Monday: 7 Miles
Did a little out and back lollipop, going on old Hopkinton and connecting roads to get to Riverwood preserve. Nice to mix it up with trails but the easy orange loop I took was badly overgrown, at least for most of it. I was eating spiderwebs the whole time as well, which as all trail runners know, is quite unpleasant.
Tuesday: 4 Miles
Final track workout at the high school. 3x400 at 64s w/90s recovery before an all-out 600. 400 was fine, felt decent. 64/63/62. The 600 hurt really bad and even though I ran a decent 1:28, it took a good hour to feel normal afterwards. Difficulty: 4/5.
Wednesday: 5 Miles
Easy four. Did a mostly flat loop I used to do when I was injured.
Thursday: 5 Miles
Easy run at Aggie Stadium where the meet is being held. Got to check out the area, which was not too impressive (besides the stadium). Boring run looping around on streets in ridiculously hot open sun 92 degree weather. Started off with Ryan and Randi, they dropped and John and I ran together the whole time.
Little tune-up workout that was stupidly difficult. 4x400 at 64s w/60s recovery. Didn't feel that great, legs or energy-wise. Not a great workout for me. Not sure if it was the heat or running on a different track. Found a local high school. All over the place and never felt that good. 66/62/65/66. Difficulty: 4/5.
Saturday: 5 Miles
Shakeout run with John. Wandered around in the brutal heat. Pretty boring/exhausting. Found some relief in free ice-cold Gatorade they were giving out. Watched a few events and headed back to the hotel to relax.
Sunday: 4 Miles
Final race of the season. It was really hot again and having a 10AM race meant I didn't have enough time to hydrate. I'm used to running later than 2PM which gives the entire morning to drink, but as we woke up at 7AM, I just didn't feel like drinking that early. I was a little concerned when I only had about 40 ounces of water prior to our first warm-up. My rule is only to sip water after the first warm-up so I won't have to pee when I run. I tried to dismiss this but then had to think about something else- that I felt absolutely terrible on the warm-up. I usually don't feel great on the warm-up but this felt like I had already raced. I was so tired and felt like I had rolled out of bed after a few hours of sleep. I was hoping the second warm-up would feel better but I just felt super weak. I would have felt relaxed heading into our race (we were the 26th seed of 26, so there was no pressure to win or place or anything like that) but because I felt so terrible I was somewhat nervous. We waited around. I tried to keep pouring cold water on my head to cool off. Eventually we were on the track, completely exposed to the sun. We watched the girls take the W, before we started.
John led us off in 3:17, around 9th. Zach ran 51 and moved up a few spot. Ryan ran 1:57 and brought us into the lead at the handoff. I was surprised that we were in first considering we barely made it and were seeded last. I took the baton and ran. I felt comfortable the first lap but of course ran a too fast 62. I think being chased on a relay leg makes me run much faster than I should. The race felt apart after that. I held a steady 30 meter gap on the next group as one runner chipped away at the lead. This race was weird for me. Usually I'm focused on splits and placements all the time when I race, but I was completely zoned out here. It didn't really feel real. I felt like I was sleeping the whole race. I would go by the 400s and try to figure out my splits and they seemed really slow. I got super tired in the last 600. I had nothing. I was passed and beaten pretty good. I held on for 2nd in our heat but knew I hadn't run so well. I was beat afterwards. I've haven't been that dead after a race in a very long time. It took lots of cold water to return to normal after about 30 minutes. We watched the fast heat and we were very surprised to hold onto 3rd place. Not a very good fast heat. Ended up splitting 4:26 which isn't so great. I feel like I'm capable of sub-4:20 but wasn't very close today. It's weird how I had good kicks in every competitive 1500 I ran but when it came to the DMRs, my last lap was my slowest of the four. Overall, I'm not too disappointed in the race. I felt like if I had felt good and closed well, we could have won and that aspect is disappointing but it was a fun trip overall.
Weekly Total: 33 Miles
YTD Total: 837 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Less running-related, but a lot of fun to escape somewhere else for a few days and have a fun trip.
Weekly Lowlight: Dealing with 90+ degree temperature every single day, especially while running.
A little break and then starting some summer training and fun races. Will do some follow up posts to give summer plans, recap on hs races and list college goals.
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