Sunday, March 28, 2010

Chicken and egg......

Those who know of my running history know of someone who is both inconsistent, yet also consistent as well. The inconsistent would be in consistent early season race results, while the consistent would be in usually meeting/exceeding expectations in important races (a topic for another day).

I've come to realize a few things about my mental makeup. One is that I am a serious 'type B', and the other is that it takes some sort of emotional situation to get me to run fast. It's like i become so focused on the process to achieve the goal that I ignore everything else along the way. In that regards what I've often done over the years is 'create a chip on my shoulder'. Back in the day i used to have a few guys i raced against who would become the 'enemy'. Ad I've gotten older creating that 'enemy' has gotten tougher.

This past weekend was such an example. Training has been coming along (probably too well as I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew in training the last two week where i ran around 210 miles with three pretty good runs and 2+ hr long runs when I had mostly been doing give or take - mostly take - 85 miles), But I was feeling the buildup of training (mostly from Tues session) and expected little beforehand. My legs felt beaten up early on (like 400m) In the end I had my typical bad spot, which happens to the extreme when I have little emotional buildup, and when I also typically come back later in the race. In this case I caught a younger guy (Tristan Simpson) who i felt had run a really gutty race. He had impressed me so much in his attitude towards the race, in sticking his neck out there, that I tried to help him get through the last km. In the end, he survived with a decent time and I knew I had a lot left (so a good sign with some more training, a little rest and focus things will be going well in about a month).

The week:
Mon: 66mins
Tues 16 x 400m off 1 mins ..banged out 66-67s on a fairly consistent basis and it felt very controlled.
Wed: I hr easy ...legs dead from everything I've been doing
Thurs: 3 loop acceleration run at Mundy with Dylan and Steve....legs felt okay, but once the pace picked up I was a dead man walking
Fri: 30min easy...uh oh....not quick considering I felt as though I was moving and instead i was slow...
sat: 5km 15:39......I felt as though I could run another one that fast almost immediately PM gym
Sun: 1 hr 40mins at Bby Lake....felt great which I kind expected...the rest over the last few days is finally starting to kick in.