The Show Goes On

Alright, so I’ve been M.I.A. these last couple of weeks. I guess I’ll blame it on the fact that I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and I’m back in Flagstaff now; where, yes, the internet still sucks. The fact that I’ve been lazy has nothing to do with it!

I guess I’ll rewind to almost two weeks ago when I was in Vancouver for an eight day stay. The Marpole-Bird family was kind enough to host myself and Ellerton for a week while we raced a couple of times in the Vancouver area. Their hospitality was much appreciated, as was the view:

J-Bird, Ellerton and I went downtown Vancouver to watch Game 2 of the Stanley Cup in a bar and it was a great experience. The place was crazy. The dance floor even got packed with people sitting on the ground just to watch. Very cool atmosphere…It was quite unfortunate to see the reaction of people when they lost game 7. The stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me…At least good ole Kaberle got to hoist the Cup!

Race number 1:  800m at Simon Fraser University. I knew I was in better shape than 6 weeks earlier at ASU, so anything over 1:50 was going to be a disappointment. I stayed off the pace a little bit through the first 200m, as the rabbit took it out a bit too hard. Then the pace slowed coming through the bell (in about 53 sec.) and I found myself chopping my stride a few times until the 500m mark. I was running even with G-Mart going into the last 100m in a tie for 4^th. I felt pretty good coming home and was able to finish up in 3^rd place with a 1:49.30. I would have been ecstatic with a 1:48 in that race, so I was pretty satisfied with the result!

Race number 2: 1500m at Rotary Stadium in Abbotsford. The plan was to run significantly faster than the last time I raced this distance. I wanted to go out hard to get used to a faster pace and if I died, so be it. It was actually quite windy out, but we stuck to the plan and Kyle set the pace at 57-58 through 400m. I came through the 800m mark in about 1:58, the 1000m in 2:28 and then had to fight the wind up the homestretch. Ellerton went by me at the bell and I knew I was in trouble. He started gapping me and I had virtually no response. It was going to be a long last 350m. I started to fade pretty badly in the last 150m and Justin moved past me into 2^nd and that’s where we stayed. A 3^rd place finish in 3:47.74. I was pretty frustrated and embarrassed with the time, but it’s only one race. No sense dwelling on it…

After the race last Wednesday, we came back to Flagstaff and will be staying here right up until leaving for Nationals. With Calgary being a little over 3000ft, living at 7000ft leading into it will certainly have its advantages. The weather is significantly better up here this time, although still extremely windy. Did I mention how much I hate the wind? Well, I do.

As for training, it’s been very solid lately and while my confidence isn’t quite where it should be, it’s coming around. As is my speed. Now it’s just a matter of resting up for the 1500m heats next Friday.

Hopefully, I’ll get another update out in the next few days with a few more details on training!

   - Linc