Sunday
Long run 16.5 miles. I did almost the exact same route as last week, except a little extra loop. My calves were a little sore after two races in spikes on the ISU track. (16.5/16.5)
Monday
Easy run in the morning of 6.5 miles. In the evening, I ran with the MSU team about 8 miles. (14.5/31)
Tuesday
Mile pace or rep workout of 2 sets of 200-400-400-600-800 by myself on the 200 meter flat track. The rest was 2 to 2.5 times the rep time. The workout was a bit of a struggle and I didn't do quite as well as I would have liked. My times were 30, 61, 61, 1:33, 2:03, 30, 61, 61, 1:33, 2:06. The last 800 was the most disappointing part of the workout. This workout shook my confidence a bit for the mile I am going to run this Saturday in Seattle at the Husky Classic. However, I will get over it! (8/39)
Wednesday
I decided to throw in a relatively easy workout since I don't race until Saturday. The workout was a mix workout of 2 tempo miles, 2 1200s at 'i' pace, and a set of 3 times 300 cut downs. I felt sluggish from the start of this workout so I decided after the second 1200 not to do the 300 cut downs. My tempo miles were both 5:07 and the 1200s were 3:27 and 3:29. I did this workout on the outdoor track and it was pretty cold (about 18 to 20 degrees), which may have been some of it. Also, I have a cough from running indoors in the dry aired arenas, so I am kind of paranoid about getting sick right now. Once I get the indoor cough, I seem to be really susceptible to getting sick. Yesterday and today's workouts weren't good, but I am still confident with a couple of easy days that I will be ready to roll on Saturday. Easy Run in the afternoon of 4 miles. (12/51)
Thursday
Easy runs of 5 miles in the morning alone and 6 miles in the afternoon with the MSU team. (11/61)
Friday
Took me forever to fall asleep which tends to happen when I have to wake up early. Fell asleep after 1am and was up at 5am to head to the airport with Dan Jackson. The flight to Seattle was pretty smooth and we arrived into Seattle at about 8am. It was good getting in early, but we really were stuck in some thick traffic. Dan and I stopped in downtown Seattle and had a little breakfast. Afterward we walked around downtown Seattle a bit, then went over to UW so Dan could check out the track. After a track preview, we went to check into our motel. The GPS on my phone took us to the competely wrong place. It was a pretty big pain. We finally called the motel and they said everyone's GPS takes them to the wrong area for the motel for some reason. After finally making it to the motel, Dan and I had some Thai food for lunch and then I went for a short run with Chris Baldus who came by the motel. Dan napped while we ran and then we all went to the track meet arriving at about 5:45 or so. Dan ended up running at about 8:35pm that night. He raced pretty darn well and ran 14:07 for the 5K. It wasn't quite the time he was looking for, but I thought he represented himself well and put in a great effort. After the meet, we went back to the motel and then walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. By the time we had settled back into the motel, it was about midnight. It had been a really long day. About 19-20 hours of moving and shaking before the day was finally over. It seemed like it had been about 2-3 days just because we had done so much. (5/66)
Saturday
After getting a good night's sleep, I woke up feeling pretty good and much more relaxed. I had a solid breakfast, a lot of coffee, and we then checked out out of the motel and arrived at the track meet at about 12:30. I was pretty nervous before the race because I didn't know what to expect. I definitely had some fears of completely blowing up and embarrassing myself. However, I just decided I was doing to go after it and see what happened. Felt a little sluggish at the start of the warmup, but started to feel better as the warmup progressed. Finally it was race time. My intention was to get off the line well and get right up toward the front of the pack. The gun went off and my first two steps were good, but then I am pretty sure someone in an Oregon jersey hooked me with his elbow and just like that I didn't have much of a choice but to go toward the back of the pack. Once in the back, it was best for me to stay there unless the pack started to break up. The pace was pretty fast with the leaders through the 400 at about 58 and I came through in 59.7. I just hung out at the back of the pack and was surprised how well I was feeling. With 2 laps to go on the 307 meter track I had thoughts of picking up the pace, but stayed with my race plan which was to go for it as I came onto the home straight for the penultimate (can't believe I just used the word penultimate) time. I started to pick it up as per my race plan with just under 400 meters to go. The second to last turn I was really on the outside of a large pack. I decided I had to get around the pack so I went about as hard as I could with about 250 meters to go. I moved all the way up to 3rd place, but then the big move caught up to me a bit. The last 40 meters of the race it felt like my legs were going to buckle. I ended up finishing 4th in my heat in 4:01.61. Looking at the splits, I may have had a chance for a sub 4 with a faster 3rd 400. Dan had my splits at 59.7, 60.9, 62.6, 58.0. I am pretty sure the last split included the extra 9 meters making my last true 400 56 high or so if that was indeed the case. Before the race I was thinking, why am I even racing this is so stressful and no fun. After the race, I was thinking of how fun it was to be racing again, especially in a good meet with a solid field. After the race, I did a long warm down, then we went out to eat with Kevin and Kari Murphy, before scurrying to the airport to catch our 8:20pm flight back home. We arrived back at our homes just before midnight and Dan and I had a hard time believing we had only been gone one night! (6.5/72.5)
Invite Mile Race Results: http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/22376_1465661.html
Weekly Summary
72.5 miles in 10 runs. It has been hard to get much mileage in the last couple weeks because of traveling to the meets. Mileage isn't too important though and it has been nice to race three weeks in a row and get comfortable racing again.
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