Indoors... among other things

This week shall be another attempt at an indoor race.  I will be racing the 3k here in ABQ and hope to run a PB, which was set here last year at the same meet.  It should be a good one.  Besides that, I feel that training is going well.  I had a few hiccups in the past 2 weeks which were minor sicknesses that hampered training to a minimum.  When sickness occur they always tend to mentally bring you down more that physically; from a runners standpoint that is.  I felt that my fitness and consistency were compromised, which has a huge effect on me when training was going so well.  And after looking back at my log and the trend of sicknesses that I've had, its clear that it was contributed to lack of sleep.  A funny hypothesis I made was that I always get sick after a wedding; which happened over the summer as well.  Nevertheless, its over and training is going well again.  This weekend shall be a testament to that thought.

Also, with so many great things happening in the marathon these past couple of weeks I "consulted" with my roommate (Allen Wagner) about doing a marathon this spring.  After Twin Cities I was eager to run another marathon.  The only thing holding me back in my mind was the idea of developing and working on my speed over the spring.  And when "working" on speed, it meant racing shorter distances on and off the track.  But, the more I think about it, I can always work on speed during marathon training.  The only thing that I can't attain from working on speed, is actually going to a bunch of track races and racing a PB.  But, at this point its out weighed by the fact that I haven't qualified for the US Olympic Trials and want to!  So, that's why I will be racing one this April.  I know its going to go well!       

Lobo Mile

Well, this past weekend I ran the mile here in Albuquerque and it went well.  The UNM indoor track is an amazing facility and I always enjoy racing on it.  Although, this was only my second time racing on it, it was still a great experience.  There were about seven guys in our race, of which two of them are sub 4 minute milers at sea level.  Kris and I knew we had no business racing those guys, so we decided to trail them and close fast.  We went out somewhat conservative and then I started to press the pace in attempts to close the second half of the race faster than the first half.  One of the UNM guys (Matt Everett) was with me when we separated from the chase pack and then with about 400 to go I started to push even harder with the intent to "kick".  The winner of the race ran 4:08, second was 4:10 and I was third in 4:14.  Matt ran 4:18 and Kris ran 4:24.  All in all it was great to get on the track and move that fast.  It is something well needed before US Cross.

Race Video:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236281/265880

    

UNM Lobo Opener

Tomorrow is the first indoor race of the year, and I shall be racing the mile.  Its more of a workout than a race, but its going to be a great performance and effort.  A couple of OTC guys should be in the race, so I won't be anywhere near them.  Updates of the race should be posted.

2010 Training

2010 is going to be a great year, I can already tell.  Training is going to be great and the friends and family that encompass this new year are going to be great companies for these wonderful experiences.  However, I have one minor set back, and that is while I write this I am a bit under the weather.  Yet, it's nothing too serious and as I watch my other training partners get healthy and logging in the miles, I can only hope that we will be running new pr's and competing against some good guys.

The most immediate goal that has been on my mind since last year is focused towards the USA Cross Country Championships next month in Spokane, Washington.  This 12k cross country race is something that I cannot wait to race and do well in.  I hope to make a US National Team and represent my country in running.  It would be such an honor and dream come true to achieve.  There will be a few of us out there, and a buddy of mine lives in Spokane, so the experience is going to be great.  The weather; God willing, should be miserable!  Snow, windy and mud should prove to be a great cross country experience.  And the training leading up to this race has been great!  Mileage has been relatively high, but could be higher and the quality of the workouts has been great.  Yet, my biggest problem has been rest.  My recovery runs have been great, but the amount of sleep has been awful.  I have about 5 weeks till the race and I need to incorporate more sleep into my training in order to make that team.