The PTFL

“With the 27th pick in the 2009 PTFL Draft, the Detroit HorsePower select Liam Boylan-Pett of Georgetown and Columbia University…” (it sucks that in my own fantasy I understand around where I would have been picked in a 30 team draft of last years Track and Field Draft…)

I stand up and button my jacket. I give the obligatory hug and kiss on the cheek to my Mom and Dad and brother and sister and step-dad and cousins and friends (I roll with an entourage); then walk up to the podium, shake the commissioner’s hand and pull the black hat down over my mop of hair, it’s logo – a golden horse with track spikes on it – glowing.

I show up to Detroit a few days later, sign my three-year contract (I get the added bonus of a POWERBAR deal mixed in as well), and get to work. The Horsepower just signed Dathan Ritzenhein as well (they like Michigan talent), to cover the distance events, but I’ll be expected to carry the load from the 8 to the mile.

Little Caesar Stadium is nestled in next to Ford Field and Comerica Park, I run interval after interval and then cool down with a run along the river and a view of Canada.

Then, the season starts, I travel all around the country on chartered jets from St. Louis to Salt Lake City competing in sold out stadiums in events like the 1k one night then the mile the next. I run great some nights; then I struggle the next.

This is life as a rookie in the Professional Track and Field League.

That’s what it could have been. If only I’d have chosen a cooler sport…Or if only track were more popular.

OOOORRRRRR, things could have been terrible. What if I was a kid who didn’t know what to do with a lot of money at a young age? What if I turned into a sports star A-hole who was all about drugs, sex, and rock n’ roll? (Although, I think in the nerdy world of running, I would have maybe only had to worry about rock n’ roll.) Hopefully the PTFL wouldn’t have destroyed me. We’ll never have to find out…
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I was pretty jacked about my last week of training. I did some 5k stuff on Tuesday (7x800, all around 65-66pace) and then came back on Friday for my tougher workout of the week. I am finally starting to get to do some speed stuff, or as my coach calls it, speed endurance work. This is the stuff that makes me, well…me.

The workout was pretty simple – 3x1k at 75-76 (easy pace for 1ks) and then 2x150 at 19 seconds (~26 second 200 pace). This was all part of the warm-up though…next up was a 500. I was working out with Dylan Sorensen, a freshman at Gtown who has been having a great season, and he led us through. It was a hot morning, but I passed him with 200 to go and ran a 64.3 second 500 –which is a definite PR, and you can never complain about PRs in practice. Then I rested up about 9 minutes and ran a 51flat 400 to close out the workout. I was STRUGGLING afterwards (aching head, cotton-mouth, burning legs), but it wasn’t supposed to feel good.

Getting ready for an 800 in Indy on the 12th as my last tune-up before USAs…getting excited.

Let’s Go!