I am one with the levee and the levee with me

AM - 4 miles easy.

PM - I needed to do something fast today, and had planned a low-stress tempo but a series of events kept me from it earlier in the evening. I swung by the indoor track a little after midnight to see if anyone would let me in, and as luck would have it, one of the student janitors did, bless her heart. I warmed up about a mile when an authority figure showed up and kicked me out. Apparently if you get permission from the coaches, though, you can train any time you want. I'll have to see if I can talk one of the coaches into it.... that would be awesome!

Anyway, I hit the street in my shorts and T-shirt and decided to do a quick and easy tempo, something up-pace just to get my legs moving and keep them from going stale. I ran up Canyon Road about 2 miles and turned around to tempo it back to my car. It was freezing, but it felt great to get into the rythm of it. My legs felt great. I don't know my pace, but it was downhill, so I'd be a little surprised if it was slower than 5:20. I used the downhill to get a good turnover rate going in my legs, picturing the race in my mind. I'm a big believer in visualization, and I tend to think through races repeatedly before they actually happen. My racing skills are a little rusty, so if I go through it in my mind, it gets me ready for the real thing.

I measured the route with gmap-pedometer and found it to be about 1.92 miles..... meaning that my pace was about 5:55/mile. I've always believed this tool before, but I have a hard time stomaching that number - I swear up and down I was doing at least 5:25 pace the whole way. Maybe because of the cold and dark I felt like I was going faster. Anyway, not really a big deal, but to my OCD it is. It's driving me crazy.

AM - Easy run this morning. Meant to go 4 but the call of the bathroom brought me back just a little early. VPBs aren't as easy on the side of State Street.

PM - Added an easy 7. 

Did an easy 5 miles tonight. No run this morning, I feel like my body wants to rest. Did a 200m pickup at race pace to shake things out, but otherwise I ran about 7:30 pace.

It's race day!!!!!!!!! 

I  ran the qualifier for the track team today and ran okay. I ran slower than I had anticipated, but there are positive things to take away from it. One is that I didn't finish last. I've increased my streak of not finishing last to 7. 

Second is that I pr'd by 13 seconds over my January race earlier this year. I've got lots of time til outdoor track, so that's a great sign.

Third, I broke 9:00. Reaching a lap to go in 8:02, I was in danger of not doing it, but I managed to dip under. 

See? There are lots of positives. The one big negative is that my race probably wasn't good enough to make the team. Speaking with Coach Eyestone last week, he made it sound like high 8:50s usually isn't good enough, so I'm expecting that, given my age (I'm not that old... only 22) and everything, I'll be running unattached this year.

He was positive when I talked to him, though. He was pleased that I went out towards the front and hung on okay, but the way he talked, it was clear he was trying not to get my hopes up. So my last hope is that I can shave off a good 15 seconds in January's meet, and maybe I'll be able to impress enough to squeeze my way on.

Anyway, the race was different than I expected. I didn't think any of the top guys would be in it, but the winner ran 8:24. I went into the race with the idea of hitting a 4:40 first mile, and then holding on as best I could to the end.

It's funny, I latched on to a chase pack of 2 or 3 guys who pulled me through in 4:43, and I really felt pretty good. Last year I went through in close to the same pace and it wiped me out, but this time I felt okay. It was a little quick, but I was still relaxed. The first four laps were pretty consistently in 56-57, but then we hit a 58 and I tried to go around one of the guys who had dropped back to me. I underestimated how tired he was, though, because he surged to keep ahead, and so I tucked in behind him. With 4 laps to go, some guy went flying by me on my right, and my little chase pack got strung out. The other guys latched on to this guy, and I sort of let them go. I can't remember how tired I was at that point, but I wonder if I could have focused on them better, and hung on to the pace for another lap or two.

Anyway, once my buddies got away from me, I immediately slowed to 5:00 pace. Aaron Robison went by me, and I tried to just not get gapped by too much. I thought I heard some guys behind me, so I focused on keeping position. With a lap to go (8:02), I opened up a little and saw the gap on Robison start to close. I sprinted hard going into the final straitaway, but he was out of reach. My 57 final lap was a little weak, I typically have a stronger finish than that.

My favorite thing about this race was that I got out with some of the faster guys and gave myself a chance. I can live with knowing that I just didn't have it today running like that. I've always been a come-from-behind runner, and I'm trying to break out of that mentality. You don't win races that way. So in that sense, this was great practice for getting out fast.

As far as I can remember, my splits went something like this:

56, 56, 56, 57, 58 (4:43), 60, 60, 61, 57 

So I'll give it one more run in January. I believe that a month of consistent high mileage and good workouts could get me down there, but it's a long shot. Maybe it's time to start thinking about Ogden.

1st run: 6 miles easy

2nd run: 5 miles easy

AM - 10 easy miles down the river trail. It was great running in the snow, there is something about it that I love. At least at the beginning of the winter.