Week of 10/5-10/12
Monday: Track Work Out; 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 200. All at 5k pace.
Tuesday: Hill repeats, plyos
Wednesday: 40 minutes easy, 6 strides
Thursday: 25 minutes easy, 6 strides
Friday: WMC Championship Meet
Saturday: Off
Sunday: 60 Minutes
Interesting week. Upon running my worst race of the season last week at Lake Region, my coach and I decided it would be good to run a pretty tough workout at the start of the week, and see where I stand this season. My biggest concern is that I just have nothing left in me.
The first 1200 we did I blew my load pretty badly. It was supposed to all be at my 5k pace. And I went out at 73-75-75 over the three laps, hitting right about 5 minute mile pace. A little bit faster then my average pace in 5k’s. I felt that set through the rest of the work out. I paced well through the rest of the work out, but felt like crap. It was supposed to feel better as I went, an it never felt much better. The thing that gave me hope though was that I hit my pace to the tee every time no matter how much I felt like crap.
The rest of the week was pretty basic and easy. Even the hill repeats were easy, as it was pretty much jogging up a casual incline at the base of a bigger hill. Our coaches really wanted us al to feel fresh for the big meet in Falmouth.
When it came time I was feeling pretty decent. I felt a little more fresh then usual, and did a longer warm up, which felt like it helped kick a lot of the suck out of my legs. Upon further review of the race after words, it wasn’t my body that let me down; it was the way I decided to run.
When the gun went off I didn’t get out of the gates to well. When the course narrowed up some I still wasn’t where I wanted to be in the pack, and got way to worried for a runner with even a little bit of racing experience. I started to surge a little bit, weaving in and out of the pack trying to pass people and get into position. This off set my pace a lot. By the time I got to a spot where I was happy, I was on the heels of the top three Greely guys. I didn’t think this was to bad, because I was pretty much side by side with Mark McCauley, who’s best time on the season is right around my PR. Well, we ended up coming through the mile mark in 5:09. I didn’t know that this was my time at the mile until after the race, but that was way to fast for me to start at. I should be opening up at 5:20-5:25, and trying to hold even splits as much as I can.
Needless to say, after that first mile my race dropped faster then the stock market. I fell back bad starting about at 1.5 miles in. I remember the clear point where I really broke down, when Falmouth’s top 3 passed me at the same time. When a team passes you as a pack, and splits up around you, it drains you a lot, and from there on out I didn’t have much fight in me.
I ended up finish in 16th I think, with a time of 17:35ish. I’m glad that a lot of my friends from other teams were at this meet, it kind of mellowed me out after the meet, being able to hang out with them, instead of going to a middle school athletic field and flipping over a couple soccer goals. It kind of sucks that was the first meet I had where I got to face some of the top competition around. It was the first time since Chandler Relays in which Poland saw Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth, and Greely, along with a host of other teams. It seems like week after week we keep running against the same teams and same kids. But anyways, props to the Falmouth folks for another great WMC meet.
This week is our second home meet of the season. I don’t even know for sure what course it is going to be on. I’m hoping Pineland though. If anything I am going to use this race to fine tune tactical stuff and see what I am comfortable running, even though running tactically in a regular season meet in Maine is a lot different then running a regional championship meet.
Regionals should be fun too. It is on one of my favorite courses, and really where I had a big break out meet last season when I ran a season best 17:44 there. This year I am aiming for another top 10 finish there. I think it is possible as long as I brake my nasty habit of breaking myself early in meets.