New Englands- Weekly Log: February 22 to 28

Sorry this is so late. I was planning to post this Monday, but then forgot for the rest of the week.

The final week of indoor, as the season concludes Sunday with the New England Championships. I squeezed in as RI's 5th spot (when I has finished 7th, 2nd and 4th dropped out) in the Two-Mile. Seeded 17th of 32, it'll be likely that I'll just miss out on making the fast. It's held the Reggie Lewis Track and Field Center, which I'm looking forward to running there. Anyway, it'll be nice to not be stressed out by track as I usually, since this meet will be more relaxed than pressured.

Monday: 0. So happy to take a day off and not worry about running.

Tuesday: 6 Miles. Track workout. It was cold out, but so cool with rapidly falling slow. Not insanely hard, but certainly not easy either. 7x300 w/40-50s recovery. Splits were around 54, sometimes a few seconds faster. Followed by 8x200, 30s recovery. Splits ranged from 31-33. Difficulty of workout: 4/5.

Wednesday: 7 Miles. Very smooth East Ave run, to tennis courts and back. Very happy to run a 6:18 average pace for 6.2 miles. Really tiring on the few hills that I ran. Great running weather, I completely regretting gloves (a decision influenced by the weather reading on my phone) as it felt pretty warm out there.

Thursday: 5 Miles, another track workout. 7x300 again w/30s recovery. Similar splits. Weather was great again, windy but felt warm. Concluded with an all-out 300, I ran a PR of 41.8 seconds. Difficulty of Workout: 3/5.

Friday: 4 Miles, brief track workout. Super windy and super cold, and was not happy I forgot to bring gloves. Fortunately, I wasn't out there for long, as I only had 3x300 w/30s recovery: 46/49/49, followed by 2x150 pickups. 300s were very fast. Difficulty of Workout: 4/5.

Saturday: 4 Miles, easy shakeout. Ran 7:02 average pace, but felt like 9:00 because my thighs were feeling really heavy. This made the pick-ups harder than they usually are. First half I was cold, second half I was warm.

Sunday: 5 Miles, New England Championships. My expectations were that I'd run at 3, and the meet would by quickly. Here's a short version of everything before my race: breakfast at 9, bus departs from WHS @10, we arrive @12. I expect that I'll warm-up around 1:45, and sit around in the gym and near the track. I got to watch lots of great races, but ended up warming up at 3:45 and running at 5:30. Around 5:10, we were checked in and 5:20 brought into the track area. It was not like states (nervous up to 5 mins before, then not nervous), as I wasn't nervous coming in to it but got nervous warming-up and very nervous in the 10-15 minutes before. We put on our spikes and I relaxed a little, knowing that my slow heat of the two mile still had the girls heat on the track now and the fast girls heat after before we ran. Then I paid a little more attention: this was the girls fast heat. That meant we were running in 4 minutes, not 15 like I thought. They had us run a lap around to the start, where we were given a chance to do a stride. It didn't feel good. We lined up and we were off.

The Slow Heat of the Two-Mile:
I didn't know whether to be happy or not that I was in the slow heat or the last one. In the fast heat, there would be no pressure on place and I could hang in the back but it would hard to stay with anyone there. If I was in the slow heat, I would be pressured to stay in the front, but the pace wouldn't be as fast and it would be much easier to stay with them. I also didn't know if I would like the track or not- I had warmed-up on it earlier but wasn't sure how I felt. When the gun went off, I was towards the back then soon dropped to back of the pack. I think I was even dead last for some of it. I passed a few over the course of the next lap and found myself right behind a Hendricken runner (8th place at states) who had run 8:58 for 3K, then never broke 9:05 again for the rest of the season. The opening 400 was 70, about target pace (for the opening 4) but it did not feel good. I stayed with the Hendricken runner for another 400, where his teammate (6th place in state) passed me and started moving ahead. I eventually made a move to pass the Hendricken runner, but it was tough as he tried to hold me off. This was 800 meters in, 2:24 for the four laps. I was very tired. Over the next four laps, I tired to pass a few more and get towards the front, but I had little energy. The mile mark was run in about 4:52. The next 8 laps were a blur. My coaches were yelling to me to pick it up, but I was dying out there. I finished 6th in the slow heat, 18th overall in 9:57. The cause was clearly that I ate too early and I had lost most of that energy by the time it got to my race, despite eating a bagel and few bars in between. So, a pretty bad race. But it was a fun experience (not running bad, but being up there): I got to watch great races, run on a great track, and warm up around the elites. I was disappointed of course, but more about the bad close to the season and not the specific race. After all, I had figured that I would run great since my last two meets were disappointing. And I probably would've if it was at 1 and not 5:30.

Weekly Total: 31 (lame)
YTD Mileage: 336 Miles