Being up since 4am for HoldenCare, an ONB 10KTuesday, and a full day of work did not do me any favors when it came to achieving lofty time goals. Also, for the first time ever, the little man was not the happiest of campers out in public. He was really fussy/needy the entire time, wanting to be held, and, even when held, was still pretty fussy. I mention this because I think that taking care of him at the meet had a huge impact on my performance. While we had a ton of runner friends who were instrumental in supporting us, even when someone else was holding him, I think Jerry and I were both in hyper vigilant parent-mode the whole time.
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| #Potato with one of ATC's Elite Olympic hopefuls Yeah, that's how we roll. |
4x400m
I didn't have any goals for this race, other than using it as a bit of a warm-up for the Grand Prix 800m later in the evening. The ATC Run Leaders and a few in-training participants formed two teams. It took forever to get things started because there were SO MANY 4x teams. I think we must've waited in the infield for about twenty minutes past the scheduled start. Blergh.
I ran second for our team and finished somewhere in the low 1:20s (watch didn't take, but that's around 5:30/mi), which seems to be pretty typical for me on that distance.
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| the handoff |
800m
Seed Time: 3:10.5
Goal: Eh, I dunno. Honestly, I'm only doing this for the GP points.
I hate 800s. They're short enough that you have to go for it, but long enough that you can't all out go for it. My only motivation for doing the 800 tonight was to get GP points, because, although I haven't tried at all this year, I'm sitting happily in 2nd place in my AG. Contrast that with last year, where I was trying sooooooo hard just to stay in the top three. Welcome to the 30-34 bracket, I guess, where everyone who used to run is having babies and taking time off.
I did a half mile warm-up with some of the other women there, just under a 10 pace, to get my legs loosened up. It's really nice to know enough people to have a warm-up crew to run with-- such a huge change from just Jerry and me during our very first ATC race when we moved here four years ago.
My heat had a ton of fasts in it, including the woman who is sitting in first place in our AG. Maybe I should've used that to my advantage and gone for it, knowing I really was racing her for something. I didn't, though. I knew I wanted to run the mile later, so I didn't go as fast as I could have.
I finished in 3:08.03 (6:18/mi), which felt hard, but not all-out. I finished in the back quarter of the pack, but, considering I was one of the slower seed times, that's about where I should have been. I finished third in my AG, but earned second place in the Grand Prix series (since I age up before the end of the year, and the series is based on age at the END of the season).
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| hanging with the In-Training crew |
Mile
Previous PR: 6:33 (Won Mile at Resolution Run, 1/1/15)
90% Goal: 6:59 (comparable to my mile repeats a few weeks ago)
50% Goal: 6:45 (slightly faster than mile repeats)
10% Goal: 6:30 (new PR)
I knew before I stepped onto the track that I wasn't going to 6:30. It was 10:02pm. I'd already pushed out over 7 miles for the day, and had reached my "I'm done and I want to go home" point about two hours ago. Still, I'd said I wanted to do a track mile, so I might as well get it done.
Courtney wasn't feeling a mile herself, but she stayed later to pace me through the first two laps of my mile. So freaking awesome. She's the only one of the #10KTuesday crew with any formal running training, and has really been a bit of a coach to all of us. It's been wonderful to have her experience and knowledge to draw from, and she's also one of the most encouraging and supportive people ever.
We'd calculated out how fast my laps (1:37) and 200m (0:48-- 0:50 max) splits needed to be. Oof. They sounded really fast. "They're not fast," Courtney told me. "You've got this."
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| cheering on the HS milers and getting nervous about my race |
They staged the mile in three heats: sub-5:15, sub-6, and everyone else. Ugh. I was really hoping for a sub-7 and above-7 like last year.
So, here's how it went down:
Lap 1
I missed my first 200m split (0:51). I made up the time and crossed lap 1 at 1:37.5.
Lap 2
Courtney pulled away from me on the second lap, and I let her. I distinctly remember her looking back and telling me to stay with her, and my response being a dejected head shake indicating it wasn't happening tonight.
I almost took out a 5-6 year old girl who sprinted from the infield DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF ME across to lane 4 or 5 of the track. WTF.
Crossed lap 2 at 3:17-- just over pace
Lap 3
Courtney didn't pull after lap 2 like she said she was going to. Instead, she kept up another half lap, doing her best to pull it out of me.
She pulled off at 2.5, calling "only 600m-- only a lap and a half"
I gave a little push when she left me, trying to show that I could keep myself going without a pacer
I had two more stutters along the way where I had to slow down for a child (some were doing the race, but would go from an all-out sprint to a walk instantaneously--ARGH). It was freaking HARD to get back up to speed after those. I'm sure I lost at least 3, maybe 5 seconds.
Lap 4
I heard the best cheer from one of the other run leaders: "It's gonna hurt." This might have been on lap 3, but I don't remember. All I recall is hearing that exclamation in my head until the last turn. That's right; if you're racing, it's supposed to hurt. You're supposed to feel that burn in your chest, in your legs, and all of that adrenaline just coursing through you.
I was not feeling that tonight, nor did I really have the drive to get myself there. It's true. If I were going all out, it would hurt. It would hurt so bad, but it would culminate in a glorious victory, knowing I'd pushed myself to the limit, that I'd left it all out on the track. Tonight just wasn't that night. I didn't want it to be.
I kept myself going, and tried to just push as much as I could, but stay relaxed on the last lap. Heading into the last turn, I heard Courtney, cheering from exactly where I told her needed her, saying exactly what I needed to hear: GO, GO, GO. LAY IT ALL OUT THERE. NOW!
I needed the "NOW!". Not later. Not after you've rounded the corner. Push now. Start that kick HERE.
So, I did. You can see the spike down to a ~5:00 pace on the graph below. It was too late to hit my time goal, but just enough to give me a good push to the line.
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| see all the times I had to slow down for kids? :P |
I finished in 6:48. It's not what I wanted at the start of the day, but it's exactly what I wanted during the race. With the exception of the Resolution Won Mile, it's my fastest mile ever. Oh, and did I mention that I had a baby less than six months ago? BOO. YAH.
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| race paces this year are sooooo fast thanks to all these short track distances... haha |
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