This week is the first week with Championship races, with Freshman championships Monday, followed by Class Championships Saturday. Then states and New Englands are on the two following weekends, respectively. After crushing any time goals with a 16:26 5K effort at the first meet of the season, the rest of the season was about training to make top 25 at the state meet which is the qualifying standard to make New Englands as an individual. Class determines whether I make states, but it shouldn't be a problem. I happen to be in the smallest class, which also means least competition, so my goals are 3rd or better (although I'd be happy with 5th) and sub 16:40. The next three weeks may be the hardest of the season for me.
Monday: 5 miles. Six Narragansett Ave repeats. Last year Westerly's No. 2 XC runner came quite close to my times, so it definitely helped having him for workouts. With him I ran one of my most impressive segment times- 4:19 pace (53s) for about a quarter mile at 3.6% grade. That was a little over a year ago now, and even though we stepped back the number of hill workouts in track, I hadn't come close to matching that pace all season (which is rare for a segment). The gap increased heavily when that runner didn't return, and now I have do my own pacing with no one close behind. We hadn't done Narragansetts in a while, so I saw this as an opportunity to break 4:19 pace. Lately on hills, I've noticed I get weak towards the final few, so it would be wise to give a full effort on the first rather than the last. I did this, and while I felt great on the slight incline, and flat section, the steepest part really wore me down. I was disappointed to see 4:56 pace on my watch, but it really ended up being 4:34 (56s), which tied my second best time on the segment. I ran hills 2-5 at about 5:00 pace (around 60s), before pushing myself on the final one with a 4:39 pace (57s). Maybe I can come closer to breaking it next week.
Tuesday: 8 Miles. Saw that Crutchley and his friend had ran white rock trails a few weeks ago. I ended up running past them two weeks ago, but didn't set foot on them because I was out of time. I eventually went, and got there with plenty of time to spare. The grass field to go over was thick, and the trails were confusing with no organizational system (or at least I didn't see one), and dead ends at a nearby road/construction site. There was a section where I had to walk over a stone wall. When taking a turn onto a longer trail, I was barked at by two loud dogs, so I turned around and left. And I fell on some rocks. I wish it went smoother and I could've seen more of the trails, but I'll try to return in the next few weeks, or in December.
Wednesday: 6 Miles, practice cancelled due to strong winds and some rain, so ran with teammate Joe down to the beach and back. Saw that it was very low tide, so we ran 1-2 miles on the beach, and it was by far the highlight of the run. We ran with some very strong winds, and had the pleasure of watching giant waves crash. The way back wasn't so fun, going against strong winds with soaking wet clothes.
Thursday: 4.5 Miles. Since class was our most important team race and it was coming up on Saturday, we took it pretty easy the two days before. Track Workout, 6x400 @75s each w/(approx.)40s recovery. Felt really good and had no problem at all. Difficulty: 1/5.
Friday: 4.5 again. Day before class, so easy again. 30 minute run, planned around 7:10 pace. Took an opportunity to explore road near field street in Pawcatuck, and I liked what I ran on. New roads (to me) were Lathrop Ave, W Enterprise Ave, and Cronin Ave. There was actually another half-mile loop I could've ran, and I will check into that next time I'm in the area. Good run, because I felt strong and comfortable. At the end, I had 7:00 pace on my watch so I tired to sprint to get sub-7, but it never went down as I went across the field.
Saturday: Class B Championships. 7 Miles (more cool-downs and warm-ups than usual). 2nd OA (six seconds behind first), 16:35 official time (though I thought it was 16:31 when I crossed the line). my Separate write-up incoming, and it'll be late because I'm merging it with State Meet write-up.
Sunday: Day off. I looked back in my blog, and I've run every day since August 23 (68 Days in a row!). With my most important meet of the season in a week, I thought it was a good idea.
Weekly Total: 35 Miles
Great run at Class Matthew! You looked great!
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