Hi Flotrack, 

 

You may or may not care who the heck I am (Danny Mackey), but this first “article” will just be an introduction.  I will try and save the boring  random details of me like, favorite color (light blue) and what albums are on the speakers right now (MGMT, Rage Against the Machine, Tokyo Police Club, The Cool Kids) and get to the running and science stuff.

 

So, I am from the south side of Chicago.  We moved to the suburbs later and I went to Andrew High School in Tinley Park, IL.  If that sounds familiar it’s because Matt Withrow went there, speaking of Withrow…good luck man, stay healthy damn-it!  He’s a great guy; hopefully the year shows just a hint of his extreme talent and toughness.  An interesting note during high school; I never missed one practice, or day of school, other than senior ditch day.  College and post collegiate haven’t been so smooth.

 

I went to undergrad at Eastern Illinois University and studied business with a minor in biology.  I ran average at EIU, but I was injured or sick more than healthy.  The NCAA gave me a 6^th year of eligibility, and you guessed it, I was injured my 6^th year.  The frustration experienced during college motivated me to pursue exercise physiology at Colorado State Univesity for graduate school.  

I became and still am interested in the “why” behind performance, injuries, training etc etc…  

 

CSU was great for a number of reasons.  I was a volunteer coach for the XC and Track & Field teams, worked in a running specialty store, taught a few exercise science classes and focused on endurance performance and biomechanics for my research.  My publication is: Between the Beginning and End of a Repetition: How Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors Influence the Intensity of a Biceps Curl; Strength and Conditioning Journal, October 2007.  I don’t see any runners excited to read it, but the research does have implications for all of athletics.  Running got better too, though I broke every science rule out there and went from 50 miles a week to 90 miles, at altitude, with a bunch of guys faster then me, and while working 80 hours a week (I paid the price, my rest heart rate was 2x’s it’s normal rate I was so over trained), but in the midst of my stupidity I qualified for the Olympic Trials for the marathon with a 2:21:38.  Not a rocking time but considering I’ve never raced over a 10k, and wasn’t able to train enough because of school/work, I was ecstatic.  

 

From there the Hansons gave me a shot, but my weakness from lack of years of training would have put me in a bad place there, so I hold the record for the shortest time in the house.  Which was rough because what the Hansons have going on is great, I just would have wasted their money.  I went onto teaching anatomy and physiology and kinesiology down in Illinois, while running for Saucony.  I ended up missing most of 2007 with pneumonia (no health insurance for teaching part time in a college).  In September of 2007, I got a job in a sports research lab in Oregon and gave it my best shot for the Trials.  I felt ready to run 2:17-2:18 on that course but my stomach had a different agenda (it sucks understand “why” because I knew what was going on, I just couldn’t stop it).  Ah the beauty of that damn race.

 

Along the way, I had an adverse reaction to an altitude tent.  I’ve since sold it, and I’ll be writing an article on the science behind those interesting tents.  Now I’m still working for the research lab, coaching a few athletes, training hard myself and racing for the Bowerman AC.  I will be posting my training log to get ready for some XC fall racing then track along with this article, and if you have questions on that stuff, just ask.

 

Alright so that was probably too much info, maybe I should have stuck random details like my favorite movies (Fight Club, True Romance, Office Space).  The point of this article to promote discussion between you, me (and) each other, provide an applied science point of view to all the confusing and great things about the sport we love, and along the way we might both learn something!

 

Personally, I am excited about this, I hope you enjoy it (if you don’t I will hear about it for sure somehow ?! )

 

later,

-Danny