Friday, February 5, 2016

The Show Must Go On

Life is full of surprise for example last Thursday I won my first race in 17 months and shaved 11 seconds off my 1,000m pr I was on top of the world.....untill I left The Armory and on the journey back to Philly my relationship w/ Candice came to a crashing halt......the moral of this cautionary tale folks,enjoy lifes highs,you never know when the next low is lurking around the corner.....but also  don't wallow in lifes lows as the next high could be a heartbeat away.........

Back to my beloved Armory for my fourth and final race in my build up to Indoor Nationals in four weeks time,having logged a pair of 4.50/4.47 miles and a 2.40 1,000m what could I do over 800m???
I seeded myself at 2.12 using the 33 sec per lap blueprint as my guideline,alas the deadline for entries for Albuquerque was at midnite so given my current bad luck streak and ending up on a Megabus back to Philly sans Wi Fi I felt it prudent to tackle my entry pre race and used my best indoor time from last year Winston Salems 2.13.19..............

Seeded 7th in heat #3 I took my place on the starting line w/ 14 others 10 of us on the starting line w/ 4 more on the next line further up the turn.
Not my best reaction to the gun it must be said but I recovered and grabbed a place on the rail at the back of the field going into the first turn and slowly mauouverd my way through the field on the back straight moving into 3rd or 4th as we came through 200m in 31 seconds.
Ok so 2 seconds faster than I planned but I was feeling "my oates" so to speak and continued to plough along....
62 seconds at 400m in 2nd.....fuckin' ada when did I last go through 400m of an 800m in 62 seconds indoors.......????
I still felt comfortable and confident and rather than dread the always tricky third  200m of an 800m I continued to chase the leader....1.35 at 600m a 33 second split.

Granted the uneven nature of my splits is far from text book  but frankly I didn't plan to go thro 400m in 62 seconds...but I'm glad I did,I'm also glad I opted to "race" rather than be coy and tactical #timeandplace
#1 seed Herb Heffner went by me as we hit 100m to go and while I didn't have the closing kick I've had in my previous three indoor races I continued to drive up the home straight to the finish line......
Third in 2.09.94.....I haven't ran this fast for an Indoor 800m since 2011.........

Clearly the 50 mile training weeks are paying dividends and I hope after I wrap this week up w/ the required 34 miles I need to log another 50mpw that I can avoid both illness and injury over the coming four weeks leading up to Indoor Nationals in Albuquerque,I relish my final three "Mo Farah" repeats to put the finishing touches to my prep......

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