The Best is yet to come

Stuck in a strong hold again, and trying to problem solve my way out. A piece of my puzzle is missing. While I know that there are a few corner pieces that need to be rounded out and lend their hand to a bit of the problem, I don't believe that they are the main contributing factors. So I sit here trying to figure out exactly what piece is missing. I have my many guesses but nothing concrete.
As I mentioned in my last post I decided to stay in NY to race.  Well that has come and gone and I'm $20 lighter, farther from my goal times than previously and banging my head ever so gently against the wall. As for me worrying about the heat being competitive enough, that ended up not being an issue. Yes I realize I made my decision based on training through the season, but that doesn't mean it doesn't frustrate me to no end, because I know that something key is MIA. 

Could it be that my diet/hydration state is off? Could it be I'm still psyching myself way out before racing? Could it be my head is getting in the way during the race? Could it be my lack of consistency in the weight room? Could it be not having a training partner is holding back extra potential in practice? Could it be just the wrong event? Could it be something I just don't know?
So many could it be's now its time to make a few tweaks and clean up. Maybe I'll find that it has been staring at me, right under my nose, it's just in the wrong place in or burying under as couple layers.
Its a good thing I really like puzzles.

Oh I did forgot to mention that even though my race didn't pan out remotely to be what I'd hoped, and after I stopped deciding to be mopey, I took advantage of being at the track with hurdles and turned it into a hurdle workout. A very solid one at that.

Decision made

After a few days of consideration and weighing all of my options (and still not really coming to a complete ground breaking verdict) I've decided to take my chance and stay in NY to compete. I think financially it's my soundest conclusion. As well safest bet physicality wise.

My major conclusion of this came after the realization that my plan for indoor track was to basically train through the season and use that base to kick my outdoor season in full gear. My goal is to peak only once and I want that to be outdoors. In years past I have peaked for phenomenal indoor seasons and tried again to peak months later in outdoor. Unfortunately my body used the 1st peak as my hard peak and my next season peak as the soft peak leaving me often a bit disappointed and craving more.

The logistics (which I only just learned in my USATF level 1 coaching classes this past fall) are the body really can only handle 1 solid hard peak, the one before or after will not be as good. And that's the cold hard truth, no matter what your age. You can certainly train all year long but you'll only hit your very best once. So for any of you out there who may not have known this, use this info to your advantage and choose wisely when you want your ultimate top to be.

And with that I'm sticking to my original plan to go ahead and train through indoor, not fretting over this upcoming race. Decision made, New York it is.

Third time's a charm?

On Friday morning I took my usual January pilgrimage to the motherland (for those not in my know the motherland is Boston) for a track meet, BU Terrier Invitational. I love this meet and pretty much every time I've raced it I have PR'd. Why wouldn't I love it. It's also is a great excuse to see and catch up with old teammates/friends since I've ran away to NY and don't get to see these lovely faces as often as I'd like. Again why wouldn't I love it. There is only one major caveat that I do not love about it though. I've become a super bad traveler in the past years, somewhere somehow I've developed a serious bout of motion sickness when I'm a passenger in cars and buses. For obvious reason this doesn't bode so well when trying to race. To add boot I also am unable to sleep in all moving vehicles, and of course sleep is said to help aide in the ease of symptoms.

Let's quickly back up to the week(s) leading up to this race day. I believe in order for me to be a complete athlete I have to be honest with myself and come out with the truth and the whole truth. That also means sharing that truth with my blog and to others. Here's that truth: I haven't really been on my game with my training since after Christmas. It's been quite spotty and inconsistent. I have no real viable excuse (except the actual week of). Yes the 2 prior races that haven't panned out quite to my liking have had some direct effect on my lack of passion. I mean blaming a couple lack luster performances isn't exactly nothing but it's not a good excuse. I need to (wo)man up take responsibility, especially if I want to excel in my sport. You get out what you put in and I know this. On a real excuse note I did however the day after I registered on Monday actually got legit sick, go figure. Already many strikes against me going in to the race.

Now back to race day. In order to accommodate other plans Thursday night, I decided to take a risk and bus up to Boston the morning of my race (I wasn't scheduled to race until 5p so I had hoped that catching an early bus I could maybe off set the inevitable). This bus ride managed to only procure a very mild case of nausea, Woosah! there might be a small bit of hope for my race later. I get into Boston at noon, grab lunch at South Station and kill a little bit of time before I make my way over to the track. I try not to get myself worked up and keep settled down before I have to warm up. I manage to do an alright job of this. It's incredibly hard not to sit still and even harder when you see so many people you haven't seen in forever and want to get all chatty with. When it came time to warm up I had managed to take a young runner under my wing. Oddly calming her same worked up nerves and assuring her that she'd be fine helped me to settle my own. Weird how that works.
The earlier strikes against me had me not knowing exactly where I would be time wise so my plan for this race was to be aggressive and present. Lining up on the line for a 2 turn stagger sharing my lane with another racer, I hear the 1 command then the gun and off I go. I knew I was fast off the start but I wasn't going to back off since I've done that in the past and it hasn't turned out well. The 1st 400 was on the quick side, then I fell off in the next 200 (that 600 split always finds a way to get me), I managed to not so prettily hold on for my last lap kicking down 1 girl, finishing in 2:20.74. Gah, I know that I'm in way better shape than that. I also know that the preceding weeks dictated exactly what I ran, so I am only to blame. Not super thrilled but I'll take it, I executed my race just as I had planned (can't be mad about that).
After cooling down I found myself scouring the meet calendar figuring out how to finagle the upcoming race schedule and where I'd race. I also found myself again in the mentoring role to my young wing runner as we chatted about her long future as a runner. This and my fired up race ignited a spark that had been out for the past couple weeks. Finally I'm back to my spunky runner ways (so much so that I even went on a 5 miler the day after).
Also since I decided to hang around for the next day I was able to watch Day 2 of the meet with the men's events, getting to catch a couple Olympians boss a few races. Yeah no big deal. Also another spark to fuel the fire.

A horrible blurry camera phone (b/c I forgot my real camera) photo of Galen Rupp trying to break AR in the mile.

Take Plans, Round 2

After a dismal season opener, I had my next chance to open the way I wanted with an over distance race. Yep 1000 meters and personal best you are mine. Well, the 1000 didn't think so highly of that overly confident statement. I thought that I had a PR in me, I honestly thought I had a sub 3 min in me. The race or maybe it might have been mind had other plans. I started off trying to hold back my usual gun it and lead, Lap 1 I was with the mix but off my goal, no problem. Lap 2 I'm in the middle of the pack then make a move to get out but then fall back, split is off, not sure what's going on. I start thinking about being off and rather than DO something I just kinda held on. By 600 meters I'm well off my goal lap intervals and really just going through the motions of just running, not racing. Finally at about 150m left I decided it was time to maybe do something, of course that was WAY too late. I crossed the line and looked up at the results screen to see the result I really didn't want to see, but I knew was warranted as I didn't get in the game. Seriously *Go* button is broken. Blah! Again like the first race recovered too quickly, meaning I didn't give it my all. I know that the 1000 is an odd race and I haven't raced it in 4 years and really it doesn't matter, I hang on it because I'm simply frustrated. I just want to race well. Silver lining of my gray cloud (because I'm not a pessimistic person and there is always something good to take away from the bad) is again the strength/endurance is there from my recovery turnaround time.
Lesson learned run my own race, race not run, get out of my head and simply just GO!
Round 3, Next...

Blame it on the sugar

That's what I'm going to start using as my excuse for anything crazy & off the wall I do. I'm just going to blame it on the lack of sugar in my diet making me do insane things. I mean you have to put the blame on someone or something, right?
I thought that I ended my season on Monday and though technically I did, I found myself lining up on a line to "race" on Thursday. For some reason unbeknownst to me I thought hoping into a 1500m race was a superbly brilliant idea. What sprinter in their right mind thinks that a mile is a good idea, seriously I don't know any. Also what runner who's weekly mileage amounts to about 10-15 miles a week decides to run a distance like that. See lack of the white stuff, mmhhmm. Originally I was going to the track to join a leg of a the ridiculous relay I did last year that went into the wee hours of the morning, because I hadn't gotten a chance to get to the track to do my workout earlier in the day. It was promised this year that the same thing would not happen by only hosting 1 open race beforehand. I'd do the relay as a workout 5 200's with about 3-4min rest, just 1 200 shy of what I was supposed to do for my workout. No problem. Then somewhere during my day I said to myself I should do the 1500, just to see. Really not so sure what I wanted to see, but alas I saw. I jogged up to the Armory, paid my fee, with 10 min to spare being late per usual, chatted with a fellow teammate. Beyond the look of what in the world are you thinking, she asked if I'd pace her to 4:48. Sure since I of course ran through what splits I needed to hit to go about 4:50 (yea I was being a bit ambitious but if I was going to do it may as well attempt to go for it). I may have scared her when I told her what I was going to go through for the first 800, but she figured that she would stay a few lengths behind then take over after. I went through the first 400 exactly what I aimed, then fell a little short on the next 400 where she took over, then in true unconditioned mileage I fell off in the the 3rd quarter. Held on for the last 300m. Clocked in an impressive 5:02.5, making a 7 for 7 races all personal bests. Sweet deal, considering my lack of endurance. On top of it was able to help my teammate procure a PB as well, not so shabby for not planning to race.
Race out of the way I had a little break before the relay while the rest of the women's heats and men's heats went off. Once all the races finished up low and behold the 1st heat of the relay went off at 8ish pm, there'd be no Friday morning at the race. Nice. I managed even after a hard race an hour before to churn out some decent but painful 200's in 29-30-30-31-30.  A second faster in every 200 than last year and I didn't run anything before that one (granted it was pretty late).
Some serious strength going on right now, hope I can hold on to it (*knock on wood* injury free) for the next couple months. Good things, good things...ok so maybe the lack of sugar isn't sooo bad.

An end to the beginning

And a sad goodbye to another indoor season ending, like in the past I will continue to train inside until I my membership ends April 15th since I paid for it I'll milk every last bit out & it's still a bit cold outside. I say sad because I feel like I just started to get rolling and poof it's done, only racing a total of 5 times, 6 races, the entire 3 month season (a personal worst & I wasn't injured either). I set my goals and was only able to actually cross 1.5 of them off. The .5 goes to the 500 since technically I ran a half second off from the 1:20.0 I set for myself. I was so amped after my 1st race that I just wanted to see cross marks at least across the set #1 for all the goals, and the 2nd goal for the 800. I will admit that all of my goals were a good couple seconds faster than my previous personal bests (most made back in 2009), but I did feel like my strength in my training made them very much plausible and attainable. That being said not racing as much does make it harder to tackle goals. And just clarify any confusion I'm absolutely always stoked when I PR, even though I will account it as a bad race, it's more the way the race unfolds that gets me down and not happy with a race. Minus my little disappointments here and there with not executing the races to quite what I know I'm capable of and hitting my effervescent goals, I will give myself a big pat on the back because out of all 6 races I did set a PR every time. I'm in the best and strongest shape I've been since I hopped back onto the track in 07. I will continue on into the upcoming outdoor season with maybe a little more gusto and more PBs.

All in a week's work

Definitely been an eventful week chock full of experiences. My workout/racing load was on course to being one of the more intense, a few heady back to back practices (one even in a jock strap! yikes) and 2 races. Also been trying to hustle a little more at work to build up my client base. Didn't realize it was tornado season just yet.

Last minute early on the week I found out that my team was going to run a "B" team for the DMR at the Millrose Games and I was a leg. Of course not knowing this ahead of time is a serious disadvantage for me since my 2nd job is weekend nights and I have to put in for time off 2 weeks prior and I had originally taken the Sat off the weekend before to run a relay that was nixed. Anywho I had to really shuffle back and forth and to and fro about what I wanted to do since not working the weekend before put me a bit behind on the finance side. The relay was the very 1st event to go off so I could potentially run, literally step off the track after my leg and race to get to work (late but not too late), but then I'd miss the great meet filled with spectacular athletes to follow and be ridiculously exhausted standing on my feet in uncomfortable shoes for the next 6-8 hours. It took a lot of reasoning then realized that I could find a way to make the money back but I wouldn't be able to get back the experience of taking in a historical meet and enjoying myself.

With that decision made I faced another...I'm thinking I might invest in a Magic 8 Ball to start making up my mind for my indecisiveness...did I want to get one last 800 race in before the end of the season to get my 2nd goal for that distance, 2 days before I race a leg in a relay?? I fought this one for a large number of reasons, one is even though I'm in great shape I've really been pushing in practice so I'm not so sure how my body will recover from back to back races (though this is something I need to be able to do). Second is since I gave up that shift I'd be shelling out $20 to race. Last is because the meet I was considering is such a low key meet the field may not be as fast as I need to race what I want (this was the biggest factor...I didn't want to spend money on a mediocre result). In the end I chose to race, it made sense, and of course when it came to seeding the heats my concern with the field not being "up to speed" was there. At that point I couldn't turn back I had to make do with what I could. When the gun went off I got out, and when I say I got out I mean I got out. As I rounded the turn to the 1st 200 at about the 155ish mark I could see the clock and it read 22!! Yikes I was about to hit my 1st 2 in 30, WAY too fast. Where I should have just went with it and let my body naturally slow down on its own I braked so I came through in a reasonable but still fast 32/33. Kept pace through the halfway mark at 66ish, running completely alone then I tried to stay focused with 1:43 through the 600 but by the last lap which is typically strong I lost my drive and fell a little bit apart. I saw the clock as I passed through and thought that I saw 2:18. Second goal?Yes?Maybe? Results said not so much 2:19.1. A little bummed, only a single stride to break the second mark, but another PR which makes all my races thus far PBs, 4 for 4, can't be too down at that. I know that I shouldn't rely on others but I believe that I can run faster with the right field. I always thought leading out of the line was my strong suit but now I'm learning that that's not the case, I need to be a better strategic runner in the 800 if I want to become better. Outdoors it's on.

Now back to the Millrose Games. My 1st large stage indoor meet and my 1st 400 leg in a DMR (by the way for any non track people that stands for Distance Medley Relay 1200m-400m-800m-1600m legs). I've run many DMRs but I've ALWAYS run the 800 leg, always.  I've mostly been racing 800s this indoor season so I was stocked to see what I had for my speed. It was definitely a fun time but unfortunately no one was able to get splits for the "B" team so I wasn't able to actually see my time. Beyond that snafu it was an exciting experience. I got to watch Bernard Lagat set an American record in the 5000 and see other truly amazing athletes perform. Worth every lost penny of not working.

Let the Track season begin

Countdown is one week till I open my indoor 2011-12 season. Hoping these past couple months of hard work will pay off. Let's go!

Indoor voices please

The cold is upon us which means the move from the nice wide-turned cushiony 400 meter outdoor track to the tight banked fast 200 meter indoor track is here. I sold my first born away so I could train at pretty much the only accessible indoor track in Manhattan. Ok so maybe I sell anything but ugh it sure does seem like it. I always cringe when I have to pony up the cash to the Armory, I get that it's a good track and it's non-profit but $300 is a lot of money for ridiculously super limited hours and just the track (yes I've made this complaint about this a few time in past posts, I will leave this one at that).

Monday left me with the case of the Mondays, or better yet a lovely cold of some sort. I woke up with an elevated heart rate, a sore throat, nagging cough, oh and yes no voice. I decided to call into work, cancel client appointments, not run and rest up. I thought that was a smart move. Tuesday I was feeling a little better (less fatigued) so I bellied up went to work, whispered workouts to clients, and trekked my way to 168th St for practice. Though the fatigue was gone I should have known better that indoor track and somewhat bum lungs don't mix well. Breathing in extremely dry air at an extremely rapid pace with a cough already on top left me hacking up at least one of my lungs and almost my lunch. By Thursday I had my voice back but the nagging cough wouldn't budge. Still I managed to crank out my workouts for the rest of the week taking another extra day off over the weekend. Hopefully I'll be back to my normal self next week, 1st meet of the season is in 4 weeks, need to be set to go (because there ain't not rest for the weary).