Week 2: things start to get interesting

(Monday, 3 September)
Went out Canyon Park in Monrovia with the team, 20 minutes out from the dam for about 1.08 total. It was not bad! I was working hard for the last little bit but Susan really pushed me. Legs feeling good, no weirdness in my knee or ankle anymore. Did PT with Andres.

(Tuesday, 4 September)
AM: Shenandoahs. 5.14, 5.14, 5.13, 5.14. Not as much faster as last year's as I would have liked (they were like 5.20) but I'll take it. I have a tendency to compare myself to myself in the past that I should probably start avoiding. I felt okay, tried to keep the flats faster but it was tough. I have no speed. I wasn't killing myself or anything. Legs slightly tired from yesterday. Did ankle PT with Andres.

PM: swam with the team, abs. Really fun to splash around.

(Wednesday, 5 September)
AM: easy 5 (well, 8min pace so not super, super easy). I ran with Tom, which was cool. It's always good to get other people's impressions of the team. My legs are feeling better than yesterday.

PM: Plyos with Susan, which was really tough. Legs feeling deader than ever (WTF), all that snappy motion/sprinting is a no-go.

(Thursday, 6 September)
AM: San Marino hills medley. I like this workout a lot. My legs are still feeling tired, but I am still feeling mentally fresh enough to pound it out as hard as I can. It was hard to hold back (which I didn't) even though I. said not to go all out (for Saturday). It made me feel a little bit better to imagine myself holding back, though, because all the froshlings were kicking my ass.

PM: Lombardy easy as a team, abs. Feeling okay, but my legs were really tired at night.

(Friday, 7 September)
AM: 35 minutes Lombardy to SPQ and through campus a bit. 4 quality strides. Trying to rest as much as possible for tomorrow.

PM: off.

(Saturday, 8 September)
UCI race at Irvine. Very unsatisfied by race direction, but I guess I shouldn't let that excuse my performance. Course short ~550m according to the results, so I think my time would have been approximately a 22:00 5k. This is about 30 seconds slower than I was running at Westmont last year, so I'm not too happy about it. (Especially considering Westmont is a hillier course). I know I shouldn't be focusing on times, but it's hard not to.

Here are the things I'm telling myself to feel bad:
- the course was pretty flat, with long sections of downhill I should have used for more speed
- my mental shape is bad; I didn't have any of the Diana-Lin-inspired aggression I cultivated towards the end of last year
- I have no speed left over from track
- I'm in the best shape I've been in, but my time is still slower
- I'm peaking (groan)

And here are the things I'm telling myself to make myself feel better:
- one data point is not a peak
- it's early in the season and I still need to work on converting endurance to speed, that is, "this is why the season isn't two weeks long"
- I'm still timid about my ankle; this is why the rocky, gravelly, slip-slidey downhills slowed me down.
- the second mile was long and the first mile was short, so I probably didn't actually run a 6.34/7.34 first two miles.
- my delta between first and second miles was the smallest of the whole team (ex: Sam went 6.05/7.30)

So, I'm kind of at a draw. Overall I felt like I had kind of lost my giddyup; I just couldn't or wouldn't accelerate. I just felt like I needed to run faster. I wasn't dying or anything. I just wasn't getting anywhere. We'll see how a hillier course next weekend in San Diego feels.

(Sunday, 9 September)
Off. Even though the guys at Oxy last night were appalled that I would take a day off. Way to make it hard to enjoy it, guys.

In good news, I woke up this morning on my belly with my right foot pointed down and the top of my foot flat against the bed, instead of as usual since the sprain with the foot turned to the outside and more flexed towards 90 degrees. Hooray! I can now point it almost as much as the left foot (side to side motion still a little weak) and I can make little circles, too. Andres is amazing.

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total: 45