The Pavement Beckons

Ah finally, exams over, and now 1.5 weeks off before a 6-week placement at a Sports Medicine in Ancaster, finally getting to do what I came to McMaster to do. Did well on exams, and now my focus shifts 100% to training for the next little bit. As you know, last Friday I raced a 3000m at UofT. Going into the race, and during, I was not feeling close to 100%. I would say besides Around the Bay last year, I've never felt less motivated to start a race with my back feeling like there was a knife at the left sacroiliac joint, plus fighting through a cold. And as everyone probably knows when you have a cold, with congestion, a headache, and just overall feeling like garbage, your sleep is affected. So I really didn't sleep very much that week, and really did not want to race. Not to mention in the morning I had my OSCE, the practical exam, at 8am which for everyone is extremely stressful. And with the race starting at 9pm in Toronto, let's just say it was a long day. However, I felt compelled to race. For me, I can't stand the thought of committing to something, and then not following through with it. If I didn't race that night or at least give it a try, I would never forgive myself. It's the same reason I raced Around the Bay last year on a stress fracture. So I raced. Let me tell you, people can question my speed, if I have the talent to make it big in athletics, or my training practices, but no one on this green (white) earth can question my ability to push through, grind, and my overall mental toughness. As soon as I walked into that building at UofT, I could feel the dryness in the air hit the back of my throat. For someone with a cold, I knew this would be tough, and it was. In the past two races, I've started feeling the burning sensation reach the back of my throat after the first 6 laps or so, but this time off the gun I felt the discomfort, not to mention feeling the pain in back as the vibration from the every initial contact to the ground traveled up my leg to my pelvis, and to my back. Despite still not making the 8:45 time I set out to achieve (finished 8:54 - 2:58/km), on this night in the condition I was in, I was happy to finish the race. I do actually believe that it was one of my better tactical races that I've had. Through the first 200 or so I was dead last (not surprising given the good competition at this meet). I worked hard to pass one guy in front of me, then the next lap the next guy, then another, to eventually leading the pack. If not for one unfortunate sequence on the bell (final) lap would've actually finished in third. You could see in the video, as the bell rang I got completely boxed in by three other runners, and there was literally no where for me to go. I couldn't pass them not because they were running too quickly for me but instead because I had no space to stretch my legs out and let loose. Between 3rd and 10th place there was only a 2 second difference so it was an incredibly tight race. Usually I would have said an incredibly enjoyable race, but trust me, if you were there anywhere near the track you could see that I was in a world of pain. I felt like I couldn't breathe, and was panting start to finish. It was rough during, and even more so afterwards. It felt like I swallowed a ball of fire. I couldn't stop coughing, and it hurt just to breathe. This actually continued for a good 3 days afterwards - it wasn't until Monday that I couldn't feel the burning sensation in my throat anymore. Still I'm glad I raced because I learned another thing about myself. That's the purpose of racing, and of running in general - to experience something that you can't experience in any other realm of life, and to learn about your true self down to the core. In other words it allows you to learn what your made of. And well, I learned that I do have what it takes to be a great runner because simply stated no one can possibly push themselves harder than I do and grind like I can. Think about who do you know that after an experience like that on Friday night, would be looking forward to their 5k race only 9 days later. And that's where my focus lies now.

My SIJ is still hurting, talked to a couple other runners today and they said they've both got that when they've jumped into indoor track workouts too quickly. Apparently it's something about how sharp the turns are on the corners of our track, and just puts an incredible amount of stress on your joints. But obviously, I'm still ticking, and will obviously still race on Sunday. Workouts this week have gone pretty well. Monday was 3X6min tempo-ish pace, Tuesday was an easier run day just a 60 minuter was 5Xa big long hill (about 400m long) then an hour of weights, then today (wednesday) was I'd say one of the best workouts I've had in a while despite feeling my back throughout, just kept grinding through. Workout was a 5k warmup, then 10 minute tempo run on the road at 3:12/km then headed up to the track for 3 sets of a broken 1500. This is an Alberto Salazar workout that I love and have done twice before, once in Park City, and then once before my Pb 10k later in the summer. It's 3 sets of 600m, 400m, 300m, 200m - 1:15s rest between the 6 and 4, 1 min between the 4 and the 3, and 45 s between the 3 and 2 then 1:30s between sets. 600s were done in 1:47, 1:45, 1:44, 400s were 1:10, 1:10, 1:08, 3s were 52, 52, 51, and 200s were 35, 35, 32. The last set was done in spikes hence the 2-3 seconds faster. Overall everything averages out to 2:53-2:55/km so I was very happy. Even threw in a good swim afterwards. So Sunday is a 5k in Burlington. Don't know what the conditions are going to be like, I guess you never know for a winter race, so it's kind of tough to set a goal time. But overall my goals for 2015 besides competing for the Canadian Cross Country Championship later in November, are to run a sub 15 5k, a sub 31 10k (something like 30:58), and a sub 1:10 half hopefully 1:09:30ish. But I'm not aiming for the sub 15 this weekend. This weekend I'm aiming for a good hard effort running 15:25ish or 3:05/km pace. This may sound kind of conservative, but first or all let me say 15:25 a'int no breeze, and would technically be a PB, even though last year I ran 15:16 it was on a short course. Second, everything right now is building toward the Around the Bay 5k at the end of March, which is in fact where I'm going to be aiming for the sub 15 given the faster competition, hopefully better conditions, hopefully a healed back, and a much faster stronger Frank. This year I'm tentatively setting my training plan right now and what I'm planning on doing is incorporating a much more periodized schedule into my program. I want to work in 4-week microcyclyes, where I run big mileage with lots of speed work for 3 weeks, then reduce mileage by about 50% for the 4th week, then repeat the cycle again but with higher mileage over the 3-weeks. In terms of racing, I'll try to work my schedule out so that at the end of each of the easy weeks at the end of the 4-week cycle I race. So for instance, 3-week block after Sunday, then easy week with Around the Bay on the weekend, then 3 weeks hard, then 1 week easy with a 10k on that weekend - maybe Toronto Yonge St. to try to get sub 31 given the downhill or the course. So that's what happening for now, until next time as the Kenyans say Train Hard, Win Easy. (The UofT video is below)