25:46 for 8k (5:11 mile pace).
My mental game is not good right now is the first thought I had after the race.
But positives first: I fueled so well. My stomach felt great, my energy felt good, my legs felt fresh and ready to go today. I felt relaxed on the warm up which was good because I was nervous yesterday. And I stayed relaxed when I got a bad start and was able to regroup temporarily with Justin and Mark and all of them. And comparatively I felt pretty similar today mentally as I did at CSI and my time was a lot better tofay
However, I get frustrated with these longer efforts because I haven't figured it out mentally. When we do mile repeats or 1k repeats I can stay checked in and when it starts to hurt I know I just have to make it a minute or two more. What's hard for me is when I'm 3 or 4k into 8k and it's starting to hurt and I know the end isn't even close. Even though it doesn't hurt that bad at that point in the race, the thought is discouraging every time, and I panic because of the pain and lock in around an 80-85% effort instead of going for it. Looking back I'm sure I felt just as good as anyone else did at 3k but I responded wrong to the pain that I did feel. I feel like I overthink things and it's holding me back. I really do feel like I am in good shape. I was tired after the effort but felt I could have gone faster, and felt pretty recovered from the effort within a few minutes of finishing the race. If we did a few thousand repeats a few minutes after the race I think I could have locked in and gone fast for 2 or 3. I was talking to Bridger about it too on the cooldown and he said he thought I looked really strong and even fresh coming in the last straightaway. I think he's right and I need to figure out how to take the stress out of running and make it fun, learn how love and embrace the pain more when it hurts, and even learn how to just want it more. I think good days are ahead, I just need to get my mind right.
I do think I need to go back to the racing/workout strategy I had during most of the fall season which is ride with the guys until I blow up and die. I think in some of these spring workouts I have been overly worried with how I feel throughout the workout and it may be preventing me a little bit from feeling the pain and running as fast as I need to to really get better, and that showed through today.
That being said, so many guys on this team have been a big help to me and it was awesome to see a lot of them run well and step up today. I am glad there are a lot of fast and good guys I get to train with every day.
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