Get In The Ring

Prior to what was originally scheduled as my 2014 Outdoor track season opener a few weeks back I eluded to my weeks of base building training being akin to a boxer sparing in the gym,you can spar till the cows come home but sooner or later it's off w/ the pads,on w/ the gloves and time to step into the ring......that time has come and tomorrow evening baring any travel cock ups{go back and read any of my blog entries over the past few seasons and you'll see where St Christopher the patron saint of travellers has left me high and dry on the way to NYC for a track meet}my 2014 Outdoor season will kick off at Icahn Stadium in the Twilight Series over 1,500m

This will not only be my season opener but also my first outdoor 1,500m since that gut wrenching 4th place finish at the 2012 Outdoor Nationals in Lisle where I missed the podium by 6 100ths of a second despite running a seasons best 4.18.6
I've said retrospectivly that race was the catalyst of my 2012 season grinding to a halt,I pretty much mailed it in after that w/ below par performances over 5k on the road at Syracuse and the over 10k cross country in Lexington Kentucky which then morphed into not competing at all last season,I blew off the Indoor season and had no plans to compete Outdoors last summer on the track but I did entertain the notion of a Fall Marathon till the Tendonitis in my right achilles flared up and put paid  to that idea,however during my rehab I rediscovered my hunger to do what it takes to mix it up on the track and began the long road back.
Sadly "Old Man Winter" stuck a monkey wrench into my training for the Indoor season so much so that I didn't go to Boston for Indoor Nationals which if you now how much I love running at "The Reg" telsl you I didn't come by that decision easily.

My Indoor season felt mediocre at best, a bit like my old high school report cards"Kevin can do so much better if he only applies himself" and w/ that and the back of the "Winter Of Our Discontent" I was able to knuckle down to some serious training,after meger returns on my investment during the Winter I began to log 5 day/40 mile weeks week in week out w/ 2 repeats per week most weeks which leads to where I'm at now standing on the sideline waiting to see where those weeks of training have me in the general scheme of things.
Thursdays 1,500m is far from the "be all and end all" but a better idea of where I'm at,I ended my Indoor Season w/ a 1,500m time of 4.32.58 and in my blackest of pagan black heart I know I'm better than that and while the current status of entries for tomorrows race looks like it could well be a baptisim of fire for me w/ 3 sub 4.00 guys and 5 at 4.00 making up the sofar 12 man field this race represents a chance to see where I'm at and to see how far I've come since March 21st and what I still need to do over the final seven weeks till Outdoor Nationals.
It's been a long journey since the year began but really only a blink of an eye compared to where it all began as a high school freshman in the summer of 76 some 38 years,alot of races,some highs,some lows but providing the flesh isn't weak trust me the spirit is more than willing........."protect yourself at all times and obay the comands,let's have a good clean fight.....seconds out,Round One"................