Training Log Archive: billh

fighting the thought that 6 months of dedication to JD training just went down the tubes . . . in flames . . . like flaming sh*t . . . negated by weight gain.

trying to look on the positive like "I'm' not injured" is a huge positive. rather than "I trained 6 months to go 14 sec slower". it's a true mental game. running is a cruel cruel mistress.

have to believe I actually have the power within myself to eat right and lose weight. it IS probably true the weight gain negated the training. at least as far as time. well, I have my work cut out for me. at least now I *know* . . . what I already knew . . . heavy objects go slower, duh.

C • What would your weight be i... 2

light core . . . normal DOMS from race, all systems go, no latent injuries.

it's one thing to know what to do . . . another to actually do it. like "don't go out too fast and then fade" . . . but in the 1500, I ran the first 1200 at about 6:00 plus pace, then dramatically faltered in the final 300 and especially the last 100 death marched it in, terrible. . . . 6:01, 14 sec slower than last year (and15 lbs heavier probably negated 6 mo of JD training)

then same thing in the 400, had the outside lane 6 assignment with evidently faster guys to the inside, who certainly made up the stagger. 1:13 and 5th place out of 6 in the age group, at least clocked a time in my first ever timed 400, winning time was 1:03, same guy who ran a 2:20 in the 800 yesterday, and won the 1500 in 4:50, just missing the track record.

on the plus side, I felt like I did all the stuff outside the race correctly, sleep race prep food, hydrated, cooled myself with ice, warmup, put my body in the best possible position to do its best. not a twinge of any injury. really felt OK on the laps early laps before I tied up. just . . . didn't . . . run . . . fast. duh! the opposite of last year where my total focus was on weight loss but did minimal running and most of my hard intervals on the bike trainer. was much faster but got injured. now if I can just put the two together.

bike spin on trainer warmup one hour prior, plus light core

warmup at Gay Field, home of the Clayton Greyhounds . . . black rubber track, can feel the heat coming off the track even at 8am in the morning. mid-70's but felt hotter. 4 ST, warmups, light drills. felt ready.

opened the first 300 in 1:07, just over 6:00 pace, on the shoulder of the eventual 2nd place guy. he seemed to slow so I eased off the front a bit. Gilker the sub-5 guy was long gone. Felt like I was really racing for time, wanted to best my 5:47 from last year. 2nd lap went OK, basically maintained pace, running on my own. 3rd lap starting to feel the cracks in the wall appear but decided to expend energy to keep pace. I forget my split but think I came around in maybe 4:4x with one to go. went around turn 1 and did a quick shoulder check and the #2 guy was about 30m back. so just bore down. Rudy was my cheering section on Turn 3 and decided to "give it my last sprint". Rudy said later I held off the charging 2 and 3 guys around the turn. Then came around and saw the finish 100 m away, and asked the legs for one more burst, and they did not reply. Tied up badly and got passed by 2 and 3 at about 50m mark, and watched helplessly as they finished ahead of me. Terrible feeling.

chilled out at a local coffee shop till the 400m at 11:30. drank some coffee hydrated. meanwhile the temp climbed to 85F. sunny, hot and humid. got back to the track and did some minimal warmup. no one was running, everyone chilling out in the shade. kept an ice bag on my neck and dowsed my head with ice water, lay down in the shade. felt nice cool and ready.

never ran a timed 400 before but had just watched 12 heats of boys and girls class 3, 4, 5 state level runners perform the 400 and saw how tough it was, typically they charged out fast in the 200m and then just seemed to be going in slow motion coming down the straight so promised myself I would gauge my effort and not go out too fast.

I was way out in lane 6 with 5 guys to my inside, one of whom had run the 4x400 in high school, Gilker. Gun went off and I felt a slight twinge in both calves at the sudden force of the violent start and hoped I had not done anything, after a couple steps, all systems go. Gilker had made up the stagger from lane 2 coming turn 2 already. then two other guys blew by me on the back stretch. though I felt like I was comfortably smooth and "fast". hit the 200 mark and again asked the legs for something, not much to give. came around turn 4, and tied up really bad, just staggering in . #4 guy came by me at that point. just death marched it across the finish in 1:13. Terrible.

the only positive is that I now have a time in the books, and something to improve. I like the distance enough, would definitely consider racing it again. I feel like I could improve my time substantially by proper pacing. and training. I do enough 200 and 400, think I like that distance.

too much drama to recount . . . rain delay, spiked, lost a shoe, massive blisters . . . bottom line . . . billy brought home the hardware . . . two All-State top 8 finishes, team 4x8 8th in state, billy 3200m 7th place in tough heat and humidity with one second PR at 9:44. he gave it his all, left it all on the track. great bookend to his high school running career.

C • oh, it was also a PR- didn'... 1

looks like 70F and 74% humidity for the STL senior 1500 tomorrow 8am . . . should be pretty nice conditions

C • I'm probably (90% and risin... 2

E shakeout at Moss . . . drills, light core

4 ST . . . 3 laps

shake out run . . . 6 ST . . . before return to Jeff City for 2nd day of rain delayed events . . . track racing overload!

light core

light warmup on the bike before heading to state race

tomorrow Fri: Billy runs two events in the State Class 4 championships, pretty psyched about that. the top five 4x800 relay teams are within 1.5 sec of each other on their sectional qualifying times, about 8:02.xx to 8:03.xx, should be an epic race with 16 teams on the track in the same race, chaos will reign on the first exchange! 64 runners in one race! on an 8 lane track! (correction: 64 runners in one race: 16x4 = 64, doh!)

then he qualified to run with the big boys in the 3200m final with top state distance guys who run in the 9:15 range; realistically he can compete for the 5th spot and a PR, hopefully in the 9:3x range, though humidity will be a factor for good race times.

then watch Lafayette crush it in the Class 5 4x8 with their top four senior phenoms running together for the first time all season. with a sophomore, they have already run a 7:50 . . . EPIC! and in the Class 5 3200, watch for Meyerer of Lafayette attempt another sub-9:00 performance, having run a top 10 national 8:59 at Arcadia earlier this year. double-EPIC-NESS! EPICITY!

C • where do i sign up for live... 5

warmup on trainer while it rained

warmup + 4 ST on Moss Field track . . . in the rain. very humid.

JD R workout #2 for the week:

1x600m on 6R: 2:19
2x400m on 4R: 1:24, 1:26
4x200m on 2R: 40, 37, 39, 39

felt just terrible, jiggly, stiff, creaky . . . on two days rest, which tells me, need to do some sort of running on the rest days just to stay loose, maybe some E runs with some strides built in. geesh, that was painful. didn't feel good till AFTER the first 200.

and I have three days to start eating right again. no weigh-in until after the race, so as not to psych myself out. it is what it is at this point.

C • felt terrible 2

broth . . . plus salad, plus sausage, plus granola. yep, definitely slipped up on the old eating.

did another bike workout, rest day basically, some basic core work; 6 min spin at 220W, resting up for R workout tomorrow