McMillanElite :: Jordan Horn
Entry #165 The sunrises and sunsets up in flagstaff can just be awe inspiring to look at. With colors of purple, pink, red, blue, orange and black, you can get lost in the beauty of the sky and forget yourself in that mental picture. It reminds me of one of my favorite songs by “The Broadways,” which they sing about those people who usually get to see the beauty of those sunrises; who are the druggies, boozers and the crazy people of this world. I know which one I am, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I just wish more people would join me! The summer base training is winding down, where I once again reached my new highest with mileage. Most of the time this year I have been feeling really good with the mileage. Nothing was really bugging me or making me feel like I was going into the well. That changed a few weeks ago when I went back home to see the family then came back to flagstaff. I kept up the miles but felt like a million pounds, then I started to run the way I felt. It was a good reminder that running is a roller coaster ride. Lots of ups and downs, and I need to keep a good head on my shoulders and go with the flow. In a short couple of weeks, myself and some of my teammates get to represent the United States in a mixed-team marathon relay in Japan. When I found out I made the team, I yelled out loud for a long time. I’m pretty sure I scared all the dogs around the neighborhood and made people reach for their phones, just in case something had happened. It’s been a dream for me to wear the red, white and blue of the United States for as long as I can remember, and I will soak up this experience. I hope this is just the next step for me, and I can use this to help make more teams and reach my Ultimate goal in 2012! Entry #151 BEFORE I woke up about 8am east coast time and went for a little walk around the hotel. Around ten, everyone (Greg, Ian, Lemon, Jaime, Lindsay and myself) met up in the lobby to run the corse and do some strides. Ian explained it the best, “It’s not a hard course, but it’s not really an easy course, it’s just kind of like, in the middle.” After the run, some of us headed over to the store to pick up some food. We didn’t know how far the store was, so we hopped on the hotel shuttle, to find out that it was about 400 meters away. I picked up the usual, some bananas, bagels, a little peanut butter, and something to drink. You might think that we travel to all these places and see cool things, which is mostly true, but we need to rest the legs, so most of the time is spent sitting around the room saving the legs. So today is easy to write about. Ian and I are watching television in the room waiting for dinner, and nothing much else is going on. Dinner will be fun, sitting around with all these really fast people just trying to fit in and be known. Well, I'm going to stop writing and focus on being lazy... AFTER Entry #137 Family time and getting back at it!
After the disappointment at the USA Track and Field championship but a great learning experience I decided to head home to see the family. I was planning to head home anyways but had a little extra incentive with my brother getting two weeks away from Iraq. His wife was already in California with their child Brody so I was really excited for the trip. I had a blast with my family, they are always fun and slow me a good time. They let me cook for them and I hope they enjoyed the food. Some of my best friends whom I consider bothers had some time off and I was able to spend time with them. We went to the Thursday night fair in Upland where we got to hangout, eat good food and catch up with each other. I always have good times with my friends, they give me all their love and support me in what I’m doing even though we don’t get to hangout as much as I’d like! The visit was to short but the track season left me hungry for more.
I was happy to come back to Flag because that’s when I could sit down and think about the good and bad things that happened for the year. This year there were a lot of good things that happened so I can take a lot of positive from the year. After I sat down with Greg to talk about the year ahead I got really excited for the things to come. With more miles than I’ve done in the past, faster and longer workouts the whole shebang this year will be even better then the last! Other then that there isn’t much to talk about other then Paige and company heading over to Germany to take on the world! Good luck! “You acted like I was a book…like you can open it, figure me out by skipping ahead…but there’s chapters that I haven’t even read…” None more Black
1. What is your favorite movie? That is too hard of a question to answer because I love to many movies! Wickit and schul. Entry #117 A long time coming and faster times ahead... In 2003 on a cold night in Fullerton, California I put on my Fullerton vest and headed toward the starting line. It was going to be my first 5k ever on a track and I already had mixed feelings. In my mind I was going to be a miler, just like every high school distance kid. It is the glory event for distance runners but my coach really wanted me to run the 5k and I said, “let’s do it”! I ran the race the only way I know how and that was running as fast as I could until I was spent. It was the hardest race I had ever done and I fell in love with the distance but it did not love me back. It has taken me six years to realize what I knew as a high schooler; that it is not about times, it’s about competing. I went into the Brutus Hamilton meet with one thing on my mind and that was putting myself in a position to win that race. I didn’t care if there were guys with faster personal bests than me; I just wanted to beat them. I didn’t beat most of them but I was close. That race made me hungry to win, the times are nice but I want that first place, that gold medal! Well, writing a little bit about the race is getting me excited to race again so I should stop, but I want to say thanks to everyone that called, texted and wrote emails. It can feel like a lonely road sometimes but I’m realizing it’s not as lonely as I thought. Happy Birthday MOMMY! Happy birthday ZORDON! Happy birthday JACOB! I’m pretty sure I’m missing some one sorry! "I never tried that, I never tried that but I know I don’t Like it…or maybe I do but I am to into fight!" The Lawrence Arms Entry #106 Trying to catch a ride on that train! Everyone on the team seems to have a ticket and I am just waiting for my turn. If you still don’t know what I am talking about just look at the results page of this website. Everyone seems to be running fast and it’s about time I step up and earn those three stripes that I wear. It has been a lot of fun watching my teammates run fast times and make National teams but I want them to rest for a little while so I can put on a show. Coming off fall training where I reached new heights, I had my eye set on fighting for an Indoor title, but it was not meant to be. I have refocused and am feeling better from my little injury that made me miss some of my training. Matt and I are going to test our legs a little by hitting the track for a 5K. The 5K just so happens to be at my old college, Cal State Fullerton, which just got a new track, so I am pretty excited to head home and race in front of my family. It should be a fun race, where Matt and I will trade off laps and just run fast enough to really test the legs. This week's workouts have been lighter because of the race but the miles are still coming, because it is way too early in the season to cut those. We started the week with some 900’s on the indoor track starting at 10K goal pace which is 68 quarters on the outdoor track or 51’s for the 300 indoor track. Then we worked it down to the pace we want to run this weekend which is 66’s. The pace felt good and my legs felt fine, now it is just time to get the head ready to race. I think I felt so good on the track that day because of the new gear that I got from adidas, I could tell you about it but I think a video is coming up with that workout on it so you just have to wait to see. I think I will leave it at that so take it easy... “The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.” –Aldous Huxley NOTE: Jordan and Matt both ran PR's at the Cal State Fullerton Ben Brown Invitational 5000m, both running 13:50, finishing 1st and 2nd - Results
Entry #88 What a crazy last few months, personal records and national championships left and right, it's good to be in Flagstaff! The Trip back to Flagstaff was one of the weirdest I have ever had. About half way home my right eye closed and I could not open it. The fact that I had two dogs with me, one eye and a bad cold made the drive pretty interesting. The next day my eye was blood red, so I have now earned another nickname courtesy of Greg, which is "Pinky." It goes along well with the others: Hornet, Yordan, Horny and super-sexy stud. No one has called me the last one but I'm hoping that it will catch on. It is almost my favorite time of the year, which is track time! We are topping off our great base training phase with some faster stuff, which has its purposes for the bigger picture but it lets me get on the track for a little bit, so I am happy. On Monday I did 300's with Gil and Ian down in Sedona while the half marathoners were doing thousands. I don't know about the other boys, but it felt great to get on the track for those. The way I felt and the way everyone look around me, I think that the men and women of McMillanElite are going to fly this year! Happy New Year! Make it a great one! Entry #59 "It was a day that I will remember forever...the loss of life on all sides was way too much, but the worst thing about it all; is it will be pushed into the back of peoples minds only after a couple of years...It's human nature to push the bad things away, but it is sad when people forget about what actually happened." -Joe Hanley in Studs Terkel "The Good War" talking about D-Day The September 11, 2001 attacks are my generation's John F. Kennedy assassination and like JFK's assassination most of us know what we were doing at that very moment. Sadly, if you were my age, most of us on the west coast were sleeping when it all started. There were a few of us that were up doing things and my original blog was about that, but out of the sad and dark moments of the anniversary of the attacks came supreme happiness on the next day September 12, 2008 for the Horn Family. My brother's wife gave birth to their first child, a boy by the name of Brody Horn.
He is a looker! Finally a good-looking kid with the last name of Horn! Good job and congratulations Jesse and Tiffany. Running has been going great even though I have been sick. I've kept up the miles and have had the most consistent base training in my life. It is easy to run that much and that fast when you have the guys that I train with. Everyone has their days and it shows, but it's good when you're in the hurt having the boys pull you through a run or a workout. Things are looking good for the runners in Flagstaff; everyone from the McMillanElite group to the local runners that we run with on Thursdays and the runners at NAU. I just want to say thanks to everyone that has helped me and the rest of the team through our individual journeys as runners, as members of McMillanElite, to becoming the best that the United States can offer. Thanks Jesse, Zordon and the rest of the U.S. military for giving me the opportunity to chase after my dreams of becoming an Olympian!
Entry #33 With much confusion and some forgetfulness on my part there was no blog last week. Sorry about that but thankfully there is going to be one this week! I will start by recapping the week that was lost because there was some great action under the California sun. There might not have been any sun during the race, but during the day the weather was so great I did not want to leave that out. Brett Gotcher in his first race of the year (not counting the 3000m where he stopped and try to walk an elderly lady across the track) lit up his old college track running the 10,000 meters in a time of 28:39. Not too bad for his first time out this year and it was easy to see that faster times are coming for the Goat soon enough! It doesn’t stop there; Brett then took us to his home, which is in a beautiful location near a beach which was quite nice. Brett’s parents put on a buffet which included very large Watsonville strawberries, which some were covered in chocolate, it was a good time! I want to thank Brett’s family for having all of use over there, so thank you very much Terry, Loree and Lia! This past week and the few weeks before have been hard ones for me. Thought I am getting the work done for the most part everything has felt flat. If you do not know what that means it’s like there are twenty pound weights on my legs and no bounce in my step. In the past when I have felt flat everything has gone wrong but this time the work is getting done but it is not coming as easy as I would like. I know I am fit, I just need to get free of my mind and just run hard. Like my old sprint coach use to tell me, “track is like a roller coaster; there are ups and down and you just have to enjoy the ride!” The training was pretty normal with a couple of easy runs except for the workout on Friday. It was the hardest workout I have ever done and it was at 7000ft. We started with a 2 mile tempo and then jumped into 6 x 800 meters at 5k goal pace. It was a very hard workout and I was all over the place with my pacing. The one good thing that I got from the workout was to try push though those hard patches, which I did my best. The Sunday run was great not because of where we ran, but the fact that we got to run with fun people. We even picked up some guy that was camping out on the side of the trail and wanted to run with us. That is what Flagstaff is all about! I want to wish everyone running the U.S.A. women’s Olympic Trail in the Marathon this weekend good luck. Have fun in Boston! Entry #24 Babies, babies everywhere! No matter where I go I am surrounded by babies! Like Lemon said last week, we have a new addition to the team, Angus McMillan. Yeah Greg and Tracy you have a cute one! Also, back home one of my best friend's girlfriend had a baby boy named Ethan, one of probably many more to come, way to go Mike! I am sure Angus and I will become the best of buddies in the months to come but for now all of my focus will be on U.S. Cross in San Diego. The week ended up being a good one with a little weirdness at the end for the guys and myself. We have finally moved away from the base training phase and more into stamina training which means only a few more months until the speed training phase which is the stuff I enjoy the most. Don't get me wrong I love running and being in Flag makes it better, but nothing beats going fast. (The California Highway patrol would tell you I like going to fast.) We also started a new circuit training program that is being added on in conjunction with the core routine. Some of the stuff makes you feel like you are trying to walk down a fashion runway but Greg said that it came from some of the best runners ever, so I'm game! Wednesday we did some pace running on the NAU indoor track that went really well. The pace that I was running felt really comfortable and I felt like if I had to double it I could have. Friday we were right back at it but this time we went down to Camp Verde for some mile or two mile repeats, depending on our event. This workout also went really well for all that made it down from Flag. We had to leave a couple of teammates back home because the townhouse has a little flu bug. It felt really good to get the legs rolling with some faster workouts after a long period of just running and long steady-states. There are a few things that I am learning up here in Flagstaff that are related to running. When it's cold and raining, wear many layers of clothing and not just for your upper body. If you have any more questions just ask John Little, our local lawyer and Trials qualifier, and he will tell you about the California boy who learned this lesson the hard way. The second thing that I learned and keep learning is that I need to pay more attention while running. I have fallen ten times more than anyone else in Flagstaff, and sometimes twice on runs. I just get caught up looking at random things, sometimes cool but mostly stupid. The last thing is related to the second because it usually ends the same way, me falling. Just because Middleton can run over weak ice doesn't mean that I can. I think it has to do with the fact that I outweigh him by around 70 pounds but I am not sure. We had another guest stay at the Cooper House this week - Scott Douglas, who is a writer for Running Times. If you're interested in what goes on in my mind and all the crazy things that I and the rest of the boys do in the Cooper House, you are going to have to wait because he was here interviewing someone else. He was just using the house for sleeping and answering many bad questions that I had for him. It was nice having Scott over because he is full of information that I would have never learned or heard about. Well, I think I have covered most of what's gone down so I wish everyone well and to keep doing what makes you happy. "If you ignore your heart things will fall apart"-The Evens Entry #16 Hello and welcome once again to the McMillanElite Training Blog. My name is Jordan Horn, and this will be my first entry, so I will introduce myself a little bit. I am the most recent member to join McMillanElite. Just over a month ago I left sunny Southern California for the beautiful mountains trails of Flagstaff, Az. I left behind a loving family that I would like to give a quick shout out to: Love you Mom, Dad, Jamie, Big Z, Little Z, Bailey, Josiah, Noah, Jacob, Cherie, Jesse and Tiff. Thanks for the support! Now for the week that was.
Getting ready to have some fun We eased up on the mileage a little this past week to get ready for the USATF Club Cross Country Championships in Ohio. On Monday, we had and easy 60 minute run in the morning. Tuesday was an up-tempo day where we put on the spikes and ran 5 times 2 minutes at a good clip with some surges during the interval. Overall it was a good workout, and the first fast workout that I have done since I have been in Flag. Wednesday was another easy run, after which we headed down the mountain to Bri’s house to spend the night before an early flight on Thursday. Thursday started off just before 5 am. Our first flight was delayed about 30 minutes before we took off. This was an issue because it cut into our short layover in Denver. Once we landed, a mere 10 minutes were left for us to catch our next flight. Greg instructed me to get to the other gate as fast as I could so it would not leave us. Once people got off the plane I sprinted from one side of the airport to the other and made it just in time as the lady was closing the door. (Gate 15 to Gate 84 = .75mi) Thankfully, she was very nice and said we had two minutes to get everyone to check-in. It is a good thing that we all run because the normal person would not have made it, but we are McMillanElite and we all made it. Once we made it to Ohio, we immediately ran into traffic to get the hotel and traveled about two miles in one hour before we got off the interstate and finally found our way around the traffic (thanks Middle). By the time we got to the hotel it was very late so we just ran 30 minutes on the ice-covered parking lots around the hotel and the local food joints. What a day! Friday we went over to the course which was really nice. It had a fresh layer of snow on it, but we all knew that it was going to be sloppy on race day because the forecast called for rain all night. Race Day Brett Gotcher and Mike Hanlon had great races for us, finishing 7th and 13th, respectively; while Middle and myself had off days. Brianna looked great and finished well picking people off the whole time. For me I could never get in a groove out on the course. I was all over the place and if I tried to run fast I would just slow down. It’s frustrating to be in a race and only give 75 to 80 percent but that is the beast we know as cross country. The only thing I can say about the after party is that you must check out letsrun. Sunday was another great day of travel for us we left the hotel at 4:45am. This time the plane left on time for Chicago but our fight out of Chicago was cancelled, therefore immediately adding a couple of hours to our trip home. Instead of going to Phoenix we had to stop in Denver first then wait awhile for our flight home. There was one good thing about the delays, we found out how well Martin did at Euro Cross. I think I speak for everyone here in saying great job Martin we all new you were going to do well, so congratulations! Thanks for your time and I would like to thank everyone on McMillanElite for accepting me on the team and making me feel like I belong, peace. |
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