McMillanElite :: Brett Gotcher

As for my training, things have pretty much started where I left off last year. I've been able to consistently run more miles than I ever have and my workouts are already as fast as my fastest ones last year. I haven't raced yet, but this is not from lack of motivation. Seeing Ian and Cele already doing their thing has had me fired up for days now. I feel like their results have translated into momentum for myself and for the entire team. When you see the people you train with putting on performances like that, it's hard not to think you are going to do the same thing. Luckily, many of us will have a chance to put this momentum to the test very soon. This coming weekend we will have people running all over the country, from a little 8k in Tucson to the U.S. men's marathon championship in the Twin Cities. This is exciting stuff as we head into the thick of the fall racing season, and hopefully we can continue to build momentum for each other all the way into the winter.

Life outside of running is going very well right now too. Let me say that it is great having Lindsay up here now. Life is so much simpler now that she lives about 10 houses down from me, so instead of a phone call, I can just walk down there and talk to her in person. Also, the printshop that I work for just opened a new shop right in the heart of downtown and I think it is really going to be a hit. We are going to focus on more artsy stuff instead of boring old blueprints (sorry dad) and we are going to sell a bunch of cool Flagstaff merchandise too. I fully expect to be a millionaire come January, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see! Last but not least, I have to say hi to the fam. Lia, this shout out is for you because I know you think you don't get enough credit in my writings. Tazzy and Wicket say hi.

Thanks.

BG

Since that race, I have been on my down time, which consists of no running, but trying to stay active in some way during the day. I think this has been the hardest down time I've ever had to take because I feel like I'm the only one who's doing it. Usually you have the whole college team taking it at the same time, so it's easier to deal with the fact that you are not training, but up here, people are getting fit! It's hard for me to rationalize my time off when I hear that Trent and Middle just had a 22-mile day and they are killing all their workouts, or how Martin got in great shape in about 48 hours. I just keep telling myself that after about 50 weeks with only a few days off, I've earned 2 easy ones. So for now, I have a couple more days to fully rest up before I start the building process again. I feel like the team has gained a lot of positive momentum from this past year, and with the new additions, we have put ourselves in a position to have a big year number 2!

Brett

THE SEASON
So far, this season has been a blast. I’ve got to go back to my old stomping grounds twice and ran personal bests both times, and I even got to run a fun little 1500 down in San Diego. I told myself coming into the season that I just wanted to keep progressing, even if it meant just a little at a time. It’s really hard to be patient when some of your peers are running huge PR's and are getting Olympic A standards, but I can see Greg’s vision and I understand that my best years may be down the road a bit. My other goal coming into this season was to make the Olympic Trials. I think, with my time, it may be a long shot, but I’m not going to lose hope just yet. Now we just have to play the waiting game…

FUN STUFF
Even though I was feeling a little off this week, my friends and teammates were able to bring some fun into my life. On Tuesday night we hosted a BBQ at our house to bring everyone together one more time before people started to head out all over the world. Middle cued up some great burgers and the horseshoe pits got a lot of action. We said goodbye to Jordan on Thursday as he headed home for a race or two, and then Hanlon headed out on Friday for a little stint back in the Ace Deuce. Lemon and I will be traveling to New York soon for the Healthy Kidney 10k and then he leaves for London right after that where he will continue his run at the UK Olympic team. Probably the biggest departure of all will be Middle’s in another week or two, where he will head home to marry his lovely fiancée. After the wedding and a nice little honeymoon at some exotic destination, Middle will return, but will no longer be in the Cooper house. It’s going to be a sad day when he moves the last of his stuff out of his room. Even though he’s only moving about 5 houses down from us, we’re still going to miss him dearly. We love you Middle!!

THANK YOU
I also want to take this time to give a big thank you to all the people that are sponsoring our group. It’s really cool to know that people believe in us and want us to succeed and that they will lend us all the support we need to get to the top. With adidas providing us with everything from gear to housing, the New York Road Runners giving us funding for massage therapy, and local people like Phil Wharton and Austin Baillie of Wharton Performance and the Center for High Altitude Training, we are living a distance runner’s dream!! And of course, we can’t forget the man with the plan, Greg McMillan, who coaches us for free and puts up with our antics on a daily basis. Thank you everyone!!

That’s all for this week. Hopefully we’ll have some exciting results to update you with in the coming weeks!

As you may know already, Greg also has a successful online coaching business. He has helped many people out there achieve their goals of running a marathon and beating their personal records by minutes. In this email, he tells us about a woman who has done just this, running a big PR in her latest marathon. However, he also shares with us that she is now working on conquering a new obstacle: cancer. She told Greg that reading our blogs and following our development has actually helped her in her fight against cancer. I never could have imagined having this type of impact on someone, but either way, I feel very honored that someone out there understands what we are trying to do here at McMillanElite and can take something away from it. I just want her to know that the inspiration we gave her has in turn re-inspired me and has shown me that what I do can actually be very important to some people. So thank you!

THE WEEK
To me, this week seemed to have a lot of change involved in it, but in a very good way. We have had some great new people showing up for training stints before the women’s marathon trials and the track season get underway. Michelle finally has a few roommates at the new women’s house right down the street from us with Desiree Ficker (possibly the all-around fittest person I’ve ever met) and Laura Farley (Team Indian Elite) just showing up. On the other side of town is Molly Taber, also a marathon trials qualifier, and the rest of the Team Indiana Elite guys. It’s really nice to have a bunch of new people coming out here because it mixes things up a bit and I think it brings everyone a little closer in the end. Big group runs have become almost a daily thing, and I don’t even want to go into the dinners we’ve been having. Let’s just say big, random assortments of food and dessert can be very good.

We also made our first trip down to Phoenix for a workout this week. We’ve hit up the Camp Verde and Sedona scene quite a bit, but had yet to make it all the way down to the heart of the valley. Greg wanted to get on a nice track at sea level to do some 5k and 10k pace work, so Paradise Valley Community College was the spot. Despite some warm temperatures and a little wind, the workouts were all very promising and left us hungry to get this track season going. The MVP of this workout was definitely Hanlon as he tore through all the 1000’s. It’s always exciting to see your teammate’s workouts getting better and better, and I think Hanlon got us all pretty pumped to see when he has his big breakthrough race.

A good change for me this week was that Jordan recently purchased a new skateboard. This may not seem like it would affect me at all, but after skating around by myself for the past few months, it’s nice to have someone else to cruise around with. Now I know you’re probably thinking how dumb it is for runners to be skating around because we are all so uncoordinated and will probably just end up hurting ourselves, but Jordan and I are different. The truth is, we’re both too scared to try anything stupid or dangerous, so the chances of getting injured are drastically reduced. In all seriousness though, I’m a strong believer in having other things in your life that can help take your mind off of running because it can eat you up sometimes. Being a radical skateboarder is a great way to come back a little more refreshed.

The last and possibly the greatest change that has taken place this week is the change in weather. After what seemed like years of snow and ice (I’m a California boy), we finally got some beautiful Flagstaff days. I was even lucky enough to see what a sunburn feels like again! I’m not sure if all the new people brought the sunshine and warmth with them, but whatever it is, I hope it stays. I can see spring coming right around the corner, and you know what that means. McMillan Elite is hitting the track baby!

It was great to be home and see all my old buddies, and running at sea level ain’t too bad either.  I had some great confidence booster workouts while I was down there and couldn’t wait to get back up to 7000 ft to keep on rolling.  I left sunny (but kind of cold) California on Tuesday just before the storm of the century hit town.  I was bummed to find out that 30 ft. waves were peeling onto the local beaches (it was actually victory at sea type conditions, 50mph winds, etc.).  I know Greg would have fully supported surfing in these conditions because it is a great cross training workout and can also be very taxing on your lungs.  Once I arrived back in Flagstaff though, I realized I had left one storm and jumped right into another.  Most of the snow that was on the ground before I left had melted away, but any fool could see that soon enough, it would be back.  It was pretty smooth sailing early on in the week, but the clouds started rolling in and before we knew it, Flagstaff was once again a winter wonderland.  But let me tell you, it’s going to take a lot more than a little snow to slow us down.  If anything, I got more excited to run.  When I woke up, I felt like a giddy little kid when I looked out the window to find our front yard under a few inches of fresh snow.  We just slipped into our tights and strapped on the hat and gloves and off we went, slogging through the ice/snow mixture that covered the roads.  We weren’t too concerned about running fast this week as we head into the U.S. Half Marathons champs next weekend, so the sloppy conditions didn’t hinder our training plans.  Right now, it’s all about feeling good. Besides all our usual training runs, we just did one marathon pace workout run and one fartlek for our harder days this week and next week will be even more low key.  I’m definitely starting to get excited for this next race, even though I have never raced anything over 10 miles.  I think our training has put us in a great position to run a solid half marathon, so hopefully we can all go out there and capitalize on the opportunity.

I was also fortunate enough to have some of the old Stanford crew around this week, including my lovely girlfriend, Lindsay.  Teresa McWalters also made the long journey out with Lindsay and spent a few days at our house, and Ryan and Sara Hall were staying at Alicia’s house for a bit.  It was great to catch up with all of them because it’s been a while since I’ve sat down and heard about what’s going on in their lives besides all of their running endeavors.

Now for the highlights of the week.  Although a lot went on this week, there were two things that I thought we especially enjoyable.  The first was on Friday night, which also happened to be Hanlon’s 23rd birthday.  Well over 30 people gathered together at Mike Smith’s townhouse for a big dinner.  Everyone brought a little something, and I think we ended up having about 37 different desserts.  It was an absolutely ridiculous feast. 

The next highlight happened right here in my own house.  One of the things that made the trip back to Flagstaff with me was a brand spankin new Wii.  After Jordan was done making jokes about how he likes to play with his Wii all the time, we got down to business with some bowling, baseball, and even track and field.  It actually was a lot of fun hanging with Lindsay, Teresa, and the boys and watching everyone get way too into the games (you may be able to tell by the face being made in this picture).  It was definitely some good bonding time.

As this week comes to a close, we get to look forward to our 2008 debut.  We have some very lofty goals this season, so hopefully we can get the year started with a good one in Houston.  Wish us luck!!

While we were in New York, there were so many things to do and so many distractions that I was able to avoid confronting this issue.  Now that I’m back in Flagstaff, the harsh reality has slowly begun to set in.  On Tuesday, I was talking to my girlfriend on my way home from work and I just broke down.  I had realized just how heavy this was.  I’d only known Ryan for a few months, but I could see that we were on our way to becoming good friends.  I’ve known Alicia for about 6 or 7 years now, and I knew how happy she was with him.  I think that’s what got me the most.  I thought about Ryan and Alicia a lot this week, especially when I was running, and that’s good because there is a lot to think about.  I have to think about how I am possibly going to console Alicia when I see her, what it’s going to be like on long runs without Ryan, and how this loss is going to affect our running community.  I think it’s going to bring us closer.  All of the sudden, our jobs, our training, and our egos and selfish motivations don’t seem so big.  Something much bigger has happened and it’s forced me to take a step back and reevaluate why I run.  Of course it’s great to win some medals and earn some money, but even if those things weren’t there, I would still be running.  I run because I love it and I get to be around some amazing people. 

Ryan, for one, has left me with some great memories from the past few months.  Whether he’s showing up for runs with some “magic dirt” on his legs (one of Phil’s cures) or he’s claiming that you can’t put a mustang in an open field and expect it not to run, Ryan always brought something great to our community.  His intensity combined with light-heartedness made him one special guy.  Ryan, thanks for everything bud, you won’t ever be forgotten.

I apologize for not including a whole lot about our training, but this is what I felt was most important this week.  I think everybody that reads this can understand where I’m coming from, so thanks for letting me get this off my chest.

FLAG
My time here in Flagstaff so far has been nothing short of amazing.  Before I joined this team, I had never really even heard of Flagstaff, let alone thought of it as a place to train.  But now that I’m here, I’m a believer.  The transition has been very smooth, as I have just been building up slowly, only doing one hard workout a week.  The rest of the time I get to run on the endless trails that surround Flagstaff.  I think it’s so cool that I can walk out my door and be on one of those trails in just a few minutes. 

MY MATES
Now for those of you who don’t know, we have a little bit of a predicament on this team.  Beginning this next Monday (17 Sept), we will officially have two Mikes and two Andrews, as Andrew Lemoncello will be coming aboard.  I am taking charge and have decided to give these guys some nicknames, nothing too fancy, but just so it will be easier to know who is who.
Mike Smith will simply become “Smithy”.
Mike Hanlon will be known as “Big Mike”.
Andrew Middleton will become “Middle”.
Andrew Lemoncello will be “Chelly” and just for fun, Brianna Torres will become “Brifontaine” (courtesy of the LetsRun.com Johnson brothers).
Martin Fagan is going to continue being Martin because it’s hard enough understanding and communicating with him as it is, so I don’t want add any more confusion.  And from time to time I may refer to coach Greg McMillan as “Greg McMills”.

THIS WEEK-TRAINING, ETC.
This week was a pretty good week of training.  Big Mike and I did our first hill circuit workout this week on Tuesday.  It was tough, but we both felt good, and Big Mike trooped it out with a sore hamstring.  I don’t get to work out too much with Middle or Smithy because they are on the marathon path at this point, but I can honestly say that I would be very scared if I had to race those guys.  With the work they have been putting in, I think they are going to turn a lot of heads in the coming months.

Friday was a big day for Martin and I, as we both did a 10-mile steady state run.  Martin was in a tough position because he had a shirt stolen the day before while on a run, and then the day of the workout someone took his flats.  He was fuming, and I was getting a little nervous about doing this long workout with him.  I also thought he might knock my head off if I said something to him.  But he kept it together and had a great workout.  I felt like I was holding him back the whole time, and he was just cruising right along.  He and I are both getting a little antsy to race, and I can’t wait to see how he does come October.

We had a bunch of visitors this week too.  Greg McMills parents were in town and they came over and helped Greg with a few little jobs around the house.  They were great people and I can totally see where Greg gets his southern charm.  At our house, we had Middle’s girlfriend, Casey, hang out for a few days and he wined and dined her all weekend long.  It’s always good to have Middle in your corner because he is one dedicated guy.  A few of Big Mike’s college friends were passing through so they stayed for a night too.  We went to Karma (the sushi joint Smithy works at) with Martin and Smithy and boy did we get the treatment.  Smithy is also a great guy to have in your corner because he knows absolutely everyone of importance in this town.  If you need anything, he’s got a guy for the job.  We met up with Brifontaine and Amy Hastings later on and had a fun-filled night under the stars in downtown Flagstaff.

On Saturday, we all helped out at a high school cross country race and got to see Big Mike in action with his team (he’s the assistant coach at Flagstaff High).  I got to ride a bike behind the last people and mostly just chatted with them as they walked the course (altitude can be tough when you live at sea level).

The week ended on a glorious note as we did our long run out by Phil Wharton’s house and had a feast of a brunch afterwards.  All in all, it was a great week.  That’s just how it goes these days in good old Flagstaff.