Nothing really exciting here, kiddos. Just the paltry amount of running I did this week + a little nationals racing recap. BTW, thanks Walt- I don't know exactly who you are but it's nice to have support out there. Likewise, thanks to everyone else who's reading and and commenting. It means a lot.
Monday- 3pm- 7 easy
9:30pm- 5 easy indoors w/George
Tuesday- 3:00pm- 2 miles w/u, last Baker St workout til next December. 1x660 (1:28) 220 jog, 440 in 62, 440 jog, 3x220 (27, 27, 26) 220 jog rest, 4x110 all out (untimed) with 110 jog. 2 miles c/d.
Wednesday- Wake up at 5:30am, travel all day- Manchester to Detroit to Indianapolis, drive to Terre Haute. 30 min shakeout jog + strides with Najem before dinner.
Thursday- 30 min jog with Najem, plus barefoot strides on Rose-Hulman's infield. It was like 55 out- beautiful, compared to what we've had the last few weeks.
Friday- AM- 2 mile shakeout
PM- 3 miles warmup, 1st heat mile prelim. While I have confidence in my finishing abilities, I didn't want to let things go slow. The way these prelims usually work is that the first heat goes out in a jog (last year the first heat hit 2:22 at the half) and everyone blasts the last half- 1st and last place gets separated by like five yards, then the second heat gets all the time qualifiers (at d3, the top 3 from each heat plus the next four fastest times advance to the final). Rather than risk getting boxed in and miss the final by a foot or something equally dumb, I just went to the front and clipped off a 4:11 mile, not bothering to sprint in with Kosgei and McConnell from Elmhurst since I was third and assured of a spot in the final. I realized before I ran that with travel and everything, it had been more than 24 hours since I had drank any liquid at all. That just meant that the 4:11 I ran was harder than it needed to be and I had an absolutely pounding headache when I finished. I drank a gallon (no exaggeration- 128 oz of water) of water before dinner and it was fine. It was just stupid of me to forget to drink water. After the race I got in two miles of barefoot jogging on the grass- beautiful weather again.
Saturday- AM- 2 mile shakeout
PM- 2 miles barefoot jogging, mile final at Nationals- 3rd, 4:09.81. I didn't feel fantastic going into this race, but I kept telling myself I was just nervous because unlike last year, where there was no pressure on me at all (being a freshman and everything), this year, I had a "win or nothing" mentality going in. At the time, I felt like if I didn't win, I had wasted Peter's time. Anyway, Mack Chaffee from Williams did the brave thing and ran from the front, pulling us through in 62, 2:05, and 3:08. I was following him so closely I got some nice spike wounds but with 3 laps to go, I was pinned on the rail by Kosgei. With 200 to go I got free, went wide around the turn, and thought, with 150 to go, I was going to win. Then Kosgei found another gear and I rigged, failing to hold off a great last charge by Brian McConnell. I ended up being 3rd, no improvement on last year's place, but looking over at the field, it was a very deep group of guys this year. Last place was 4:11.6 or so- faster than the winning time from last year. I've had more time to think about my performance- I'm still not pumped about third, but then again, like three or four weeks ago I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without doubling over, exhausted. I came back, pr'd in the mile and still got an All-American award. Not what I wanted, but not bad either. Mack and I had a nice 20 minute jog afterward before the necessary celebrations that night.
Sunday- Day off, traveling. I'm stealing the neighbor's wireless to post this and it's nice to sit down and have something my mom cooked instead of more restaurant food.
I'm sure there's a lot of stuff I've forgotten to say, but I did want to make sure I mentioned that my former high school teammate and current college teammate, Peter Najem, went out on top his senior year- 4th place in the 800 in the best race I've ever seen him run.
Look forward to the recap tomorrow or Tuesday. . . I have a lot of papers to grade for the class I TA for, so we'll see.
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Craig I'm still hoping to get together a stellar home meet this season. I'll have my coach contact yours with some info so that hopefully we can get some really quality races. Our facilities are real nice and it would be fun to bring some of New England to NY.
ReplyDeleteA PR is a nice thing to walk away from any race with. Sometimes it is just rough when a PR doesn't get you the win. Think of it this way though. If you ran slower than your PR and running your PR would have won it for you; that would be more difficult to digest. Got to hope that your best is good enough next time.
My PR is 4:08.62 from All Division New Englands- still not fast enough to win, but I would have been real close.
ReplyDeleteThanks though- I really hope Pete lets me go to your meet. I'd love to get in a good outdoor mile or two mile or something.