Morning Glory

Well, it’s official. I’ll be opening up my season on March 17^th with an 800m at ASU. I’ll be following that up with a 1000m on March 24^th and a 1500m on April 7^th, both at Arizona State as well.

I’m already beginning to get excited. Last year, it was more like dreading the first race, so it’s a nice change! It will also be nice to have the first 3 meets at “home”. Not having to travel will help with fatigue, loss of training and cost; as well as being able to stay in a familiar routine for the races…Less than a month away!

Leading up to this week, I wasn’t really sure what kind of shape I was in. Workouts have been getting progressively better, but there hadn’t been a real test yet to let me know with some certainty where exactly my fitness is. Then came Saturday’s workout. I actually got a little anxious about it beforehand, because on paper, it looked pretty ominous. 

The workout: Set 1 - 400, 800, 400 with 1 minute recovery. 

                         Set 2 - 400, 500, 300 with 1 minute and 2 minutes recovery.

I was definitely dreading only having 1 minute of recovery after the 800 and knew the 500 in the second set was going to be pretty painful. That was probably what worried me the most…By the time the workout rolled around, the weather was just about perfect; almost no breeze and not even a cloud in the February morning sky. There would be no excuses.

The first set started off with a 58.5, slightly quicker than expected, but relaxed nonetheless. A good sign for things to come…The 800 was much of the same, as I cruised through the line in 1:58.0. Again, a touch faster than expected, but smooth the whole way. The next minute went by rather quickly before running a 58.1 for the last 400 of the set. A very good first half of the workout.

The second set started with a bang. If someone had asked me what the time was, without looking at my watch, I would have said 56-57; and would have been way off. It was 53.8. I was pretty shocked, it felt way too easy. Ultimately, I’d pay for that pace to start the set though. I only followed it up with a 71.4 in the 500m and rigged home in the last 50m of the 300 to a 43.4. It probably didn’t look too pretty. As Coach Groves would have probably told me at Penn State “You looked like a god damn raped kangaroo at the end of that.”

All in all, I was really happy with the workout and it definitely provided me with a bearing on what kind of shape I’m in right now. It feels good to know you’re getting fit and that progress is being made. But, there’s still a lot of work to be done!

-         Linc