Out racing in the woods
Wednesday, October 7th: Yesterday's loss was still heavy in my mind, and the pressures of my workload left with with no option but to have a very abbreviated night of sleep. Certainly these were less than ideal conditions leading up to one of my big workouts for the week. I wished that circumstances could have been different, but I knew that believing so wasn't a constructive thought process, so I redirected my attention towards the work at hand, and did the best with the situation. Since the last time I tried 1200's at Lactate Threshold wasn't as perfect as I like my workouts to be, I tried again to hit the same splits, this time with significantly more accuracy. The goal of the day was to get 5 pieces of 1200 meters at LT Pace (right around 4:52/mile pace for me) with only 75 seconds of recovery between pieces. I had a great workout, despite the fact that I had to run harder at the end of yesterday, splitting 3:38.5, 3:38.7, 3:38.3, 3:39.1, and 3:39.1, all within .5 seconds of my goal. I still hadn't worked all of the frustration out of my system, so I went with the rest of the team to the weight room again, this time doing a full lower body circuit and static stretch. After talking yesterday with my co-captains about what factors might have led to the loss, we enacted a few changes around the team, and people seem to be responding positively. All we can do now is see how everybody reacts, and if we can use this experience to shape our progress and learning moving ahead.
Thursday, October 8th: After two days of solid efforts, it was time for another recovery day today. In the middle of the week, it made sense for me to rest a little and prepare for the second half. Again last night I didn't get enough sleep because school work kept me awake well into the night, so I was feeling depleted. I ran for 34:30 through Germantown at about 7:19/mile pace, and made it back to Fields to complete a full core routine with medicine balls, as well as a foot circuit in the long jump pits. Even though today was difficult for me, it seems as though the team is becoming stronger, and lots of the underclassmen are committing to the work. It's hard to draw major conclusions from only a few days of running, but I'm sure that we'll do whatever it takes to get back on top when we go to our next competition this weekend.
