5,000 indoor nationals recap

 

 

I'd say it was a pretty successful day for me and my athletes!  AJ won his second junior national title and was third US male.  He continued on to 10,000 for an official PR.  More importantly he learned a lot about himself, racing issues, and how to improve going forward.  That's worth more than any PR to me!

Michaela had her first race longer than 1500 and boy did she kick it!  28:08 for a junior nats qual time.  She unfortunately learned the hard way about the joys of chaffing, but also did a fantastic job pacing.  She also learned a ton and with a few more solid months of training we're going to see a HUGE improvement from Michaela!

Katie had a solid race.  She continued on to 10,000 for a strong sub hour time.  Sometimes life gets in the way of training as hard as you may like, and it's how an athlete deals with that that really shows their metal.  Katie's mental toughness is so impressive, and I know her dedication to reaching her goals will make her such a tough competitor.

Dave had a solid 5,000.  He was first master and second US competitor.  He also smashed his age group record. 

I had a strong day.  I claimed the silver in the 5,000, just snagging the age group record by around a second.  Along the way I hit the qualifying time for indoor nationals.  And I continued on to 10,000 and broke my American record by around a minute.  I almost stopped at 5,000, I had some serious tummy pains.  But I thought I'd lay back for a bit and see if it righted itself.  After an easier K I started feeling better and so picked it back up bit by bit.  I never got back to where I was at the start of the race, but finished strong.  I am a bit disappointed in myself that I didn't push harder.  I think I could've pushed more.  I think I went into "comfortable mode" during part of the race instead of really giving it what I had.  It did seem to knock some cobwebs out of my system as my workouts seem to have jumped up a notch. 

I leave Monday for the final preparations for the Olympic Trials.  There's 7.5 weeks left, plenty of time for lots of hard work and improvement. 

Happy New Year!!

Soooooo tired, but feeling amazing!!!

Whew!  A second hard week of training is in the books!  I got in some amazing training and learned so much about what I'm capable (and not) of, where some of my boundaries are, and how to plan out the next nine weeks before the 50K Olympic Trials. 

One of the things I love about coming to train with Ian is his great knowledge base.  We have such great conversations about training ideologies, ideas, and concepts.  And he's got a reference for just about anything.  I leave feeling like I've learned a lot and extra motivated to get out and train. 

Since the first week I did such high mileage I started week two a bit on the tired side, but ready to give it what I had.  Where my 10x1K speed session went amazing two weeks ago, this last week it was a little rough.  My legs were tired and heavy.  I pushed as much as I could, and never gave up, but times were getting slower and slower.   The good thing was my technique still looked pretty good.  Ended up a lot of it was low blood sugar, and after a really good lunch my afternoon speed session of 10x400 went much better.  I had pep back in my step. 

Thursday's long one was good, until about 25K.  Then we both kind of hit the wall.  30K was good for the day.  But again, after a good meal and a massage I went out for a solid 8K in the evening.

Saturday was a great day.  We did our Saturday road race, a Santa run.  Almost everyone was dressed up, except me.  Then I realized, that since I was dressed all in black, I was the lump of coal!  the race was quite hilly, the last two K especially.  I did a 24:34, and was quite pleased with that on tired legs.  My afternoon workout was 30x30/30 which is 30 minutes of 30 seconds all out and 30 seconds recovery.  I hit my 5K split in 24:50.   A really, really solid day. 

However I was to pay the price on Sunday for the 40K workout.  I knew I was tired and it wasn't going to be my fastest workout, so I decided to not look at the splits.  I went decent through about 22K and then, poof, nothing left in the tank.  My legs would not go.  I wasn't low on sugar, my legs were just dead.  I still had to get back to the car.  It took me 80 minutes to cover the last 10K back to the car.  Luckily it was a beautiful day with wonderful scenery.  I'm not sure my body has ever been as tired and sore as it was last night.  Even after a massage I was moving around like an invalid.  A good night's sleep, a REALLY easy walk today, and I should be good for my last hard day in South Carolina.  I'm doing my third 10x1K in the AM and 10x400 in the PM session.  The rest of the week will be traveling home (hazzah!!!!) and getting ready for USATF indoor 5,000 national championships.  My plan is to continue on to 10,000 and see where I'm at.  All my athletes are racing and I'm really excited to see how everyone does.   There have been some amazing workouts happening and a whole lot of hard work going around.  Makes me really, really proud. 

So learning has happened, schedules adjusted, plans made, goals getting ready to be met.   Looking forward to going home, seeing my sweetie, taking some nice hot baths, and some of Dave's yummy popcorn.  Then off to St. George, Utah for final training before the Trials!

Training update and remembering the big picture.

Talk about a crazy couple weeks since the 50K.  It's been full of ups and downs, frustrations and excitement.  On the Thursday after the 50K Dave and I did our usual Turkey Trot 5K race.  It's a pretty flat course for where we live, gets a good crowd, and we LOVE the shirts (it's all about the shirts after all).  I was hesitant to do a hard 5K that soon after the 50K, but we signed up for it knowing we could always just do it for fun and go easy..... hahaha, yeah right.  If you know Dave and I at all you know we're not really wired that way.   It ended up that the race went fantastic!  According to my GPS watch (not official, I know) the course was decently short.  But I figure either way I did a sub 25:00 effort and I was over joyed with that!  Took it easy a few more days and Dave and I did a speed session on Sunday.  We did a workout Dave really likes, but slightly different.  We did 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100 twice.  It's 6K worth of speed work.  I really want to work on my turnover and speed, and Dave's great at going super fast, so we thought it'd be a fun workout.  And it was!  It was really tough, mentally and physically, but we both did great.  He had the fastest times for all the 100, 200, 300s, but I had all the fastest 400 and 500s.  We both went faster than we have in quite a while, so I was really happy with both of us. 

Then we decided to finish up the siding on the bunkhouse.  We had what we thought were going to be some of our last warm days, so we worked like crazy.  I spent a lot of time up really high on a ladder reaching waaaaayyyyy over holding my breath to hammer in nails.  My chiropractor said this is probably what caused my back/SI joint and shoulders to go totally wonky.  And I mean, wow.  I went out later to do a 30K and hobbled home and barely finished 14K.  I cross trained a lot, and a week later did a 30K with Dave in Olean for orchestra weekend, but it was one of my slowest 30K times in years.  So I was getting really frustrated.  How am I supposed to train hard and go faster and really push myself to reach my goals on February 21 if I can barely finish a 30K.   Those few weeks where I could barely go anywhere were really testing me mentally.  I was very frustrated and thinking about when I should retire (now?).  When things are going well it's super easy to get out and workout, but when things are not going well it can be hard to get out of bed. 

(Beautiful sunrise on my way to South Carolina)

Through the frustration I kept stretching, rolling, seeing my chiropractor, got some massages.  I think what finally did it was I saw my chiropractor the day before I left for South Carolina and then saw an ART practitioner the day after I arrived in South Carolina.  They both really got stuff loosened up and my second day in SC I felt great!   Ian and I went to do a speed session at the track, and even during my warm up I felt better than I had in months!  We did 10x1K, a session I haven't done in quite a while and was a little nervous for.  I did them all between 4:42 and 4:46!  The majority of them were 4:43 and 4:44.  I haven't done that consistent of an interval session all year!  And it felt like I was pacing, like I had another gear somewhere.  Alas, it was not in my legs that day, but it would be.  I backed that up with 8x400 in the afternoon.  They weren't as fast as I would've liked, but I got them done fairly quickly and pushed through all of them. 

The rest of the week included a solid 30K, A double speed session on Saturday that in the afternoon we did a 5K road race.  It was fairly hilly, and I got stuck at the start.  In the first 150 meters Ian gained probably 50 meters on me just from not getting stuck behind people.  this course was significantly short, but I extrapolated out and I think I would've been about 24:30, not bad for hills and a second speed session.  At this point in the week I had already covered well over 100K too!   Sunday finished off with a really solid 30K and a not so solid 10K.  I finished that 40K, but man I hit the wall.  The most important thing?  I got it done! 

(never send us to the store after a long workout, we may drift from our intended plan)

(smiling after a 40K, that's what good company, good weather, and a good course do!)
We went home and had an amazing massage therapist there to work on us.  She did a great flush of my sore, tired muscles and it felt amazing!  She really helped get things loosened back up.  This week I tried, the day of my long walks, going out for a second session.  I know there are elite 50K guys that double up on long days, and I wanted to, carefully, give it a try.  Thursday when I did my 30K I went out for a 5K run in the evening.  I thought that doing the second session as a run might be a bit easier on my system than trying to RW.  I figure I'll do it running for a bit and then try walking it.  The 5K Thursday went well, I definitely had to warm into it, but by the end I was moving really well.  Sunday, after the massage and rest I felt great!  I didn't time my run, but I felt like I was moving great.  I know you're not supposed to play the numbers game, but I knew if I ran a 6K I would hit 170K for the week.  I thought the boost it would give me mentally far outweighed the sin of going father just to add numbers up, so I put my headlamp on and headed out in the dark for one of the best feeling 6K runs I've ever done! 

(post 6K run photo, with headlamp to see in the dark)

This week I've had two solid distance walks, two days of speed all well under my 5K race pace, and days in the middle of them that built strength and helped me recover.  I think this week may have been my best training week ever!  

And what's interesting about that is it came right after such a horrible week where I was on such a low and am now on such a high.  There's that picture that floats around the internet of:  This is what you think your road to success should look like, and it's a straight line.  And this is what the road actually looks like, and it's a bunch of squiggles going everywhere.  I have felt like that these past two weeks.  Squiggling everywhere, but still working my way towards my goal. 

I also am reminded that it really is true what I say to my athletes....  it's not the few amazing workouts you have here or there, it's consistent training over time.  Sure, my workouts weren't that great a couple weeks ago, but I was doing as much as I could, cross training to fill in gaps, and still moving forward.  I was giving my best at whatever I was doing and making the best of the situation I was given.  Over time the hills and valleys fill in and as long as you're steadily going upward you're making progress.  You never know what could make something turn around; a workout, a change of scenery, a word of encouragement from an unexpected source.  The thing to remember is things generally do turn around for the better, you just have to stick with it. 

So here goes another solid week of training, where I will continue to work as hard as I can with a well thought out schedule, decent weather, good company, and lots of focus.  I miss Dave, for sure, but I know that I am moving towards accomplishing amazing things and these times apart really mean something.  I think I sometimes train harder because I feel like I have to make the time apart worth even more.   Guess I'd better go get ready for my second session!  Happy training everyone!

(the fruits of some of my down time between training sessions)