Road To Nationals-RACE WEEK! (Well, kinda)
Hello people, I am super pumped for this week. I finally get to run a race. Its been a couple months since outdoor track and to be honest I am ready to go out and hear a gun go off. Now this will just be a test of my fitness. I won’t run to win or anything like that because of the time I took off for my foot to heal but hopefully I can put together a good race and get some more confidence heading into the meat of the off-season!
MONDAY
7:20 P.M. 2 Mile Warm up
5k cutdown run @ 6:21 pace
2 Mile Cool Down
Today was a light workout. I went to the course and ran the first mile at a comfortable level then slowly worked down 5 seconds each mile. Averaged 6:21 pace which is a bit faster than what I wanted to but I am totally fine with the result of the workout. The course is HILLY! It will be a really good test of my strength. I am glad that I have not been doing all of my runs on the turf and track because if I did I would NOT be prepared for this at all. What I took away from this slow progression run is I have to work up the hills on the course and not sprint down the hills. It is an interesting course and I am interested to see how I run it! Going to try and run a little under 50 miles this week so we will see how that goes!
TUESDAY
OFF
Really busy, thought I was going to get a run in but stuff came up. Probably a good thing that I didn’t run today. I like taking off days after workouts because it lets my body totally recover!
WEDNESDAY
7:27 P.M. 7 Miles in 49:15
Today was a nice chill run. Did not push anything to hard but didn’t lollygag by any means. I am really excited to race this weekend. I know the result will not be what I am looking for but I know that it will continue to push me to a better place in my training process. So far this week my foot has felt really good so I am really happy about that I feel like I am making a lot of good steps forward. And it will even be better when the year starts. Because I will have access to the training room to heat before practice and ice after practice. I only have one more month of makeshift treating myself with this nagging injury (which is mostly better) then I can actually combat it well. Tomorrow will be another nice day to run easy.
THURSDAY
4:43 P.M. 5 Miles in 35:48
2x400 with a 200 meter jog in between
1 Mile in 7:23
Today was a nice way to get a little bit of speed into my legs. I have really lost a lot of fitness in the time I was injured. So I have a long time to get it back. It will be interesting to see how well I do in the race on Saturday. And will be a gauge of how much work I need to do to be ready for Conference and Regionals in the end of October and beginning of November!
FRIDAY
7:43 P.M. 8 Miles in 59:58
Today mistakes were made. The race starts at 8:00 A.M. tomorrow. And I finished my run around 8:45 so I will not have much time to recover from it. That is okay. I know that I can put together a great race. Today’s run was all about feeling comfortable and smooth. I am waking up early so that means going to bed early. Will let you know how it goes and will look to have a pretty detailed blog entry for tomorrow!
SATURDAY-RACE DAY
6:48 A.M. 1 Mile Shake out
7:09 A.M. 2 Mile Warm up
8:00 A.M. 5k in 18:08 (First in age group, sixth overall)
8:28 A.M. 2 Mile Cool Down
Well, not getting a good amount of training and my biggest mileage week being 33 miles I am not shocked with how poorly I ran. Woke up pretty early this morning to eat and get ready. The shakeout this morning felt good. All I did was run pretty slow to where we were having the race so that was decent. During the shakeout I felt all eight miles from 10 hours earlier so my legs were definetly heavy. Warm up was nice and chill. It was in the rain so by the end of it I wished I had brought and extra set of clothes. Did a few decent strides with Dan right before the start of the race and it felt good to run fast again. The race. Let’s just say I have some time to get better. First mile was all uphill. Felt decently smooth and was in a pack of four. Towards the end of that mile I started to push up the hill and I passed a few people. After we came down the hill though I started to fatigue. Second half of the race was mostly me just holding on and trying to average sub 6 per mile. Which I did. I averaged 5:50 and with the summer I have had so far I am pleased with the result.
Am I satisfied however, the short answer is no. I have to much to run for this year and to many heads to roll at conference and regionals. I have this six week training window to get in shape and start to run like myself again. Not making excuses for myself but if the course was the course we run at our first Xc meet I would have ran 17:30 ish. Now I know what I have to do and I am going to do everything I can to be in the best shape that I can be in about a month when Training Camp starts. My time trial may be horrible. But it doesn’t matter what you do in August, it matters what you do in October and November. I have to pack on the mileage, stay healthy and be the best version of myself until I have to be clutch for my team. Sorry for the longer post. I had to rant a bit. I will be stronger, and I will be our teams fifth runner. I have 3 months to get into shape.
SUNDAY
7:45 P.M. 8 Miles in 56:44
A great end to a more productive week, I am really glad that I am over 40 miles for a total mileage. Now I have five more weeks to build a base before the rest of the boys get here. I just need to keep right. Always stay healthy and remember what is best. Everything felt smooth today and I am on the fast track to getting in shape.
Till next week
-Gabe
