Good week. I had Thursday's Rob Garcia Invitational at Rushville penciled in as a day to go for a fast 3200. I ran 9:45 two weeks prior and although I wouldn't have any competition there I wanted to be sub 9:40, which doesn't seem like that big of a jump. Well, the problem with picking a random day in the middle of April to go fast several weeks in advance is that you don't have any idea about how the weather will be. Basically, I was praying for a calm day with moderate temperatures. A few days in advance it seemed that the weather would be perfect, but as the day drew near I realized that they were calling for pretty a pretty strong wind. With temperatures in the mid 50s and a 21mph wind accompanied with 27mph gusts, the weather was eerily similar to that of the Boston Marathon a few days prior (except for the fact that I would be running in a circle!) So, I just dealt with it and ran 9:52. I guess the effort is what counts. More thoughts on the race are below, but it got me the meet record (sorry, Nate) and that's something I was very happy with especially considering where I was at this point last year...
Local news did a video of the race. Skip to around 4:45 in: http://www.connecttristates.com/sports/story.aspx?id=608812&sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4db1f1762f2f4a84%2C0
In the 2010 version of this meet things weren't going so well. As I've touched on some in the past, I was dealing with some injury struggles. What started out as good winter training block transformed into a downward spiral of nagging muscular injuries that wouldn't allow me to train anywhere near optimally. What made matters worse was that once I got on top of the issues my left leg was randomly losing control. Having a solid aerobic foundation, I wanted to get into the race specific work, but with new nagging injuries popping up weekly or my lack of leg control preventing me from doing any good tempos or long intervals, my fitness wasn't developing like it should have been.
Actually, at this point last year I had only run 10:35 so far for 3200 meters (50 seconds slower than where I'm at now) and hadn't run any fast than 4:59 for 1600 for the season (both of which were well slower than my PRs set my Sophomore year). So back to this same meet last year..I was wanting to run somewhere around 10:10 (which my fitness didn't indicate I was anywhere near). I ended up going through the first mile in 5:05 trying to stay in contention with Nathan Davis of Lewistown who ended up running 9:59 and breaking the then meet record. I faded horribly and kept getting slower each successive lap due to leg coordination problems. I was pretty upset and crossed the line in just over 11 minutes, luckily not getting lapped by Nathan. Discouraged by that horrible performance, I wasn't a very pleasant runner. Nathan listened to me whine and complain about my injury troubles and how I didn't even know if I wanted to continue running anymore. Luckily I pushed through it, and ended up making the best of the season with some slight PRs several weeks later. After the season, I focused on gaining better overall strength in those areas, which has left me much better off.
With consistent work over the past 12 months, I'm in a much better position than I was here last year.
Here's the log:
Sunday - 12 mile Long Run on varying terrain at Spring Lake
Monday - WINDY! Low key race and workout at Bushnell for Muggs McGinnis Relays. Warmup totaling 3.5 miles, race 1600 wanting to "cruise" to a 4:40 again, wind didn't allow that-4:47 (felt easy though); 1.5 mile cooldown with Gatlin; .5mi warmup for workout, Aussie Quarters (7x400 at 3200 effort with quick 200m recovery jog) - 74 (46), 74 (47), 75 (47), 75 (48), 76 (49), 75 (49), 74 (46) covering 4200 meters in 14:21; ~1.25mi cooldown. Everything slowed by wind, but workout felt under control. Wanted to hit 73s, but adjusted them to 74s due to wind.
Tuesday - 7 miles very easy in 49:39 (7:05/mi)
Wednesday - 6.5mi in 43:12 (6:32/mi); 4x200m relaxed in Matumbos going 36.26, 36.57, 35.71, 35.48 jog back recovery (Tot. 7.25mi)
Thursday - AM: 10 minute shakeout covering 1.4 miles
PM: 2.5 mile warmup in 16:40 (6:42/mi), strides, 1:42 quicker (.3mi @5:40/mi), more strides
3200m race - 9:52
.5 mile shakeout in 3:30, Meet cancelled due to lightning-was going to run 1600m as well, 3 mile cooldown in pouring rain in 21:50 (7:13/mi)
Thoughts on race: Felt great! Probably went out a bit agressive (4:49, 5:02). Wind ate me up though. I generally prefer to run even to negative splits, so that wasn't great. Also had no competition, seeing as I lapped the whole field.
Friday - 8 miles recovery on Barn School Road (no crazy weather this time) in 57:59 (7:14/mi)
Saturday - 3 mile warmup in 20:07 (6:43/mi)Strides
20 minute tempo run covering 3.6 miles (5:34/mi). Splits: 1-5:36, 2-5:32, 3-5:30, 3.6-3:20
1.25 miles easy in 8:07 (6:37/mi)
6x200 progression: 36.01, 35.61, 33.59, 34.73, 33.41, 33.88
.75mi cooldown
Weekly Total: 64.5 miles. Core and general strength every day but Saturday. Hurdle drills and inversion table done several days as well.
Happy with the training. I felt pretty crummy on most of my easy days, but great on my hard days. I guess that's the point when training hard, and it shows that I'm recovering well. It's going to be awhile until my next 3200. I'm going to take a few weeks to jump into some more serious 1600 and 800s, but still try to keep solid mileage and good 3200 specific workouts.
Tomorrow I'm racing in the Fulton County Invite and running the 1600m. I'm hoping for a fast one and a PR as there will be some good guys in the field. It will also be my first 1600m that I'm spiking up in so far this year!
I hope everyone had a happy Easter!
-John
No comments:
Post a Comment