Geoff Martinson: Aspiring Canadian Olympian

National team criteria and stuff.

2012-02-18T15:12:00.000-08:00

A while back an athlete survey was conducted to get feedback on various aspects of Canadian track & field at the elite level. The results are now in! There's many interesting points, but the only one I want to draw attention to is the opinion of Senior National team qualification criteria. I've been saying for a while that it's pointless and detrimental to our athletes to shorten the qualifying

Huskey classic result

2012-02-10T20:15:00.001-08:00

Race Video: 5km Invite section

B is for BEETS!

2012-02-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

There's some rumours and some good science suggesting that beet juice may improve athletes' endurance by lowering the amount of oxygen needed by muscles to contract. I'm going to give it a try leading up to the 5km race on Friday evening. Let's hope I'm not drinking large volumes of beet juice for nothing...

Hope I'm fit enough.

2012-02-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

As the New Balance Grand Prix finishes tonight, more incredibly fast times have been run. Canada's Cam Levins posted a 7:45 in the 3km, following up on impressive 7:48 and 13:43 performances last weekend in the 3km and 5km respectively. Taylor Milne ran a huge mile PB of 3:56, and has already run a 2:20 time in the 1000m in January. Not everyone races indoors in preparation for the outdoor

A bit of history.

2012-01-28T15:21:00.000-08:00

My current training logs are all electronic, either an excel spreadsheet, a google doc to track volume, or the uploaded stats from my GPS watch onto Garmin's website. I had this idea of taking all my older training logs from high school and early university and putting them into excel spreadsheets, like those that I now use. I've been drifting back through the history of my running career.

Getting stronger.

2012-01-21T07:10:00.000-08:00

I've finished the first cycle of training down here. The cruel thing about training is that during the hard weeks you feel exhausted and beat up; then in the recovery week all the fatigue catches up and you feel even worse; and then you start back into the hard training again just as you finally begin to feel good.

First track workout.

2012-01-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry but there's no fancy video this week, but maybe next week... I did my first track workout of the season on Friday, a couple sets of 4x400m, a 1500m classic. It's hard to imagine that this workout is the first of many that will eventually lead to Olympic standards; only the very last 400m (57.x sec)was at the pace needed to run a time of 3:35, and the others weren't even close (60+ sec).

Back to Poopsdale.

2012-01-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

I'm in Scottsdale again.

Year of Blogging.

2011-12-30T14:41:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I'm preparing for the move down to Arizona on the 2nd of January. Lots to pack up, lots of loose ends to tie-up. The new year will have many, many more blog entries, and with far too much time on my hands in Scottsdale I'll try to put together some especially interesting ones. For this week though, I'm only going to recap my favourite five entries of 2011. In no

From Fall to Fall.

2011-12-13T19:53:00.000-08:00

Last season went well, but this season needs to be better. What have I changed this fall compared to last fall? I feel that last season was the first that I really put in solid mileage training in the fall. I had (only) a couple weeks that grazed the 100 mile mark, and in general my volume was consistently higher than previous years. Last fall I invested in a Garmin (after a failed attempt at

Haters.

2011-12-08T13:12:00.001-08:00

Some people have nothing better to do than criticize simply for the sake of criticism. I'm not talking about negative news articles or the hopelessly ignorant providing their opinion. I'm talking about the Haters who knowingly go out of their way to say bad things. This is exemplified perfectly on the LetsRun.com message boards. If there's a thread even mentioning Galen Rupp, out come the Haters

This is a bad blog entry.

2011-12-03T10:51:00.001-08:00

UPDATE: I said I would post the final score from this week so here it is, hot off the Garmin: 118.9 miles (191.36 kilometres). These hard training weeks fly by. I can't believe it's already the weekend again, and another training week almost finished. Last week I set a personal best for most mileage in a week, but after tomorrow morning's long run I'll have smashed last week's best. I'll update

A Review of the Current Trends in the Modern Elite Athlete Diet.

2011-11-24T12:01:00.001-08:00

The modern athlete's diet is always changing and evolving to conform to the latest scientific trends. As the athlete's diet is a common source of interest for the outside world, I thought it would be a good idea to review some of the current, more predominant diets in the athletic world. The most common and simple diet restriction for athletes is dairy. Athletes all over the world are opting

Orthotics grind my gears.

2011-11-19T18:53:00.001-08:00

For the past year I've had off-and-on problems with my custom orthotics. To be fair, the orthotics are about four years old now, and I've put a lot of mileage on them. I finally caved and got re-cast for a new pair of orthotics this fall. Costing over $400, custom orthotics are ridiculously pricey (not to mention the $40 re-surfacing fee, a once a year cost for a frequent runner like myself),

Running is a bad career.

2011-11-12T11:40:00.001-08:00

As an athlete devoting all my time and energy and mental focus towards the one goal of achieving the highest level of sport, I've somewhat neglected the fact that this running career is extremely short. One day soon I'll have to find myself a more long-term career... I'm getting closer to the end, so it would be a comfort to have something in place to transition to, or at least an idea of what

Running is hard.

2011-11-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

While coming back into training mode throughout October, I let myself believe that I wasn't horribly unfit. My runs were quick, long, and didn't feel too bad. November 1st was the 1st running workout of the season, a tempo session with hill surges, and the following day was the 1st strength workout of the season, a session in the gym. Another workout and weight session later and it goes without

Thank you times infinite.

2011-10-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

The fundraiser last Saturday was an amazing success, far exceeding mine and my parents' expectations. Thank you so much to everyone who came to the dinner, contributed a silent auction item, bid on a silent auction item, bought ad space, or made a money donation! I never imagined that I would come home to such support: from family, friends, and a community that wanted to help me out. There was

While up in Prince George.

2011-10-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping busy since flying home to Prince George. I got to be part of a promotional video for the Northern Sport Centre. We did some filming up at P.G.'s sport centre on the indoor track, and at Masich Stadium, the outdoor track. The video will feature several of British Columbia's northern athletes, and it's going to be awesome. I'm very excited to have been part of it. It should look

Homeward Bound.

2011-10-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Like the two dogs and sassy bitch cat in the movie "Homeward Bound", I too will be homeward bound next week as I return to Prince George. Mr. PG On Saturday, the 22nd, I'll be running a cross country race in Quesnel, home of the world's largest gold pan. It's hard for me to describe the excitement of racing up north; it's the first time since high school, a frightening eight years ago!

Chicken or the Egg?

2011-10-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

I've always taken issue with the coverage of the World Champs and the Olympics (the athletics portion anyway). Here's a good example of why: how many of you watched me race in the heats or semis at the Worlds on the television? I'll answer that for you: you didn't watch me run on the television, because my heat and semi was never televised. CBC showed the finals for all the events, but when

It Begins.

2011-10-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Ending a season healthy and happy makes starting a season a hell of a lot easier! I've been waiting anxiously to start running again for weeks now, and finally I can begin training. The break was great, and much needed; I didn't do too much, but I suppose that's the point of the break. I hung around Victoria, read a lot, rode my road bike (previously owned by Simon Whitfield: fact), am coaching a

The end of the 2010-11 season.

2011-09-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

I'm down to my last day in Daegu before flying home to Victoria, so let's finally wrap this season up. Immediately after the semi-final race, I was disappointed with the result. It was a mixture of feeling that I didn't do well enough and the realization that my season was officially finished. I knew going into the semis that it was a longshot to make the finals, but still I couldn't help

Those guys are really fast.

2011-09-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

If you're waiting to watch the race before you find out the result, don't read this... I want to start by saying thank-you to those who woke up early to watch my race live: THANK YOU! I also want to say thank-you to everyone who has been so incredibly supportive of my running here at the Worlds, and throughout the current season and past seasons: THANK YOU! I can't say enough how much I

I'm in the semi-finals.

2011-08-30T04:27:00.000-07:00

I'm in the semi-finals! After I finished my warm-up run, in preparation for being in heat 2, I discovered that the heats had been re-seeded and I was to run in heat 3. Not a big deal, a difference of ten minutes. It ended up the best thing that could have happened for my advancing the rounds. As I waited in the final call room, I watched the first heat cruise in at 3:39-3:40. As I walked around

Bad news for you, fish.

2011-08-29T00:07:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning I run my first race here at the Worlds. The startlists for the 1500m have now been released, and as expected, I'm going to have to run out of my mind to advance to the next round. I'm in heat 2. There are 3 heats, top 6 in each heat + next 6 fastest times qualify to the semi-finals. Watch the race live on CBC.ca at 7:20pm in British Columbia. 1500m Startlists I'm not too