Conference Championships

Well, it wasn't difficult for this week to be better than last. We had the America East Conference meet, which ended up being pretty fun. I took part in a very nervous, jostle-y, fartlek-y kind of mile- everyone and their dad was making moves at random times and I would bounce to the front of the chase pack to the back without feeling like I had changed pace at all. The mile field was quite good- there a sub-4 miler in Erik Van Ingen (whose beard impressed this facial hair aficionado almost as much as his seemingly-effortless 4:04 victory), two jumped 800 meter runners from Albany who had run in the 1:49-1:50 range for 800 and in the 4:06 range for the mile, and Alex Felce, a former English Schools 1500m champion, who Eric tells me has run 8:53 in the steeple at one point. I actually felt terrible from the gun and had one of those "grit your teeth and grind it out one lap at a time" races. It was a very good effort on my part- but, unfortunately, the best I could do was 5th place, behind all the very talented gentlemen I just mentioned. My time was 4:09.8, which was disappointing, but I was glad I "hung in there" mentally when I felt terrible, especially after the way I folded like a bad poker hand like week. I actually believe the race played out fairly close to the on-paper seedings, which is neither good nor bad. On one hand, I would liked to beat some of the guys who on paper were faster runners. On the other hand, at least I didn't run worse than "expected." Bruce keeps telling me (because I seem to have trouble getting it through my thick skull) that the only thing you can control on race day is your own effort. Even though the time wasn't quite what I hoped for and my place less than what I wanted, my effort was good, so I'm taking this as a positive step.

The real money of the weekend, though, was the 4x800. I ran 2nd leg and surprised myself with a 1:53.6 split, significantly faster than my open PR of 1:54.11. My legs felt pretty awful after the mile, but as soon as that baton hit my hand, I knew it would be a solid leg. My opening quarter of 56.4 was the fastest 400 I've run in over a year, haha. Also, the splits are from Bruce, so they're more accurate than F.A.T. timing. Since I won't be doing any open 800s for a good while, I'm counting it as an asterisk'd PR! That we won the relay in 7:38 made my PR leg all the sweeter. Relays are always fun, especially at meets like a conference championship.

Anyway, the log-

Monday- 70' easy with Ken and James, more than 10mi but eh, who wants to measure things.

Tuesday- 5PM- Solo workout after class- 3 up, 2x(800, 600, 400) then 4x200, all with about 300 jog (90 seconds or so).

800- 2:14 (target 2:16)
600- 1:38.5 (target 1:39)
400- 63 (target 63)

800- 2:14 (target 2:16)
600 1:39.0 (target 1:39)
400- 62 (target 63)

4x200- 29s (target 29s)

All in all, a good workout- somewhat shorter rest than normal, but the paces were much less aggressive. I love doing this type of work, it makes me feel strong and easy. 3mi down, mostly with Fish. ~10mi tot

Wednesday- 11AM- No student teaching today because Mass has winter break! 9mi easy, first 7 or so with Eric. Nice weather, felt good. 9PM- 31' shakeout indoors, definitely more than 4 but who cares.

Thursday- 9PM- 56' easy indoors, really busy day! I signed some forms to pursue two degrees simultaneously (Secondary Education and English Literature) so that was fun. Felt pretty good.

Friday- 7mi easy before Day 1 of the meet. Felt ok.

Saturday- America East Day 2- 3 up, mile race 5th place 4:09.8 (2:04.9 at the half, but that doesn't do the very uneven, pace changey nature of the race justice). Decent last quarter to avoid getting too buried. 2mi down. 1 hr rest. 2mi up, 4x800 leg 2- 1:53.6 (56.4/57.2) lost contact with the guy I was racing, but came back a bit in the last 50m. Good competitive effort, nice PR. 3.5 down, 12 tot.

Sunday- 13 easy with Eric, some with Ken, James, Peter, and Tom Osbourne. Felt ok, but my quads were really heavy by the end.

tot 73

Next on the horizon is the mile at the All-Division New England Championships- I'm still optimistic about a good mile in these legs!