was going to go out hard, and then there was the group behind him. Did you feel it was very important for you to make sure that pace didn't dawdle, or were you very confident that that group was going to continue at sub 13:00 pace?
MT: Well, like I said, I can't really worry about going into a race with a specific time in mind. For me, it's all about competition. The more and more that I can compete with these guys. It doesn't matter what style of race it is. If it was slow that night and it came down to the last 600 meters of a kick, that is a huge valuable experience. In all likelihood, in a 5000 that's a huge money race for Bekele, we figured it was going to be a pretty honest race. In the past, it's always been between Zurich or Brussels as to who had the world lead (leading time) after those two races. It (Brussels) was definitely a little bit slower than Zurich this year, but still, it was definitely a great race.

Looking at the guys who finished from second to seventh in that race (Tegenkamp was seventh), is the difference between you and the other guys that you were working a little harder until 400 meters to go, or was it that they had a little bit more finishing speed at this point?
MT: I definitely know that I left some seconds on the track that night. I knew where I was with a k (kilometer) to go. I saw 10:24 on the clock. Bekele was out in front quite a bit and the pack that I was in, two through seven, started to catch him. Once we caught him, the pace slowed quite a bit. After sitting back, I was kind of kicking myself. I could have kept going at the same pace that we'd been running and probably still finished just as well, still running 1:58 or 1:59 for the last 800. That's something that is great, that I was able to pull that away from the race to use next time that I'm in a race like that.

You did run 13:07 earlier in the season. Can you describe how, in a physical sense, a 13:07 feels different from a 12:58, or is just a matter of being alert to changing the pace when you need to? Physically, does it feel at all like a different experience?
MT: Well, from 13:04 (his PR from 2006) to 12:58 is a half a second a lap, so it's not something that you notice is a whole lot different. But it was a whole new experience, a six-second PR for me that night. When the race started slowing down, I was a little bit tentative. It was uncharted territory for me and I knew that I was able to run that, but it was still "kind of conserve a little bit." It switched over from knowing where I was at timewise to trying to beat as many guys as I can. But overall, the legs aren't more tired and you're not breathing any harder. The races are very similar. It's just that you have to buckle down and keep your composure when you get to uncharted territory, so to speak.

Psychologically, did it have much of an effect on you that Dathan Ritzenhein (who ran 12:56.27) had gotten to the 13:00 barrier just a week before you ran in Brussels?
MT: The 12:58 was a huge goal (Bob Kennedy's American record, before Ritzenhein broke it, was 12:58.21). I've been definitely wanting that record for quite awhile, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous that Ritz ran a spectacular race. He ran a phenomenal race and definitely motivated me. It was something that I thought I could do regardless, getting under 13:00 and getting close to Kennedy's record. But it was definitely a motivating factor just for being competitive and not wanting to be outrun.

Could you really explain in brief what, this season, really got you to the 12:58?MT: We've made the transition from Madison to Portland and there's been a big change in training. Jerry Schumacher laid it out there and said we're going to ride that red line regardless of worrying about injuries. They could happen, but we need to be smart about them. That's one of the transitions that came about with Portland. Injuries can happen but here (at Nike) we can do everything possible to prevent them. we've got the medical know-how behind us to help us out. And then another huge thing was our exposure to altitude. We were in Flagstaff in the States and then at St, Moritz when we were over in Europe.

When you talk about redlining and working harder, I assume that applies across the board. Does it have a lot more to do, say, with more hard long intervals than before, as opposed to increased mileage?
MT: I don't want to be too specific. I didn't really increase my mileage too much in terms of my highest mileage of the year or anything like that. I was much higher consistently throughout the year. I didn't drop my mileage nearly as much during the racing period. So that helps keep a lot of strength around. And yes, we've done much longer tempo runs and interval sessions. We've got a good system going now...and very short rest between a lot of the stuff.

You're going back to Sunday's USA 5K. Can you tell us what that course is like? It's not pancake flat, is it? And having seen what Famiglietti did last year, are you going to watch him a little differently this time?
MT: I definitely was a rookie on the roads. It definitely showed. The course is relatively flat. From 200 meters (left), there's a pretty substantial hill for 100 meters, and then it flattens out and you've got 100 meters to the finish. If you don't have your legs, that's going to hurt a lot. That's what happened to me a little bit last year. I went out too hard and didn't leave anything for the finish. Fam just ran a smart race and worked his way up. I just tried to rest up a little bit because I knew the hill was coming up, and by the time he caught me (with about 800 meters to go), he kept moving right along and never let me get composure. I'll definitely race a lot smarter this year. It should be a great race. There's a really good quality field assembled.

Based on everything you've done this year and how you feel after all this work, do you think you're ready for the kind of speed the Fifth Avenue Mile (on September 26) requires?
MT: Oh yeah, definitely, there's no doubt in my mind. The only place I really showed the speed, that the kick is still there, was at USAs this year. We did a 53 low last lap and ended up running 13:20. There haven't been many 1500s or miles on the schedule this year. I definitely don't think it will be a problem at all.

Fifth Avenue's a wide thoroughfare, and it seems like there can be six or seven guys making a move in the last ten meters.
MT: When I was there, I took over the lead with about 300 meters to go. It's so much different on the track. To keep your drive and momentum going and just throw it all out, you just don't have those markers like you have on the track. So It just seems so much longer. You think you're going all out, but you always tend to slow down a little bit as you keep going. It's definitely very different tactics on the road, but it's why it's really a lot of fun to finish off the season like this. It brings a lot of variety in.

After Providence and New York, will you be taking a break of some kind?
MT: Yeah. The way the season ended was definitely on high note. You don't feel as beat up or as mentally stressed out - which is great. It's awesome the way things worked out this year. I think the break will be pretty light. I went through injuries all last winter. I need to keep it going. Obviously, we're not going to do anything crazy. The training's going to be scaled back and go into base phase. We'll just try to keep consistency and keep improving my aerobic system.

And the next racing won't be until January, perhaps?
MT: It could be as early as January. It may not. We'll figure out at some point during the indoor season.

For Americans, there is no major international championship in 2010. What will that mean to you as a racer? Could it mean you'll want to get in some races where the goal is time and maybe some risks are taken?
MT: Everybody wants to comment, with our system, about how we don't race enough. I don't think that will be an issue next year. You definitely have to pick your moments. The last race that's scheduled is August 27, so the season is two and half weeks shorter. And there's still technically a break because of European Championships. So the races get sandwiched in pretty quick. I think what we want to focus on is running fast, and running fast consistently a week apart from each other. That will help us when we get to championships and run two races in four days. Time is definitely the focus, but it's also about being comfortable over those last 800 meters so we can be composed and run a 55 or 54-second last lap so we can really compete and finish high.

We really have to ask about the letsrun.com obsession, which is the Tegenkamp 10k question. Do you have any plans to do a 10,000 on the track?
MT: Obviously, it's something I keep bugging Jerry about wanting to do. The ten is a pretty brutal event. That's why they're run so rarely during the season. If you look, there are probably three quality 10ks (on the track). It's really hard right now. We're focusing right now on running very fast in the 3k and 5k, and even next year running some 1500s. The ten will come. It's definitely an event I need to learn. I think if I keep focusing on five and getting that time down, the ten will come much easier.

Are there some things you look forward to doing in October and November that you don't get to do the rest of the year?
MT: The last two years have been kind of a whirlwind with this transition out to Portland. I knew a year and a half in advance that it was going to happen. With that came the whole process of selling the house in Madison during this terrible economic time. And then moving out here (to Portland) and finding a place. By the time we find a place in March, my whole stint of altitude training and traveling in Europe came about. I just want to feel settled in Portland and learn all about Portland, Oregon. We constantly hear that there's so much to do, it's a great place. And we want to make a house that we buy feel at home. There's not a lot of work to do but just put our own personal touches on it.