Season has come to an end

So the season is over. It ended pretty well though. I placed 3rd at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. I was obviously aiming for first, but i simply was not able to put it together. But i am happy for at least picking up another medal for Puerto Rico. It was very important that i do so, and i got the job done.

Mayaguez was cool. Id never been to the city but it was nice. Its mostly country, and its nice to get away from the big crazy city of San Juan every now and then.

I also ran on the 4x100 meter relay. We fell short, as we were not able to medal, but we had some of the stiffest competition and we held our own so we are content for now. Our sticks still need some improvement, but for not having any real "studs" on our relay, i feel we run pretty damn good. We ran 39.18 which is just shy of the National Record we ran in Ponce back in May. I believe our relay finished top 10 in the world as far as National Teams are concerned, so that is good too.

I would love to be competing right now. But in all honestly i an kind of drained. I will take a 2 month break, and head back to training in October. Only thing is ill be with a new coach and training partner.

The Athletic Director at the school i train at has decided we can no longer use the facilities. Its a risk i took in moving to Raleigh, because i knew there was a very good possibility we could be in this situation, but its a risk and a choice i dont regret.

After speaking with coach McGill, we both decided it would be best i find a new coach and training group. NOT because we cant get the job done in Raleigh, but because things would be incredibly difficult under our current situation. On top of McGill being a coach he is a full time English teacher. We could try to practice at a local track (NC STATE, ST. Augustines) but we feel it would only be a matter of time before we ran into the same situation, and where kicked off the grounds.

Coach feels i should be in a more stable situation, where i can get the attention i need and have access to the facilities necessary to reach the top. This is the thing i like most about coach. He is not too "proud" he doesnt care who is taking credit for his athletes success, or if they achieve success under his supervision, he simply wants his athletes to succeed and is TRULY truly happy when they do.

I am currently looking to move to Los Angeles to train with Coach Larry Wade, and former American record holder Dominique Arnold. After speaking with Coach Wade, and Coach McGill, we've decided he would be the best fit. He has the knowledge of the event, the sport, the business side, and as everything in place for an athlete to reach his potential. Id have one of the very best in a training partner, and all the facilities necessary to succeed in the sport.

At the current moment i am looking to get there by September, get comfortable, get to know some people, and start training for 2011 in October.

So although i planned on being in Raleigh with Coach McGIll for the rest of my athletic career, it seems i will be heading out again. But i learned a lot and i am grateful for having had the opportunity to finally make it down here. Although things didnt go as planned i still feel i had a pretty decent season.

National Record in the 110 High Hurdles-13.54 seconds
Personal best in the 100 Meter Dash- 10.37
National Record in the 4x100 Meter Relay- 39.15
Ibero American GOLD
Central American And Caribbean Championships BRONZE
World Indoor Champ Semi-Finalist
World Champ A standard (110HH)
Olympic A Standard (110HH)

I am a very optimistic, and so i am expecting everything to work out for the best. If all goes as planned, i will be updating the blog in a month with more details on the move.

Ibero-American Champ

I am the 2010 Ibermo-American Champ!

First an update on whats been happening..

After the meet at Duke, i traveled back to NC A&T to run a not very pleasing 13.67 in the hurdles. I then traveled to Mt. Sac Relays in California to run a very disappointing 13.73.

At NC A&T i ran the 100 meter dash for the first time EVER and ran 10.65 in the prelims, and 10.55 in the finals. I knew i could run a lot faster because in the first race i popped up after 10 meters, and in the final i sat in the blocks and had to chase everyone down. So i decided id run the 100 again at Mt. Sac to see if i could improve upon the 10.55. I ended up running a 10.37 with a perfect start and so i was very pleased. I have not ran the 100 since though, because running the 100 causes problems with my 110 hurdles. In the 100 meter dash you want to have a very high knee lift so as to gain lots of ground with every stride. But the hurdles limit you to only 3 strides every 9 or so meters, and getting your knees very high is the LAST thing you wanna do. And so my 100 meter running days are over.. For this year at least. I will run the 100 again next year, but only through April. My goal next year will be to break the standing record of 10.28 seconds in Puerto Rico. I am pretty sure i can do it, i just need to get a couple more opportunities.

After Mt. Sac i headed to Puerto Rico for 4 weeks and then Spain for another week. In Puerto Rico i ran at the Ponce Grand Prix, and ran a very horrible 13.8 to finish 5th in the hurdles. I also ran the 4x100 meter relay (first leg) and we ran a National Record of 39.15 seconds. I will continue to run the 4x100 meter relay as we are certain we can get well into the 38s and we are looking forward to running at some bigger meets such as the Pan Am Games, World Champs, and of course the Olympics... While in Puerto Rico i also competed at our National Track meet, where i won the hurdles in 13.73 seconds.

From Puerto Rico i headed to San Fernando, Spain for the Ibero-American Championships. The meet is held every other year and this was my first year competing. In the semi-final i cruised to a second place finish behind Spains jackson Quinonez and a time of 13.84 seconds. I tried to focus on technique and used it more so as a practice session than a race.

The final was the following day and i had to put all thinking aside and simple compete. I was first out of the block and over the first 4 hurdles (as usual) but over the 5th and into the 6th i did what i have been doing all year long. I ran up on the hurdle and made an adjustment in midflight to keep from crashing the hurdle, and it allowed the pact to catch up. I did my best to stay ahead and ended up crossing the line in 13.54s for Gold and a New National Record.

I had been addressing the mid-race issues before heading to Puerto Rico, but while in Puerto Rico i was forced to train by myself with no coach and so i still have yet to fix the issues. So although i have made some progress, i still have a lot of room for improvement and so i am not content!

I am finally back in Raleigh with Coach McGill and things are getting back on track. I am finally getting that immediate feedback during practice sessions and these issue are getting fixed.

Next on the agenda is a local meet at UNC Charlotte. Its not a big meet, nor is it a very fast track, but its another opportunity to get over 10 hurdles and work towards my goals. After Friday i have no guaranteed meets other then the very important Central American and Caribbean Championships in late July, that will be hosted by Puerto Rico.

The goal is Gold there, and so its time to get it in.

Duke Invitational

I ran at 2 different meets this past weekend. On Friday i headed to NC A&T to compete at the Aggie Relays. I headed up there with a training partner Carrington Queen. He ran in the first heat and in the prelim he crossed the finish line in 14.9x seconds, and the first thing that crossed my mind was "thats wrong". I brushed it off though and figured theyd quickly fix it as im sure they knew we werent running that slow. My prelim went off after his, I ran a decent race felt good technically wise but stopped the clock in 14.73 seconds. I knew immediately something was truly wrong with the timing system. I know what a slow time feels like, and despite the -2.5 wind i knew i wasnt capable of running so slow without making some serious errors. Last year in Colombia i did a complete front flip and ran half a second faster than 14.7 so i knew something was off. I thought about speaking with someone at the meet about it but decided not too. I knew not much would come from it so i just left it alone. The final was supposed to be run on Saturday at Noon but we decided to not run as we didnt wanna take a chance with another faulty system.

On Saturday i got the opportunity to race 2 more times, this time at the Duke Invitational. Im not a big fan of this track as it is very "spongy" and not suited for the sprints, but i figured they would at least have their timing system in check.

I ran a decent prelim in 13.87 seconds. I hit hurdle 6 nearly stumbled but was able to keep it together across the finish line. Hurdle 6 has been causing me problems lately but we are taking the proper steps towards fixing that. In the final i ran 13.62 for the win but felt it was a very bad race. My technique was not what it was in Raleigh last week and my last 2 hurdles in particular were just extremely slow. The only good thing i did in the race was compete, as i was neck and neck with Jamaican hurdler Eric Keddo over the 8th hurdle, but was able to keep my cool coming off the 10th to secure the win, as Eric pressed, hit the hurdle and crashed.

I actually learned from last weeks race not to rush. I knew it was gonna come down to the last 2 hurdles and the sprint to the finish line, so i just kept my cool over the second half and allowed that to keep me from making mistakes. Overall it was a pretty ugly race, but coach and I are pleased with how things are shaping up. We know i have a lot of room for improvement and whats even better is that we are certain most of my improvements will come within the next couple months.

I race again this weekend at NC A&T. I hope this time around the timing system is fixed.

Ready For Outdoors

World Indoor Champs didn't go so well, but i came away with a lot. I was finally able to piece together the technique coach has been teaching me since September and i finally got the hang of it. I wasn't too disappointed with the results at WIC because i know that was not the technique id been learning all year. I honestly did nothing right over there, yet my very first week back it all clicked again. Just goes to show that i really do need a good hurdle coach out there reminding me of the things i need to do. I am finally grasping things though so next time i have to travel 5 weeks and be without coaching i should be good to go.

After world champs i wanted to get away and just relax without thinking about or training for track for a couple days. So i decided to head to Ft. Lauderdale and visit my Brother Alex. It was a good time and i enjoyed spending time with my nephew. He is 16 months now and is running around getting into whatever he can get into. He likes to hide in the cupboards beneath the kitchen counter, and hide cell phones and keys in various places around the apartment. He is a cute kid and i hope i can head back to FL to visit before 2011.

While in Florida i did not train a single day but decided to compete at a meet down in Miami. I figured i might as well stay somewhat active and i figured running over 10 hurdles would be a good way to do so. I didnt run anything special but it was nice to get out there, and it was also nice to have my brother at the meet. It might actually be the first meet he'd ever seen me run at.

As soon as i arrived back in NC i headed straight to practice from the airport and jumped right into things. We had 8x110 meter runs in 12.4 seconds and i was very surprised to see that i was able to finish the workout without feeling as if i was out of shape. I had never been so happy to arrive in Raleigh, NC and practice made me feel even better, because it showed me i could pick up where i left off in February.

Last weekend coach had me run at the Raleigh Relays, and i will continue to run as many weekends as i can. My prelim race was on Friday, we had beautiful weather, and for the first time i raced with the technique id been learning during the Fall. My start was not as aggressive as i would like, but we are making some minor adjustments to it and i wasnt comfortable going all out to the first hurdle. But i did manage to do a lot of other things correct. I felt good until mid race and when i found myself standing up off the hurdle and forgetting to lean. I felt i was clear of the field and so i put it on cruise control and did my usual (horrible habit) jog to the finish line. I crossed the line in 1st place with a time of 13.74 which is without a doubt the fastest ive ever ran in March.

The final did not go so well because i didnt keep my composure midway down the track. I am used to getting a great start and being out in front, but as i was still not comfortable with the adjustmens i wasnt able to get out as aggresivley as id like. I was neck and neck with Drew Brunson over 4 hurdles but i tried pressing over the 5th and finally reverted to old and (bad) techniques over the 6th. I started standing up over top of the hurdle and my lead-leg hamstring came down on the hurdle. It a was clear sign that I wasnt executing what id been taught, but it was a good lesson learned that i have to keep my cool in tight situations. I pulled up at hurdle 6 and continued to walk down and move hurdles with my hand to finally cross the finish line in 21.8 seconds. I was given a DQ though because you are not allowed to push hurdles over with your hands lol.

I wasnt upset with it though and neither was coach because we finally saw a lot of things executed correctly in a race. Coach also realized that i hadn't even started training for 10 hurdles as i had just finished with my indoor season.

I also ran on a 4x100 meter relay at Raleigh Relays (my first 4x1 ever) and we finished 2nd in 40.32. It is not an especially fast time, but is very impressive when you realize that 3 of the legs are hurdlers, and we got no more than 10 minutes worth of relay-exchange practice in. I was very pleased and im certain we will run under 40 seconds and we ever decide to run it again.

So i am very happy that the outdoor season is here, and im feeling confident about the way things are going and where they are heading. Indoor did not go as planned, but it is behind me, i learned a lot from it, and am now focused on this outdoor season.

I run this Friday and Saturday and NC A&T, ill be running the 110 hurdles and for the first time ever the 100 meter dash. We finally have great weather again in NC so im looking forward to a great weekend.

Here is the Prelim race (13.74)

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

And this is the 4x1 relays (40.32, Lane 2)

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

Yet another change in plans

After speaking with a couple people down in Puerto Rico, I've decided I will still run at World Champs in March. I am NOT in the shape I hoped to be right now (because of freezing weather) but I am still in pretty good shape.

So far all year Coach McGills time trials have been within 0.05s of my actual FAT times. In late December my time trials were consistently 7.8x and i ran 7.84 in my first meet with about 90% effort. The 60 Dash trials were always 6.8low and 6.7high and i ran 6.85 and 6.83 in the dash. If his timing skills are still on par then i am currently well under 7.70 in the 60 hurdles.

In practice coach gives us two whistles. The first is SET and the second is GO. He starts the clock as he blows the whistle, and stops the clock when one stride clears the finish line.

When you start the watch off of movement you will get varying degrees of accuracy because the timer is starting anywhere from .2 to .3 seconds late. Same goes when one person starts the athletes and another times the athletes. The timer is having to react to the starter just like the athletes, which causes a loss in accuracy.

Through trial and error we have found that having the person timing, be the person giving the commands gives the most consistent times and also brings us as close to FAT as we can get without setting up the actual electronic equipment.

The last meet i planned for this indoor season was to be at Vtech on the 19th and 20th of the month. After emailing them though i found out that only unattached athletes who currently train at the school are allowed to compete in the meet. So I wont get a chance to compete again before the championships.

I will instead head to Puerto Rico to train in the warm weather for 2 weeks before i head to Qatar. I might run at a meet in Puerto Rico next weekend, if i get down there in time. But seeing as they dont run the shorter distances, it will be over a full flight of 10 hurdles and 110 meters. Should be interesting to see what i can do.

So I guess im still on for this indoor season. I will be going pretty hard these next 3 weeks in practice and although this indoor season did not go according to plan, i still plan on doing big things when i get to Qatar.

Indoor Update

Sorry i haven't updated the blog in a while. I didn't have anything interesting going on. But here is a quick rundown of whats been happening.

Practice has been pretty great. I hit a major breakthrough last week in practice. All the new technique i have been practicing finally clicked. My 7 step approach is pretty incredible, even when is "OFF" its faster then my 8 step from years past.

I competed twice this year. The first was at UNC where i ran a pretty easy 7.84 in the prelims, and a faulty 7.87 in the finals. I also ran the 60 dash for the first time ever and clocked 6.85 which i though was decent.

For my second meet we drove up to Liberty in Virginia. I ran 4 races within LITERALLY 10 minutes. The setup was 60H, 60D, 60D final, 60H final. I took 4 victories but none of the times were very impressive. I was all over the place in the 60 hurdles smashing hurdles to run 8.17 in the prelim and 8.15 in the finals. In the 60 dash I got out for about 20 meters and then cruised to the finish for a 6.99. In the finals i gave a good effort to run 6.83 but it felt horrible and i was certain it was 6.9x seconds, it would have been one of those runs where had it been a time-trial in practice i would have told coach he did a bad job timing. After the meet we drove in a foot of snow for 6 hours because we weren't trying to risk spinning out or crashing in some random VA town.

My plans for the year were to run at UNC, Millrose, Boston, Tyson Invitational, and VA Tech in late February before heading to World Indoor Champs in March. I am certain this would have been enough to put me in decent shape to make the final at world indoors. From years past you needed a low 7.6 in the semis to make the final, and we were planing to be running consistent 7.5s by then.

But things changed. I did not get invited to Millrose, Boston Indoor Games, nor Tyson Invitational. I literally BEGGED to get into the meets, and having finished 3rd at the Millrose Games, and Boston last year i figured i should have no problems getting in, but that was not the case. I have no agent and meet directors refuse to negotiate with the athletes themselves... as if i was asking for anything more than a lane. Last year i payed for my own flight (with 3 days notice), and my own lodging while in Boston, though i did stay at the meet hotel in NYC. I would have very easily done the same this year, but as i said Meet Directors do no talk with athletes themselves and so i did not run. What was worse is that BOTH meets had a lane open. Makes no sense right? An athlete will pay his own way, you don't have to put him in a hotel, and yet they would still rather leave the lane open.

After coming to the realization that i would not run at those meets i decided i would run at UNC 3 times and VTech to prepare for world indoors. BUT we hit another hurdle.

At UNCs first meet over 30 unattached athletes did not pay their entry fee. So UNC decided they would not let unattached athletes run at their next 2 meets (which are always available to open athletes). The reason being because athletes weren't paying their entry fees.

But is this really the athletes fault? They know who did and who didn't pay, so why not prevent those athletes from competing, rather than ALL open athletes? It is not my fault that the staff was incompetent and allowed athletes to run who hadn't paid. UNC did, allow many unattached athletes to run at the following meet though, but i unfourtunatley was not one of the select few to be accepted. I ran into the meet director the day before the meet and he pretended as if he would try to find me an open lane, but of course he did not. Maybe had he told me a week in advance (as he did with the many other unattached athletes) i wouldn't have had to waste time and money in driving to Virginia. Pretty shitty, but such is life.

They are hosting a meet this weekend, which is always available to open athletes, but they've decided to allow only college athletes to compete. I am certain i will see unattached athletes compete though.

On top of not being able to compete we were hit with a snow storm here in NC. Even when the snow finally melted it was too cold to get any kind of fast training sessions in. I asked Puerto Rico if they would be kind enough to fly me down there so i could at least train in the warm weather before heading to World Indoors but i have yet to receive word from them.

So i have decided to cancel my indoor season, and start focusing on outdoors. This will give us plenty of time to allow this new technique to sink in, will hopefully allow the warm weather to return to NC, and will also get us out of "rush" mode, which is what we will have been in trying to make up for 5 weeks of cold weather.

I made the standard last year for World Indoor Champs, but will no longer be traveling to championship meets if i am not in medal contention or at the VERY LEAST in position to make the final. The days of traveling for the sake of traveling are over. If i will not be able to compete with the best i will not compete at all. May sound shallow or selfish, but i dont train 6 days a week 10 months out of the year, live off what averages out to be $4 an hour, to get a free trip across the world. I am training to be the best, and until i am able to compete stride for stride with the best, i will not be competing.

So although my indoor season did not go as planned i am still looking forward to a good year. I am still in a great situation with a great coach and as soon as these uncontrollable factors get out of the way, we will be good to go.

I dont have anything special lined up for Outdoors but here is what it will look like.

Open my season at NC A&T
Mt. Sac Relays
Puerto Rico Nationals
Ponce Grand Prix
Ibero American games in Spain
Central American Championships in Puerto Rico.

I will update the blog if any major changes happen. If not, then i will update it before my first outdoor meet.

September Review

So i got the first month of training out of the way. Things have been going well so far. Been doing a lot of technique work and I started working on a 7 step approach to the first hurdle.

So far things are looking pretty good. Here are a couple things we are working on as far as technique.

1) Taking off closer to the hurdle.
2) Getting into position before the hurdle. The goal is to be in hurdle position before reaching the hurdle, so when we get to it, we can focus on coming down. This requires the trail leg to come into position as soon as it leaves the ground, rather than having it "trail" behind as most coaches teach.
3) Bent lead leg into the hurdle. We want to keep the lead leg bent as long as possible, not opening up and extending towards the hurdle, this takes up room and forces us to take off too far away from the hurdle.

That is pretty much it. Sounds weird and different, and it is, but it isnt at the same time.

It actually feels better than the old way. I no longer lean to one side, and my hips dont open up when clearing the hurdle. I should also never have problems with hitting hurdles again. I also feel like i run off the hurdle a lot faster.

But of course only time will tell. I have big goals for this indoor season, and i think its going to take this drastic change in technique to achieve them.

As far as running, i have been doing the most i have ever done since College. I do hurdle technique once a week, and saturdays i work on my 7 step approach. Every other day of the week i have running workouts and a Plyometrics day.

Last week (last week in September) we tested in the 150 meters and the 60 meters.

in the 150 meter test i ran 16.04 and in the 60 meter test i ran 6.80 and 6.73 seconds. We test again in another 4 weeks so ill update the blog when that time comes.

Back to training

So World Champs didnt go as well as id hoped. I did not make it out of the first round. I got out well and with the pack, was in the mix until hurdle 5 where i smacked my trail knee then landed off balance over 6 and was out of the race. If i had 10.1 speed i could have easily gotten back in the mix, but i dont.

I was not disappointed though. I trained on my own since early January minus the 3 weeks i trained with McGill before WCs. So there was not much to be upset about.

My teammate Javier Culson on the other hand, had a tremendous World Champs. He became the first Puerto Rican to make a World Champ Final, and then went ahead and became the first Rican to win a World Champs medal when he finished 2nd in the 400 hurdles. We all went nuts when he won the medal. I was extremely happy and proud of him. He has come a long way and it felt incredible to see his hard work finally pay off. He will now be one of the 400 hurdlers to beat in the future and i am very excited for him.

Its funny though, because last year when he didnt perform as well as the Puerto Rican Federation had hoped, they begged him to switch coaches or change events. They just didnt see him progressing with the same coach. LOL. Now his coach is claimed to be the greatest track coach in PR history and they act as if they were always there supporting him.

But we know the truth. Javier and his Coach Hector Cano achieved success on their own. They put in the work over the years, and didnt quit when the world told them to hang it up. They have come a long way and i am extremely happy for them.

I am sure we will see much more from them in the future.

AS far as myself. I start training for the 2010 season tomorrow =D

i am extremely excited. I will be learning to hurdle with a different style. I will elaborate on the new technique as we get going in the next couple weeks but it is something we feel will have me in the mix with the very best hurdlers in the world in 2010.

Expect to see a leap frog, as i drastically drop my times in 2010

Sticking with the Old

Ok so we decided i wont be "learning" to hurdle just yet. Coach and I decided that we dont have enough time before World Champs to ingrain the new stuff and so for now we will stick with the old, only make sure we do things better.

so for the rest of this year, i will still look like everyone else. which is pretty much lead leg dominant and running sideways down the track haha.

The plan now is to throw out the old way and go with the new stuff in time for World Indoors in 2010.

Things are still feeling pretty good though and i plan on big things in August. I have about 9 days left before i fly to Berlin, so i have to learn as much as possible, because once i get to Berlin ill be back on my own.

The Federation is too cheap to fly Coach McGill out to Berlin so we just gonna hope i can retain as much in these next few weeks as possible.

Learning to Hurdle

I finished 4th down in Cuba at the CAC games. Dayron Robles, the world record holder, was there running in front of his people and ran away in a comfortable 13.18. I ran 13.63.

I then came to Raleigh and trained with Coach McGill for a day before heading to NYC for Club Nationals. I am learning to hurdle a new way and im pretty excited. i actually didnt run very well in NY because i am trying to ingrain this new technique and ran a bit scared. Im still not comfortable with the new things ive learned and so i held back alot at the meet.

But i am officially with Coach McGill now. I have known him for 7 years now but have never been able to work with him one on one. Every time i was ready, something would come up that would prevent it from happening. But im finally here and we can FINALLY get to work.

He is one of the best hurdle coaches in the world in my eyes. He has coached 3 of the fastest high school hurdlers of all time. Johnny Dutch, Malcom Nunley, and currently Wayne Davis. All three have broken 13.50 in HS, Johnny also ran 50.xx in the 400 hurdles under coach McGill, and Wayne Davis broke Terrance Trammells indoor 60 hurdle record, Liu Xiangs 110 hurdle youth world record, and recently ran 13.16w, and 13.30 legal over the 39" barriers.

Its clear coach McGill has been doing something right down here, and now its time to show the world that he can do even more with a post-collegiate guy.

so im excited. ive been un-doing alot of bad technqiue so far with him. my trail leg lags way behind, my lead leg kicks out instead of down, i dont lean enough and i dont hold my lean coming off the hurdle.

Coach has a real eye for picking up on the little things, and ive been feeling really great training with him so far.

I have one more meet before i head off to Berlin for World Champs. I run in Bogota, Colombia in 2 weeks. I will be doing as much as i can to ingrain the knew techniques coach is teaching me, and hopefully it will be enough by August 19th to run some fast times at Worlds.

Coach feels that once i fix the minor issues in my hurdling i should be in the 13.3/13.2 range, and he feels it is still very possible to get there before Worlds.

so we'll see what happens. I'll update the blog after my meet in Colombia and before Worlds.

if you are interested in getting to know Coach McGill more check out his website at HURDLES FIRST its without a doubt the best hurdling website on the internet.

Back to Puerto Rico

Ok so i went back to NC but things werent working out as well as i wanted there. I'd go to the track and wouldnt have access to blocks and such, or i wouldnt have a ride to the track. I was supposed to by my friends car off him, but when i retured to NC with the money he acted as if he no longer wanted to sell me it and drove off with it to Fayetteville. haha

So i decided to up and visit my brother in Florida. My mom was down here so i thought it would be a nice surprise to see her, seeing as ive only seen her once (Grandmas Funeral in Jan.) in two years.

I came down to Florida and saw my mom and borhter, his fiance and their cute baby boy Adrian. Things are fine down here but there are no facilites in the area to train.

Most schools around here in Ft. Lauderdale are either private, or gated public schools. I was training at one HS around here but there are absolutely no hurdles and its tough to run faster times when i can not even get over hurdles.

This past weekened i flew down to Cali, Colombia to run in a Grand Prix. I lead from the gun until about 1 meter from the finish line. I had a very clean reace, but scrapped the 9th with my trail knee, and then smashed the 10th with my lead leg. I tried to keep my balance after smashing the tenth but couldnt and went into a front flip and just barely made the finish line. I went from winning by at least half a second to losing by 4 hundreths of a second in 1 hurdle. I finished 3rd in 14.14 to a 14.10. But that is the way it goes in the hurdles, and its a little tougher when you cant get over hurdles in practice haha.

So im heading to Puerto Rico tomorrow and i will be staying there at the Albergue Olympico in Salinas until we (Puerto Rico national team) depart for Cuba the 1st of July for the CAC games.

The Albergue Olympico is the most boring place on the planet, and its usually around 100 degrees at 9am, but there is a nice track, a million hurdles, blocks to start with, and ill finally be able to start lifting weights again. They also have a training room, and ofcourse a cafeteria with wonderful spanish food :)

So ill be living there for the next month and a half in an effort to fix this season before its too late.

My plan is to head to Raleigh NC after the CAC games and train with Coach McGill for the month before i head to World Champs in August.

Ill update the blog if anything changes.




Here I am with the Cutest boy in the world Adrian Cotto :)

Back in NC

Im back in North Carolina. I ran 13.82 at the Ponce, Grand Prix. Not as good as i wanted, but im still working out lots of kinks with the second half of my race.

I dont have anything set up right now but im sure something will come up. My next mandatory meet with Puerto Rico is the CAC championships in Cuba, the first week of July.

I will probably head to Europe withing the next couple weeks, and when i do i will update the blog.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to all the lovely mothers in the world, especially my beautiful mother of 43! Sadly i was not able to see my mom today but i sent her some flowers and a card and of course called to say I love you :)

I am currently in Puerto Rico and i have been here for a little over 2 weeks. Ive ran 3 times so far this season. My first meet was in Greensboro, NC about a month ago where i ran 14.05 in the prelims and 14.10 in the final. Both were Calendar PRs.

my Second meet came last weekend here in Caguas, Puerto Rico at a local track meet and i ran 14.03.

Friday and Saturday (yesterday) i ran at my national meet in Carolina, Puerto Rico and ran 13.89 (-0.8) and 13.71 (+0.8).

So far im happy with the season. I consider my season to have officially started yesterday, seeing as it was the first meet of the outdoor season that i took seriously and first meet of the season where i actually ran hard for a full 110 meters.

I have yet to run against real competition though but will get a chance to next weekend at Puerto Ricos Grand Prix. In attendance will be David Payne (Olympic Silver Medallist) and Dexter Faulk who has ran 13.30 this season already. I will be looking to improve upon yesterdays performance (where i hit 5 hurdles) and my national record of 13.61.

In other news im happy to announce that Puerto Rico has an athlete in track and field who has the fastest time in the world. Javier Culson ran 48.42 to win the 400 hurdles last week at the Jamaica Invitational and is now surely on his way to making the World Championships final in Berlin this summer. We are all very proud of him here in Puerto Rico and i am personally very happy for him. He was my roommate in Beijing last summer and ive known him for 5 years now and have seen all the hard work he has put in over the years and im glad its finally paying off. Congrats Culson! keep it up!

Anyways i am resting today and i will hit the track again tomorrow to knock out some 200s.

I will update this later this week with the meet line-up for Ponce.

March Madness

The title does not refer to college basketball because im not a big fan, though i am rooting for Chapel Hill. Instead it refers to the sitiation i am still in. LOL.

Things have not gone as planned since moving back to NC. i am trainging very day at my old university but i am still not sure when ill be making my move to Raleigh.

Last week i decided i would probably not run many meets this year. Instead i will run a handful meets in order to qualify for WC and just look forward to the only real goal i have for this year which is World Champs in August.

I will no longer be running at Mt. Sac Relays. I could run there, and im sure i would run decent, but im looking to run better than "decent" this year. I am certain i can train the way im training (on my own) and run 13.6s and 13.7s but im looking for more. So until i am settled into my place in Raleigh and training full time with Coach McGill i will not compete.

I may run at Raleigh Relays in a couple weeks but if i do so it will be to simply stay in the competitive mode.

As of today there are 2 meets i am certain i will run at. 1. Puerto Rico Nationals in May. and 2. World Championships in August.

If anything changes i will update the blog.

Back in NC

I competed at Boston Indoor Games and finished 3rd again behind Trammell and Hicks. I was in 2nd place until i hit hurdles 3 and 4 with my lead leg hamstring. I shoulda have set another PR but instead ran 7.74.

I am now back in Greenville, NC and training at my old university. Last Weekend i ran at UNC and ran a 7.77.

I have no more indoor meets lined up so i am going to start getting ready for outdoors. I plan on my first meet being MT. Sac Relays, but i May jump in the hurdles at Raleigh Relays. It really depends on how my training goes.

The plan for now is to train in Greenville until i gather the funds to head to Raleigh and train with Coach Steve McGill. We got alot of work to do and errors to clean up and the sooner i can move to Raleigh the better.

I also started lifting for the first time this week. Its been over a month since i lifted weights and i could definitely tell. I am surprisingly still pretty strong. I power cleaned 198x2, 220x2, 242x2 but missed 264.

I also lost all the hard earned weight over these past weeks. i was 181 at the begining of the week but i finallyt started eating properly again this week and today weighed in at 183.5. The goal is to get back to 190 and stay there for the entire season. I think gaining the weight should be easier this time because my body has been there before but we'll see.

if anything interesting happens in these next couple weeks ill update the blog. If not ill update befoer my first outdoor race.

O yea. Puerto Rico is excited about the way ive been running but still are not trying to tell me about funding for 2009. Im reaching a point where i may have to pick up a job like i did last January....

Boston Indoor Games Line Up

So the official Line-Up has finally been posted and it is as follows.

Antwon Hicks
USA
Hector Cotto
PUR
Jeff Porter
USA
Aries Merritt
USA
Ron Bramlett
USA
Terrence Trammell
USA
Aubrey Herring
USA
Ryan Fontenot
USA

After my 3rd place finish at Millrose last week i am just looking to improve upon what i did. I have a couple things to work on this week, and if i stick to the game plan things should go well.

Ill be looking to set a new Personal Record. Be sure to tune in to ESPN at 4pm on Sunday to watch the meet.

Back in Boston

A lot has happened since i last posted a blog.

When i last posted, i was leaving Boston. I did leave Boston but decided to run in a meet i entered before i left. That meet was run at Harvard University, i ran 7.95 in the prelims and 7.80 in the finals. I smashed into the 3rd hurdle but my start was pretty good.

They day after the meet i flew down to NC. I stayed one day and then got word that my grandma passed away and her body was being flown from Rochester, NY to Puerto Rico.

My broke behind had no money so a couple family members had to put money together to get me a flight. after spending less than 24hrs in NC i had a flight scheduled to San Juan Puerto Rico.

The funeral was very nice, if you can say that. I am certain my grandma would have been happy to see most of her family show up. My grandma had been sick for years and although i was sad to see her go, i was at the same time happy that she would no longer have to suffer. I did not cry much. Not because i dont miss her, but because i was honestly happy that she could finally rest after 86 years.

The funeral also allowed me to see my mom for the first time in over a year. She is of course still beautiful so i was happy to see that haha. I saw my sister, whom i hadnt seen in over a year as well so i was happy to see her all grown up too :)

They day after the funeral i went and stayed with a teammate Felix Martinez and begun training. My plan was to stay in Puerto Rico until Feb 5th and then fly out to Boston in time for the Indoor Games.

Early in the week though i received an email asking if id like to fly up to NYC to compete in the Millrose Games. Ofcourse my response was yes and so i changed my flight to fly to NYC.

I went and competed and i am happy with the results. I finished 3rd in a time of 7.72 seconds. The race did not go perfect but i was happy to have finished in the medals (which i didnt even know they gave out at Millrose)

I false started for the first time ever in my life. I honestly dont think i false started, but the computer on my blocks showed that i left in a reaction time of .90 which is .10 under the legal limit.

I still got a decent start when we were reset. I felt i ran up on the first hurdle again, but i got back into rhythm sooner than in the past and was able to run a new PR.

I am now back in Boston and will train here until the Boston Indoor Games this weekend and then fly back down to NC.

Leaving Boston

For reasons I will not discuss in this blog, I am leaving the Boston area. I have decided it would be best were I to move and start elsewhere.

Coach and I are still on decent terms (as decent as they can be when his number one athlete gets up and leaves). We did not have some huge argument and cuss each other out, but after speaking about a couple issue over the course of some days, I came to the conclusion that it would be best if I moved on.

This is very hard for me to do, because i saw myself living in Boston for the next 4 or 5 years. I had it all planned out and coach was a part of that plan, but now i feel different. I prayed many nights, that i would be guided in the right direction, and morning after morning i woke up thinking it would probably be best to relocate. So I am doing so. It really is crazy how things can change so drastically in such a short period of time. But that is life.

Id like to thank everyone who helped me over the past year in Boston.

My bff (no homo) Dominik. If you know me, then you know Dominik. He has helped me out more than anyone. Not just this past year, but pretty much since i met him in 8th grade. He is a great friend and proves so everyday.

Id like to thank John and Rebbecca from Excel Sport and Fitness, the Gym i have trained at for the past year. John and Rebbecca have always treated me with the utmost respect and were always very professional. They allowed me to train at their wonderful facility in Waltham, MA for free and anytime i wanted or needed. Often at random hours of the night when the gym was not even open. This would not have been possible at another gym so i thank them.

Thanks to Dave Callum and the entire Greater Boston Track Club. They are a good group of people and i suggest anyone thinking of joining a track club in Boston to join the GBTC. They work hard, love the sport and many of them are good friends outside of the sport as well.

Thanks to Dr. Marchese my Chriopractor over at Marchese Sports Therapy in Woburn, MA. He is the best Dr. Ive ever worked with, he actually "adjusted" my back only 2 or 3 times in the entire year i saw him. He is not the stereotypical crack-your-back chiropractor. He is very knowledgeable in sports injuries and was very important in my staying healthy last year. Without him i would prob have stress fractures in both shins right now.

Marlow and Stephanie. They were my two biggest fans up here lol. They both made things fun and made the sometimes stressful times easy. They are both grown women, but live life to the fullest and find ways to make the best of times. They both workout quite often, and for no reason other than to stay in shape, and run the occasional marathon. I love seeing people who train so hard for the pure joy of it.

Shane (muscly arms/legs). He was my training partner in the gym for the most part. Even though he is a little weak-ass he still helped push my workouts haha. We had some fun times outside of the gym as well, and he is a good friend. He will be starting grad school next Fall, and i hope he chooses a school in NC, which is where i think i will be moving next, so we can continue having good times together.

I have to thank Evan, he introduced me to Carl and also served as training partner during the summer. I never got to hang out with him outside of training, but he was obviously very important to my success in 2008, as he introduced me to Carl.

To all the countless personalities at the gym, Ben, Matt, Tom, Curt and the rest who made training enjoyable.

And of course last but not least to Carl Valle. He invested a lot of time and money into helping me reach my dream of competing at the Olympics last year. There are not many coaches who are as dedicated to helping athletes reach their potential, and i was very fortunate to find Carl.

I have learned lots working with Carl over the past year and i will make sure to put to good use the things i learned. I did not just learn how to run faster and train better, but also learned a lot about the other side of sport, and life in general.

Thanks for everything coach, you are i great guy and i wish you all the best in the future.

I wish everyone the best of luck in the future, I thank them for the good times in Boston.

I will be moving to NC in the next couple days to live with a good friend of mine in Greenville. I was debating on moving to FL to be closer to family or to NC. I decided on NC and Greenville because i can start training immediately. I still plan on running indoors so i must get back on the track as soon as possible.

From Greenville I may move again, and if i do i will update the blog. Until i have made that decision, though, i wil not be updating the blog.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me achieve success over the past year. I will see you all around.

New Years Resolution

Today my lil hommie and teammate Carol Rodriguez started her own BLOG, and she spoke about her New Years resolution.

While i dont go crazy about making New Years resolutions, i did make one this year. I didnt sit and think about it for months, it kinda just came to me.

My New Years Resolution is to learn to cook 2 new meals every month. Its nothing track or training related (because i strive to get better all the time, not just for the New Year) but i think its a good resolution. Nothing that will haunt me at night if i fail to follow through, but a resolution that will be beneficial to my life haha.

At first i wanted to learn to cook a new meal a week, but i figured that might be a little much, and i probably wouldn't follow through with it.

I made the resolution because i like food, but lately I've gotten into the habit of eating the same thing.

But anyway, check out Carols blog as she get ready to blow up in the sport during her first professional season!

Running in NYC

My next meet will be this Friday at the Armory in NYC. It will be a 60 hurdle race and ill get at least 2 races so im happy. The goal is 7.75 and regardless of the competition i think ill get it.

I have to thank the David Callum and Greater Boston Track Club because they are the ones funding the trip to NYC. They have helped me out in the past and continue to do so today.

Im going to treat this meet as a "make-up" meet. This past Saturday didnt go as planned, but Friday i have a chance to make up for it and get back on track.

I have been confirmed for the Boston Indoor games in February and id like to be in the 7.6s by then. I know that with competition ill get there, but id like to be running 7.75- with next to no competition before then.

We will see what happens.