At Easter time this year I took off for the States to catch up with several running friends, some of whom I’d known for many years, and others whom I was yet to meet personally! My trip started with a week in Boulder, Colorado, where I stayed with my good friend Lorraine Moller, her husband Harlan, and their daughter Jasmine. Being the equinox, the weather in the United States was similar to what I’d just left behind in Australia: variable and changeable, and occasionally quite cold. There was still snow on the Flat Irons above Boulder. Nevertheless I was pleased to be able to fit in a few ‘running’ efforts in Boulder, including a couple of longer efforts up into the hills, above 6000 feet. 8 years ago I tried running in Boulder, coming off a recent base of “zilch running”, and really paid for it, but this time, I was much fitter as I’d been cycling over hilly courses in Bendigo for up to an hour most days of the week. This time, I could breathe quite well, even up on the hill-tops, where it was possible to cut loose on the soft grassy tracks, without stirring up old knee injuries.
After Boulder, it was off to Atlanta, Georgia, where I attended a conference on brain function and autism. I stayed with Dr Laura Hanson and her daughter Karli. Laura is one of the experts in the field of autism retrieval, specialising in neurological developmental markers. Atlanta was experiencing the edge of a band of cyclones that had been carving up the eastern United States, but the weather was quite tolerable and pleasant.
Life University
I visited Life University, possibly the biggest Chiropractic University in the world, with 92 acres of wooded grounds, huge sports and academic facilities, and an outstanding athletics track.
I visited LUSSI- Life University Sports Science Institute, where chiropractor Dr David Ward and biomechanicist Loren Seagrave have made some interesting breakthroughs in performance retrieval with world-class athletes. The team at Lussi specialize in “taking apart” the kinetic chain in injured or under-performing athletes’ key movement patterns, then “re-assembling the kinetic chain, like with Humpty Dumpty”.
Dr David Ward
Star pupil for LUSSI in 2009 was Dwight Phillips, who resurrected a stalling career with a monster 8.74m long jump, the longest jump in the world since 1991 when Mike Powell set the current world record. Phillips, who was 2004 Olympic champion in the long jump, as well as world champion three times( ‘03, ‘05, ‘07) ,looks to have plenty of jumping left now that his biomechanics have been addressed.
Next port of call was Dallas, Texas, where I was lucky enough to catch up with Dr Peter Snell at the Southwestern Texas University Medical School.
Keith with Dr Peter Snell
Peter of course is New Zealand’s great 3-time Olympic gold medallist, and he appears well-occupied with research in cardiology, aging, and physiology these days. He’s lived in the USA since 1974.
I also had a tour of Parker College of Chiropractic, another of the great chiropractic institutions in the USA, where Dr Gilles Lamarche, who is in charge of administration, treated me to a trip up the highway in his brand new Jaguar XK8 (he has the sedan at home!).
I flew down to Austin, Texas, for an overnight visit with coach John Hayes who is in charge of the athletes at the University of Texas. I was lucky to meet his 1500m star, Lopez Lomong, a Sudanese refugee who was flag-bearer for the USA at the 2008 Games in Beijing. Watch out for NCAA 1500m champion Lopez in the next Olympic Trials in 2012! Coach John helped Lopez to a 3:32 1500m performance last year.
Coach John Hayes
Lopez Lomong was born in the Sudan, spent the first few years of his life there, was abducted by militias when he was 6 years old and forced to train to become a child soldier. He escaped, and spent the next 10 years of his life in a refugee camp in Kenya. He finally made it to the United States as a refugee, one of the 27,000 ‘Lost Boys’ of Sudan–survivors of the second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2003) that cost 2 million lives and rendered tens of thousands orphans. Lopez has since been reunited with his family, and is currently building a church in his home village, aided by local Muslims!
After Texas, I flew to Phoenix, Arizona, and hopped on the shuttle bus to Flagstaff to catch up with coach Greg McMillan. The shuttle driver, Jose, asked the 4 passengers on his side of the bus to sit on the opposite side due to expected high winds on the highway. He was an EXTREMELY big boy, possibly approaching 500 pounds in weight: I guess he was speaking from experience: the shuttle bus certainly tilted to the driver’s side!
Once in Flagstaff, I stayed a week with Greg,his wife Tracy, and toddler son Angus. Greg kindly showed me the facilities around Flagstaff, and I got to see some of the great natural training resources in this higher-altitude (7200 ft) town and its surroundings. Flagstaff is blessed with over 140 miles of good forest trails over varying terrains, and the snow-capped volcanic dome of Mt Humphries sits above the town at 12,500 feet. Flagstaff has several great training tracks, as does Sedona, 25 minutes away, at a lower altitude of 4,000 feet which is better for training during winter with the snow being higher up.
McMillan Elite Team, Flagstaff
Greg’s team, McMillan Elite, is backed by Adidas for gear, travel, etc. The athletes are all people who wish to pursue their running seriously in a supportive environment, and they work part-time to cover rent and food. The running scene in the USA is different from the running scene in other ‘western’ countries like Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. If a person has reached a very good level of performance while in “college” (university), there is nothing like our Australasian and UK club cultures to fall back on for continuation in the sport. At this point, many fine talents who perhaps develop more slowly are lost to the sport, choosing to “get real jobs”. The simple enjoyment of the sport for its own sake doesn’t seem (to me!) to be there in the USA generally. However, Greg has introduced this “lost generation” to a fun, supportive and progressive training environment, all along proven Lydiard lines, with his own careful fine-tuning.
Arthur Lydiard would be proud top see what Greg’s doing. In fact, Greg was present when the great coach died in Houston in 2004: they were sharing hotel accommodation. This could be considered a “passing of the baton” to Greg as he blazes the way with McMillan Elite. Greg has astounded several college coaches with his steady transformation of their formerly “good, solid” runners into elite performers at national level. One such athlete is Jordan Horne, who has gone from being a solid 5000m runner to a 3:58 mile/7:51 3000m/ 13:30 5000m performer.
The biggest ‘breakthrough’ for the team was Brett Gotcher winning last year’s Houston marathon in a sensational debut time of 2:10.36.
The week I was in Flagstaff, the McMillan Elite squad “kicked butt” at the national 25k road championships in Michigan, running 1-2-3. First home in 74:41 with an aggressive long burst for home was Andrew Carlson (’A.C’), with Brett Gotcher 2nd after backing up from a big 10k track PB (by 19s) the week before (28:09). Third was squad newcomer Nick Arciniaga, a 2:13.40 marathoner in the New York City marathon last year. Andrew Carlson has also recorded times of 44:10 for 15k road, and 62:21 for half-marathon.
Other members of the squad are Martin Fagan, a 2:13 marathoner from Ireland, Andrew Lemoncello, (UK), who has run 27:57 for 10000m and 61:52 for half-marathon, and Ian Burrell, a promising 5000m runner who has run 3000m in 7:52 and 5000m in 13:45.
The most recent recruit is former Israeli soldier Haim Noam, who has arrived in Flagstaff with his wife Dafi for an extended stay with the aim of making it to the next Olympics in the marathon for Israel. Qualifying needs 2hr 18: Haim has done 2:24, after training for years on his own while in army service, with quite big training loads. I think training in Flagstaff will be slightly less stressful than soldiering in Israel, and that Haim is in the best place to achieve his dream.
Greg’s back-up coaching staff includes Trina Painter, a masters runner still competing at the open elite level nationally, and Andrew Middleton, himself a very handy athlete with a 10k PB of 28:54. Ultra athlete Ian Torrence, who has run 100 miles on trails in 16 hrs:38 min, rounds out the coaching team.
Amongst the women, there’s native American Alvina Begay, who ran a 2:37 marathon recently to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Trials marathon. Paige Higgins was first American woman in the Boston marathon this year, running 2:33. At the other end of the distance spectrum, Lindsay Allen recently became the all-time 10th-fastest 3000m steeplechaser in US women’s track, and she and team-mate Jaime Canterbury recently ran good 1500m PRs in Los Angeles: (4:20 for Lindsay, 4:22 for Jaime).
Check out Greg McMillan’s websites: possibly some of the best resources on the web are right there!
www.mcmillanrunning.com
Welcome
to Healthy Intelligent Training 
HI!
Middle Distance Training can be described best as an Art, Philosophy and Science.
It involves training THREE differing energy systems and muscle fibre types, hopefully
to a point where each system is fully trained, and fully rested, “ready
to go” at the most important time of the season. This book is based on the
work of the legendary New Zealand middle distance coach, Arthur Lydiard, and explores
the basic physiology of what his simple system did to produce multiple Olympic
gold medals and world records. 
