Well no Little A's this morning, so a relaxing morning is planned. I took the 2 younger boys to the local pool for a 90 min 'muck' around in the warm water, nice to just take the morning easy.
Todays AV NorthWest Shield meet is traveling to the Newport track, nice and easy for Western A's, only 12-15 min down the road, getting near finals, so I expect a big attendance today. I am taking a new guy to the track today, Richard, new to the state and looks like he is very interested in joining the Club for the Winter and intends to run invite for the last of the T&F season (a 17 min 5km man, at the moment, he will get faster).
I sent coach Burkie an email yesterday and told him my weekend goals, 800 - sub 2:25 which would be a PB and to run sub 11:20 for 3km, also a PB. He quickly replied and said, "As there so many variables that affect performances on a given day many of
which are outside your control..may I suggest that each week we focus on the best
run possible on that day rather than constant focus on the outcome.If we focus on
the content of the run each week the BP will come when everything is right. I feel the pressure of focusing on PB's can be come a burden and there are other valid
ways of judging the worth of a run. However we do need always to run faster." So I thought about his comments and sent him another email and told him for the 800m I would concentrate on a nice even paced first lap, maybe even upto the 600ish and then try to come home hard. And the 3k, will obviously depend on weather, how I'm feeling and stuff like that and too beat some. He replied and said it would be very interesting to see if I can control my aggression all the way upto 600.
Big numbers are up for the men's 800's, I am finally allocated in the 6th heat and there are still 2 more after me, and I have been allocated Lane 8, don't care, plan is to cruise the bend and await the known front runners, there are 10 in the race. At the cross over, I start the move over to Lane 1/2 and am sitting in 6/7th, nice pace and I'm happy. At the 400m, I hear the call 71 for me, very happy, right on target, sitting 4th now and the front runners are now a lot closer, on the bend I don't want to speed up yet and I am moving out to lane 2 to pass a few and move in right behind the leader (a young Willi boy) along the back straight. 200 to go he moves a metre or 2 away and I can hear others starting their moves, 170ish to go, I push hard NOW, move back right in behind him and wait for the straight, I pop into lane 2 on with 80 to go, but he answers me, I tried so hard and I have a Coburg guy coming around me, holding him off but he gets me on the line and I finish 3rd, time 2:24.21, WOW a PB and I didn't think that would happen today. After the race I have been asked why did I pull up, it appears two steps before the finish I pulled up to hit my stop watch!!! No more watches in short races, Burkie thinks I could have run a high 2:23........ VERY happy with the result & time.
10-15 min later I go for a 15 min cool down along the water's edge. I feel a lot better now. Doing some chatting and catching up with other Western A's members and I then notice the 5k has started, that means I have about 25 min prior to the 3k.
The 3k is a very big field, 65 competitors, I wonder how long before they split us into a male & female race. My intent is to start on 90 sec per lap and see how things go, but be prepared for a possible slow down. I got a good start considering the size of the field and hit the 200 right on 44/45, very happy, but surprisingly I am coming about 5th last??? I continue on and start regularly passing slower runners. After 4 laps I can see I am catching Melissa (13) and Tash (17), I know they are aiming for a 11:15 race so I am concerned that I may be going too fast, but I feel ok, so I continue on at my pace and move past. I haven't looked at my watch but I know I am lapping at & around 89-90, so I am happy, 600 to go its starting to hurt, but I know its not far, Tash passes me with 380 to go, I yell at her to take me home (we have done a lot of training runs together), in hindsight this was a great thing to do, I think this made me publicly say I'm going to fight all the way to the end. I follow Tash as close as I can and I even fight off a challenge in the home straight from that same Coburg runner (Brian), finish 29th in a BIG PB 11:08.70 splits are 90.68, 88, 87.65, 89.55, 92.27, 90.07, 87.85, 42.63 I am very stoked.
The grin is big and I go for a 15 min cool down with a few other Western A's who also PB in the 3 & 5k races, a very happy crew.
Weekly Note: 55km for the week, 296km for month so far. Km's down this week due to major focus on track races and also coach Burkie wanted the k's down this week. Nearly into the 300s for the month, which was a goal and probably one of my biggest months in memory, will check on this. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment