Disappointments

(editor’s note: please excuse this if any of it is odd, namely the picture...I wrote this entry while lying on the floor of the Denver airport really hoping that my plane would skip its layover in Detroit and fly us straight back to DC...alas, it didn’t.)

They don’t always work the way you draw them up. That seemed to be my indoor season. As I mentioned last week, I hate almosts. This indoor season was full of almosts.

I flew into Albuquerque with the main goal of making the final of the 800. It was a doable goal, but nonetheless a tough one. Then I found out that they only took 6 runners into the final. Making the final was going to be tough, but why fly 2000 miles across the country just for one day of racing? Especially after seeing my heat was full of guys that I could beat on a good day.

The only goal was to win the heat, regardless of how fast or slow it was so that I was guaranteed a spot for Sunday. Discussing the race beforehand with Coach, we decided that we would count on what has worked for me so many times in the past: my kick. It’s a gamble a lot of times, to rely completely on a kick, but sometimes what makes it fun is also what bites you in the ass.

That’s what happened on Saturday. I found myself in a pretty good position with 200 to go, but come 100, the gamble hadn’t paid off and my kick wasn’t what it can sometimes be. Hernandez and Gagnon pulled away and I just didn’t have the pop to stick with them.

It was disappointing for sure, as was the indoor season as a whole. Penn State almost worked out with me finding a kick but I got tripped up and slowed down, New York was almost quick enough, but turned out to be a jog, Boston I almost felt good but felt terrible instead, and USA’s turned out to be a struggle in the thin air of New Mexico.

Now, it’s back on the grindstone and I am hungry for what is to come Outdoors. I’ll finally get to run some fast 1500s after the year of six 3:41s and hopefully dip below that solid yet un-phenomenal times.

(And yes, that picture may not make sense, however, I cannot wait until it is warm again and the snow in DC is gone, so just go with it and enjoy the setting Oregon Sun.)
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It was a down week of training, but over the next five or six weeks of pure training I will keep you updated on what I’m doing with some nice descriptions of the workouts.

Hopefully we can see the progress that gets me nice and ready to pop some nasty ones on the 400-meter oval. Let’s Go!