Down Week for the Relay

Monday, 27 April
I swam today for 30 minutes, finishing up with 5 minutes of aquajog. I felt good about practicing my freestyle technique, because it gave me something to think about. I even did a whole 600m without stopping! Or getting too bored! Next time I will go even longer.... I also had Kim massage my calf again a little bit and it felt pretty tender - although it felt fine after the swim when I did a little jog. As long as I wasn't accelerating up to top speed, it felt fine. So I guess no more strides for a little bit.

Much more importantly, the SCIAC champs were today, including a great PR from Anton in the 1500 final (he ran a super smart, tactical race) to add to all the women's PRs in the 1500 prelims. I didn't mention it on Saturday, but I was so pumped about the women's races in the 1500 - Natalya and Masha had massive PRs, Best ran a PR in a race that went out really fast and left her alone for much of the race, and Sedona broke 6 for the first time (!). It was awesome.

Which brings me to the women's 5k - I thought I was going to have to give myself a time-out I was so happy for them. Natalya was first with a 23 second PR - a great race for her that showed a lot of guts, especially in mile 2. Next was Stephanie, in 20.02 - a time that I know she found disappointing, but which I think was really solid, especially after going out in 6.00 with the main pack. She had a few rough laps in there but she stuck it out, and I think she really got back on it at the end of the race, which is super hard to do. Then there was Clara, who sprinted in to a 20.04, which is a 32 second PR. She varied widely in pace during the race, but that's something she knows to work on. Next, to my great delight, was Sylvia - who in 20.13 destroyed her PR from multis by 50 seconds. Talk about a breakout race! She was so controlled the whole race, something I had seen at multis, and it was so awesome to see her digging in, moving up and running with folks during this race. I can't wait to see her run cross country next year. Not to be outdone, Masha followed her 1500 PR with a 20:28, which was 40 seconds faster than her huge PR at multis. She just rocked it the entire race and it was amazing for me to watch. I feel like she's just smashed through as a runner this season. Amazing. The team was rounded out by Heather (a 1 minute PR!) shortly followed by Sedona (a season best). I was so proud of these two because they were the last two to come in, and the whole Oxy stadium was going nuts for them - when Heather put up her fist as she crossed the line, and I saw how big a PR it was for her, I was just so glad these gals have such a great attitude. It's really a delight to see. (PS, I wonder if we'd scored the 5k like a XC meet if we would have beaten any teams... maybe if we scored 3 places we'd have gotten CLU or Redlands).

I spoke with Scott a bit afterwards about it. I mean, I did think it was pretty obvious that the women's distance squad had a ridiculously good couple of days, between all the PRs in the 1500/5k and just the absolute times - between multis and conferences we had 6 5k performances under 20:15 by 4 different runners. And the men did good too - Andrew and Ryan in particular just seemed to have really solid progressions throughout the year, and Anton and Sachith are clearly learning the ways of racing the 1500. But Scott seemed totally baffled - he said something along the lines of "I can't explain it, they're all just running so fast!". This kind of pissed me off, but I couldn't really put my finger on why.

I mean, it's not like some random accident that they all ran fast. Although, I can't come up with a good explanation, either - maybe we're just lucky this year to have a lot of talent? Maybe the group cohesion that developed during XC helped? Maybe they all just worked harder on their workouts? Or maybe it just helped that there was such a much bigger team of women? What do you guys think?

At any rate it's enough to get you excited for cross country already. *Sigh.*

Tuesday, 28 April
Track workout. I had gotten myself pretty pumped for this one, after Demar told me about doing a 1200m time trial as part of his 1500m pre-race prep. I thought that, if it went well, it would be a good confidence boost before the 1500 to go with the speed stuff that I've been doing, which has been good so far. I also felt really motivated to run hard after seeing all the performances last night. So, I decided to risk the calf/shin to hop on the track for the 1200.

Here's how it went down. First, I decided to wear my flats as a compromise since the spikes had potentially made my calf/shin sore. Second, this may sound crazy, but I decided that I wanted it to be like a race, so I drove out to Claremont to do it on my PR track (BTW, thank you for that track, Dr. Rossi). I also thought about going to Oxy to do it but I thought that it would be more special if I saved that for later.

Anyways, my reasoning is this. If I were to run even splits, I would have to run 80's to break 5:00, which would be 4:00 for 1200. But, I know that I am a kicker, so it's more realistic for me to think backwards from the end - let's say that I can close the last 300m in 56 (which I've done before), then if I want to break 5 I have to squeak through 1200 in 4:04 or under. This means that I have to run the 800 in the range of 2:40 - 2:50, with the best possibility for breaking 5:00 being a time of around 2:45, to allow for negative splits while not burning myself out at the beginning of the race, like last year at the Oxy invite. Agreed?

So I said hi to Goldhammer on my warmup, and it was the perfect setting because I was the only one on the track. Standing at the start I just looked down the track and imagined myself at the start of the race at Oxy, and I could almost see the Oxy track laid out in front of me. I got myself in my zone and off I went. I split 83/83/77 for 4:04, which really couldn't have been better. With the flats, my shin, and it being a race-simulation I was prepared to be happy with anything up to 4:10. The first lap I just tried to settle in, the second lap I just tried to hang on and think about my last lap, and the last 500m or so I tried to pick it up, passing imaginary runners in the straightaway with about 300m to go and trying to kick it in while still being controlled (and imagining myself with an additional 300m to go after the end of the 1200). I felt good about my mental state, and the shin didn't bother me while I was running. I breathed easy for a minute or two and then did some shorter stuff to finish things up, 2 x 200m and a 300m with 2 minutes rest in between (35/35/55).

Overall I felt pretty good, although the shin is really bothering me mentally. I am irritated that this is going to be my only workout this week (because of the Relay and the shin). So it's good and bad times.

Also, I am concerned about how tired I was at the end of the 1200 - I mean, 300m more seemed like a lot! Hopefully a positive attitude and competition and spikes will be enough to tack on another sub 56 second 300m at the end of a potential 4:04 at Oxy.

Wednesday, 29 April
Camping. Did a run up to the top of Mt. Pinos (8,800+ ft) which was basically me sucking air the whole time and trying not to cry or pee my pants. The flat parts felt SO much better. I wish I'd been able to enjoy this run more and get some strides in afterwards, but my shin (left one still) started bothering me halfway through. It started hurting halfway through after I stopped at the top to look around. I ran for a little while longer and eventually stopped and walked down the hill, which was probably smart.

Afterwards I iced it with snow from the stray snowbanks (!). Hopefully I didn't give myself leg-giardia!

Thursday, 30 April
Off. Calf/shin needed a day of rest I think. Freaking out a little. Iced it.

Friday, 1 May
Swimming. I'm trying to be smart here about my calf/shin, because yesterday I realized that... holy crap I'm going to have a big, pavement-y weekend ahead of me and I do NOT want to get permanently broken before the 9th. Andres gave me a compression sock to wear on my leg and some instructions as to what to do during the race. Hopefully all goes well!

I swam a whole 30 minutes without stopping, and I did freestyle until my (left) shoulder got a little tired. I am actually proud of that joint - I haven't done any PT on it in a long while and it's held up nicely in the swimming. Anyways, I did a little kicking and then I did aquajogging for 10 minutes, trying as best I could to approximate plyos even with the extra resistance. It kind of worked.

Saturday, 2 May - Sunday, 3 May
The relay.

Got up real early to drive up and meet Ryan et al. in El Cerrito. Then we drove up to Calistoga for the start, had a pulled pork sandwich, and was on our way. My van: the Brain, the Beast, Mark, me, Talia, Talia's sister Lisa.

leg 1 (I was runner 9, I had some of the easiest legs:) 5.5 miles, pretty much flat chilling through Sonoma. It was dark by the time I finished this, but probably the worst part was that I didn't see any other runners the whole time. This is probably because we had a late start time. It was a little nerve-wracking because my shin had been bothering me, but I just rolled and massaged it like crazy beforehand and wore the sock that Andres gave me plus another pair of diabetes socks. They made me feel silly but I didn't care, because maybe the support would help. The shin hurt a bit the first 2 miles or so but then it stopped bothering me. Afterwards I got into dry stuff as soon as possible and rolled it some more. time: 39:51.

leg 2: 6.5 miles, it was rated "moderate". There were some rollers and quite a bit of wind coming up from the ocean (I was rocking out in Millbrae, mostly on Skyline and partway on the bike path.). It was hella, hella dark (4am). I passed a whole bunch of people (15+) which was really good considering how lonely it had been on the last leg. Since the leg was feeling better I felt like I could really open up more and stop being as cautious. I just worked the downhills and tried to run smart. I also practiced picking it up for the last 5 minutes or so, so that I could be more prepped for the 5 minutes of effort I'm going to put out next weekend. time: 46:21.

leg 3: 6.3 miles, some hills but net downhill. I just tried to not exert myself too much on the uphills and to get some time back on the downhills. The best part was that there was mile markers on the road, so I could check my splits. That was nice because it gave me something to think about. My legs felt great and I just tried to run consistently, but not too hard. I really started thinking about Oxy on this run, and so I just practiced being focused and tried not to thrash my legs too much. time: 43:43.

This whole thing was such a blur. I can't believe we covered so much distance (running and driving) in so little time. It was good quality time with the whole gang, though. Random thoughts:
- Why does this charity, which is for such an important cause, have such a silly name?
- This will blow your mind: slug sex.
- Dan Feldman is a beast who recently handed Gabe Jennings his ass on a platter.
- Many of the women on the team were crazy-legit: Talia (10:11 3k, 17:49 5k @ Oxy), her sister Lisa (school record holder in 800m @ Willamette, 2:09), Eastwood (at least 4.40 in the 1500, not sure what her PRs are). Where do these people come from?