I am one with the levee and the levee with me

11 easy miles this morning. We're staying at my parent's house, and once again, it's blowing about 20 mph here in Washington. What's new? I got most of my miles in on the backside of a hill, so it wasn't too bad, but still irritating.

AM - 7.1 easy miles along one of my old training routes. They've built houses on one of my workout hills, though; kinda makes me sad. Some of my best workouts used to be on that hill. Total time 50:43

PM - Added 3 miles on the track with Miki.  

Today's track workout wasn't particularly spectacular -- the idea was to get used to a faster pace at sea level in preparation for the race, but I was off today. The workout was the first thing I did this morning, which I feel was the biggest drag on my pacing; I felt sluggish and stale. The wind wasn't too bad (maybe 10 mph) but didn't help.

In any case, I had planned 3x1600m starting at 4:48 and cutting down to 4:45, but a 4:54 first rep made me extremely frustrated. It didn't hurt, but I couldn't get my legs to move faster.

So I broke the next rep into 2x800 with 2:00 rest and did both in 2:23. Better.

The final rep started good with a 72 first lap, slowed a bit in the middle, and closed strong for 4:48.

I still felt strong afterwards, the workout wasn't terribly tough, but it made me nervous. I've trained myself to feel that 4:55 - 5:00 pace feels smooth and natural, but sub-4:50 pace is rough and difficult for me to maintain, even though it's the proper pace for a sea-level 5k. For Saturday's race, it will take a leap of faith to run the right pace, and I believe that if I want to be successful, I've just got to do it. Even though it will feel uncomfortable, I've got to believe that my body can handle it.

Anyway, after today's workout, I'm nervous.

Distance	Time	Rest
1600m	4:54	3:00
800m	2:23	2:00
800m	2:23	3:00
1600m	4:48

9 easy miles tonight. Not much to report, and I'm sleepy. It's bedtime....

Wow. I just realized that May 2 is Friday..... not Saturday.

I can't believe it, I am such a moron. That means my race was run today while I was making final preparations on getting there tomorrow. How did I manage to miss that little detail?

I'm not going to lie, I feel really stupid and really disappointed about missing my race. But I tried to make the most of it, and went to a local track to do an all out mile. The track didn't have a mile start line, so 1600m was the best I could do.

I thought I could do a sub-4:20 if I ran right, but it didn't happen today.  I had projected 63, 65, 66 and 65 for my lap splits, but I ended up with 65, 67, 67, 65 -- so a little short of my goal but I'm okay with it. In a race I should be able to shave a few seconds off. It felt good to end on this note... there was something satisfying about the higher-speed burn that I don't get from the 5k races.

So this wraps up my track season -- now it's time to move into cross country mode. I'll reduce my miles a little this week to rest my legs, then it's base-building time. A couple of guys on the team told me to peak for the try-out races, since my chances are slim to begin with. Sounds like a plan.