I've been saving this story till I got a chance to write another blog. I've been incredibly busy with training, working, trying to keep our Subaru Forester with 180,000 miles running, trying to keep my body running, and I haven't managed to write something recently.
Last Thursday, I had my usual track workout to do, sort of.. Tahir was working, so Bryant and I ran to Clackamas High School track and got the workout underway. Borrowing a high school track for mid-day workouts presents certain challenges, that is if no one asks you to leave. I completed my warmup without a hitch, but before I was able to start the real work, a P.E. class took to the track and I got a chance to practice a delayed race start. After waiting 25 minutes for the students to finish their mile run, the east wind had steadily increased, and was now blowing a pretty steady 15mph (approximately), making it challenging to maintain any sort of reasonable pace in turn 3. To add to the fun, the special education department had come to the track and a female student was wailing continuously like a mother losing a child. The level of sorrow she was expressing was startling, and made it incredibly difficult to focus. The impromptu "highly distracting race simulation" was complete.
The workout went as follows:
2x 800 (5k start speed)
2x 1 Mile (5k race pace)
1x 400 (finishing speed)
I nailed the paces, actually going a little faster than the script called for. Miraculously. I ran 2 seconds slower into the wind on the second half of each lap, but managed to make up for it with the tailwind on the other side. What a crazy experience. But the expression "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" applies perfectly to this situation. The harder a workout can be, the better training it is for what I will encounter in races. So bring on the pain, distraction, and insane conditions. As the Kenyans say, "Train hard, win easy".
This has been the theme of my training recently. I've been coming into workouts tired, training in pouring rain, 5AM before work, and often by myself. Yet somehow every workout is better than the last, and I've been able to perform even when I feel terrible. This is a huge confidence boost for any athlete, because it demonstrates that you can bring it, no matter what happens or how you feel on race day.
Bryant told me before the workout, "Your training is off the charts, you're stronger than you've ever been in all three sports. This is like baking a cake; you have all the ingredients that you need to go fast, now it's time to put it all together. You ready for some cake?"
I'm SO ready for some cake. It's going to be some damn good cake.
*Clermont Draft Legal Challenge---March 3*
