Let's play ball

Ok so this is not a game of ball but more however a game of playing catch up. My last real post beyond the Boston one was February 21. And well obviously things have happened in between that time and now. As much as I would like to give them all neatly separate posts, let's be honest if I attempt to do that I'll be playing catch up again, leaving the masses of 5 people wondering what's going on. I'm going to recap the past couple months hitting all key moments and trying to not leave out any relevant pieces. Hold on for the lovely ride back in time.

February:

Not going to lie this was a pretty low month for me, when I say low I mean bottomed out low. The saying when it rains it pours, well it was a mastermind storm going on for me. I'd love to elaborate on all the tidings and as therapeutic as it might be I'd rather not hash out all the personal details for the public to see, but it is noteworthy to share that things were bad. Running sucked, my racing sucked, work sucked, things just sucked all around. End of story.

March:

Beginning of March things weren't super great but they started to balance out for me. I will say that as bad as things were the last month I learned a lot about myself and truly grew as a person. I also learned to reach out. I tend to try attempt to tackle everything by myself, which is partially why I ended up in the place I was. But that's neither here nor there. In my personal life things really took off for me and turned a corner at the end of the month.

As for my running, indoor racing season officially ended for me March 5th. I capped off my crappy "train through" season with a mile. I wasn't quite in mile shape but I was curious and I also thought it might be the only way I could salvage the season not hitting a single goal on my goal list. I managed to scrap a 1 sec PB so I will deem that successful. I trained through the rest of the month prepping for outdoor season to start in April.

April:

April 1st was my soft outdoor track opener at St John's in Queens. At this point I hadn't stepped foot on an outside 400m track since November. Yikes! This isn't exactly conducive to 400 hurdles, since you really can't replicate the hurdle placement on an indoor track. The need to race hurdles as much as possible made this meet a necessity. It wasn't fantastic but it also wasn't completely disastrous. More a practice than anything, getting my body primed for the next couple months. I also threw in some 100 high hurdles in for good measure as a debut race since it was a very low key meet where I wouldn't feel intimidated. My goal was to finish and I did that, not pretty but ground work set in place.  

After the April 1 magic then kind of set in, that corner I was turning at the end of last month flipped me into extreme happiness and almost perfection (I say almost because there's always room for more awesomeness). I was connected with insanely incredible people and the already incredible people in my life were right there by my side. The weather was getting nicer, the things I struggled with in my running training came together. I was in bliss. 

April 13th I raced my official outdoor season opener in New Jersey, 400IH then double backed with a 200 right after. What was supposed to be a great post on this meet unfortunately turned to the shadow of the misdealings in Boston. This meet was beyond what I imagined it to be, even though I always have extreme hopeful ambitions. I ended up leaving for the meet a little/lot earlier than I wanted but was getting a ride from a good friend and teammate who was competing in the first event so I just made it work. We got there at 11a, hurdles weren't expected to go off until at least 330p and that didn't include if the meet ran behind (which it did). I decided during the extra downtime to hide away in the car and relax for a couple hours and hopefully decompress before I raced. I don't know if it was this time before hand, my training going well, life in place or possibly the art therapy (I'll have another post explaining this a little more in detail) but I managed a 1 sec PR (3 sec faster race than soft opener) AND some really spot on hurdles. I even hit a handful of hurdles with my right leg lead which I've never done in the past in a race (this is a struggle of mine, I will stutter to a hurdle to make it hit with my stronger left lead). My last hurdle which is often one of the weakest was probably the strongest hurdle of my race. I knew the second that I went over that hurdle it was exactly as it should be, then as touched down I caught a glimsp of the clock at the finish line and couldn't hold back the happiness. I didn't know the exact finish time but I KNEW it was PR. It was seriously the best feeling. Afterwards chatted with a couple teammates and even they said that was the best that they had seen me race. I couldn't get too over my moon since I still had a 200 to bang out. I was already "warmed up"  and pretty lactic from the race so I just sat still for the hot 15 min I had before I had to line up. Did a couple drills, shook out my legs, and wound my legs into the blocks when my heat was called to the line. I really had no super expectations from this race seeing as I just walked off the finish line of another race. When I came out of the blocks my legs were like bricks and did not want to turn over, eventually after 100 meters they got some turn to them. I could see the clock but it was hard to tell exactly what the official final time was. I thought I had a small PR but couldn't be certain until I saw the results. Low and behold it was a .5sec personal best! Well hot damn! Double PRs back to back in an opening meet. I couldn't have been more ecstatic. This. This was exactly that boost to my track ego that I needed. Still a ways to go and still a lot more potential for the hurdles to get much faster but going in the right direction.

Well there you have the great catch up of 2013. Hopefully I won't leave you hanging in rafters again as the next couple months unwind to Club Nationals. 

Gotta start somewhere

After the original race I had planned on racing was nonexistent, I decided to open up my season with a meet that's held the day after Christmas. Little did I know when I came to this decision that this meet was condensed to only sprint events (400, 200, 60, 60H)  from the previous full bill of years earlier. At any other point in my training I probably really wouldn't have cared but I did not want to open with anything short, and honestly it wasn't in my plans. I want indoor to be concentrated mostly on the longer endurance part of training, over distance training.

Needless I had bend my plans because I also did not want to open in January. I opted to do a 400/200 double and told myself to treat it like a really hard workout. Unfortunately in my head I can't detach myself from the word race or meet. As much as I want to treat this like a practice, it still looms in my head and I manage to get myself all worked up. Then you can guess what happens I under preform and get frustrated. My 400 was about 3 seconds slower than I know and my coach knows I'm capable to hit at this part of my training. Grrrr. I finished up with plenty left in my tank to repeat that same interval at that same pace with little differential. Oh and wait that's exactly what I did in the 200, split the exact 1st 200 split of my 400. Seriously not impressed. 

I know that it is the season opener and it is used as a cobweb shaker. I can't really expect to be in peak form since the last time I raced was back in July and I did just come off of a crazy work schedule that kept me up weird hours and on my feet for long hours. BUT I did expect to come off a little bit faster than I ran. 

Ok fine for the positive plus side that I need to find in every race, since I did have extra gas left in my tank after the 400, it means I can absolutely go faster. It also means that I'm strong and my 800 should be looking not too shabby. 

Now I'll carry on to the new year and other races.

Holidaze

My holiday week was spent working due to travel for me being a little bit on the difficult side and the fact that I was on the last stretch to have to find an apartment to live in by Jan 1. I took the opportunity to make some extra cash, since I did need that too. When I originally planned this I thought it was a good idea, it didn't seem so bad on paper. It turned to be a 14 hour day on Christmas Eve to be followed by midnight mass ending at 1:30am to wake up a few short hours and spend 13 hours standing with no break on Christmas Day. Only to be followed the next day with my opening indoor season meet.

As I prepped myself race day, the exhaustion was just stifling. I wanted to call it off and not run. After a long inner conflict with my body and mind, I decided to suck it up and just run, chalk it up to a practice if anything. While I warmed up and did drills I played my race in my head how I'd go through in each 200-33, 34, 35, 35 is what I wanted to pull out. Realistically I could do it, my training says so. Though I knew my head could also possibly get in the way.
I seeded myself in 2:20 with 1 girl ahead. I knew it wasn't a fast meet but I was hoping to not have to lead. As a change up from my usual lead, I decided that I'd shoulder myself with the lead girl for at least the first 2 laps then see what happens from there. Of course that didn't happen. I tried to tuck behind but the pace was too slow so I pulled out and lead for the entirety except the last 20 meters in which I didn't respond to the girl coming down my back. I did manage to go through the 1st 2 laps exactly where I wanted to be 33, then 34 for a 67 through the 400. I fell off per usual in the 3rd lap in a 38 but didn't have anyone there to really push me and came back with a 36 in the last lap for a final 2:21.72. 2nd place and a PR!! A HUGE improvement from my opening meet last year where I opened with a 2:30 something. I knew training was well beyond last year but it was better than it's ever been. I didn't hit my first goal in goal list, circumstances prevailing I knew I could have so I couldn't be too disappointed.
My original plan was to double up with the 200 to make it a good practice and to get my money's worth. After the 8 I was bombed so I teetered back and forth if I'd still race the 2. I still had some time to decide then a wave of energy hit me so I shrugged my shoulders and told myself to just do it. I lined up to seed myself at 30 since I was pretty sure that's all I had in me, with maybe a possibility of a 29. Popped on the track when it was time for my heat, crouched down into down start, and just went. I thought I came through in 29 and change then looked up at the jumbotron and low and behold it was 28.92. Another PR! it was only by 6 one hundredths but still.
I managed a meet that I wasn't 100 percent sure about to a double PR. A great way to start off my season. Only to know there's so much more potential to be harnessed in the next couple months. A great Christmas present.