With Championship season here, the pressure is on. I haven't done a whole lot this season but now is the time to forget about the past and do my best to produce strong efforts. At this point, sub-16:10 would be solid.
Monday: 8 Miles
End of UNH official visit. Ran with a couple team members on a seemingly nice loop (except a busy road at the end). Felt really good and said bye to the ankle pain.
Tuesday: 6 Miles
Hill workout: 1 finger, 3xnarragansett. Ankle wasn't as good as the previous but still a major improvement over the previous day and I was able to complete with a strong result. Fastest hill workout ever (average pace) at 5:48/mile. Was able to keep going strong (mostly) through heaviness. Difficulty: 3/5.
Wednesday: 5 Miles
Had to go in early morning because of a math meet later that would occupy all of my time in the afternoon. Oddly had quite a bit of pain in morning, nearly giving up but decided to give it a shot and was surprised running felt much better than walking. Still felt fairly uncomfortable and was only getting, so cut it pretty short.
Thursday: 7 Miles
Track workout, but nice and easy. 4x800 @2:30 w/2 mins rest, 5 min break, then 3x400 @71s w/2 mins rest. Practice was right after school, so was missing a boost of energy that I usually get from a pre-run snack. 800 started out pretty solid, but made the mistake of ramping it up after the first one. Got through the 800s just fine, but strangely the 400s which should have been very easy (long recovery, splits not particularly fast) got to me and I was feeling it at the end. Difficulty: 3/5. Don't remember exact splits but 800s ranged from 2:24-2:28 and 400s 67-70s.
Friday: 8 Miles
Tried to take it easy and cut a mile off with the big race on Saturday. Started off really smooth but like Wednesday as I went on, everything got worse. Ankle never really hurt, but became more uncomfortable and was pretty stiff at the end, as well as my thighs being very heavy. Strides felt a little better so that was encouraging.
Saturday: 8 Miles
Class B Championships. After an absolutely terrible wait (got there at 10:30, raced at 2:45) in the heat, it was finally time to go. Didn't feel great, both kinda weak and with heavy legs plus I was very nervous about the pressure to have a strong race. My coaches wanted me to sit back and make a move in the back half, but I was nervous about the whole thing. Conor Murphy was the biggest threat as he's been running very fast this season and I didn't think I could beat him.
The first mile was okay. After getting out, I was in second behind Conor with many close behind me. I let Conor get out a little and was about 5 second behind him when I went through the mile in 5:01. Going up Indian Hill (short steep ascent) felt absolutely terrible and he added to his lead while others chipped away on mine. I really wasn't feeling good at this point, thinking about dropping out, but the downhill was enough to get myself more relaxed and back in the race. I never really felt good enough to think about making a move and felt like everyone was catching up to me when I heard people yelling other's names. Somehow, no one caught me and Conor was very slowly coming back to me. Went through 2 miles in 10:15, which seemed a little slow but I wasn't worried about that at the time. The gap really started to cut down going back uphill and suddenly after going back down Indian Hill we were neck and neck. Pretty much the whole race I had been settling for second, but now it seemed like a real race. I was still fairly tired and didn't have much energy to do anything. I was content to run neck and neck for the rest of the race, possibly losing in the end. My coach yelled at me "Don't Wait" and someone else yelled "1000 meters to go, Matt. The race is won here". This gave me the extra push and motivation I needed to take the lead and really go for it. I got, but was worried Conor was right there. After going out the woods, I didn't have a whole lot left and was just preparing to get passed back. I tried to keep pushing but just didn't feel like I had enough of a gap and that I would be run down. As I rounded the final turn, somehow still in the lead, my coach yelled out "Stay relaxed". That seemed really strange, as I was about to be outkicked and now was the only time not to be relaxed, but as I could look back towards the way I came I saw that I did have a decent gap. I was still really nervous I would be run down but managed to take. Coming down the final stretch, I thought for sure I would break 16, but was just outside, running a season and course PR of 16:05.47. At the beginning on the season, winning the class title was something I wanted for sure, but with my slower times I didn't think it would happen. Really happy to make this breakthrough in the postseason, but am still focusing on the road and am hoping for something even better at the state meet.
Sunday: 0. Day off for trashed body.
Weekly Total: 42 Miles
YTD Total: 1,983 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Finally seeing everything come together by winning the class B meet in a decent time too.
Weekly Lowlight: Being nervous about potentially being injured.
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