After last weeks disappointing first outdoor over 1,500m I had to hope for a better outcome last nite same track?same distance?different outcome?....one could hope!
A few things seemed to be working in my favour this week,hard as it is to imagine but even w/ 38 years of competing under my belt I still get nervous b4 races as was the case last week,two days b4 the race and my stomach was churning like a cement mixer on a building site,thankfully w/ the Outdoor season opener under my belt thee was no need for steady diet of Tums this week
Unlike last week last nites 1,500m wasn't stacked w/ studs and although of the 9 times submitted 5 were still a tad too rich for my blood I wasn't going to adopt the "let's throw Linguine at the wall and see what sticks"policy that had blown up in my face over the final 400m last week"fool me once shame on you,fool me twice shame on me"
Again I arrived at Icahn w/ time to kill,I won,t be so lucky beginning Tuesday when the Tuesday Nite Speed Series kicks off,I can't take off from work everytime I have a race in NYC{more's the pity!!!} so it's back to the 2.30pm bus and clutching my St Christopher medal in the hope I reach Midtown by 5.30pm and be at Icahn by 6.60pm at the latest for a 7 pm start to the meet.
Enjoyed an easy 6 lap warm up on the track b4 hitting then adjacent soccer pitch for a 15 minute jog w/ Connor O Driscoll,Connor has been a good friend of mine since my 06 Masters National debut and even though we are now in the same age group for a year or two b4 he moves upto 55-59 and essentially rivals I'm not "that far gone" that I can't warm up w/ him and shoot the breeze,as it was when the gun went off Connor would be valuable to my race plan.....
Of the seven of us who took to the starting line the seed times ranged from:3.52 4.09 4.15 4.30{me} 4.45{Connor} 5.05 and 6.20 so the only person I could legitimately work off of was connor.
I let the three studs go from the gun,two of them were listed as 29 and under in the final result and the third place runner was in the 35-39 age group,no point trying to live w/ them like I tried last week tonite I needed a controlled race so I tucked in behind Connor down the back straight.
55 seconds at 300m I was hoping for 53 seconds but after the suicidal 48 seconds I opened w/ last week this was more like it,I eased around Connor and began to think about the final three laps and how close to70,70,70 I could run.
2.07 at 700m,a 72 second split,I almost came a cropper up the home straight,I glanced at the time clock at the finish line and somehow then stood on the rail,thankfully I not only stayed upright but didn't panic at the momentary loss of footing.
While the lead three were now long gone on route to finishing times of 4.05.3 4.13.9 4.19.9 now w/ 550m to go Connor was closing in behind me,thanks to economical pacing thus far I had gas left in the tank and responded.
3.18 at the bell a 71 second split and unlike last weeks slow painful death over the final 400m in 78 seconds I felt smooth as silk in 72 seconds and more importantly felt there are other gears to go to still.
4.30.33 only a second faster than last week so let's hold off on the victory celebrations but it was the manner in which I achieved that time that gives me hope for the coming weeks,last week my splits were:48 70,75,78=4.31.50 last nite 55,72,71,72=4.30.33 in my heart of hearts I believe a 53,70,70,70=4.23. is doable and having picked up a second on last week if I can keep improving at this rate w/ six more weeks till Nationals that's a 4.24......
Sadly I don't have another 1,500m on my schedule as I need to work on my 800s however there is a mile on my schedule on July 1st two weeks out so if I were to run a 4.44 mile that nite it would equate to a 4.26 1,500m time.....just saying!!!!
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