You Can't Always Get What You Want

This past weekend of racing was fairly successful. We were planning on using the back to back races as a trials/finals simulation and I think it went pretty well. The 1500m on Thursday ended up being a little more hectic than expected though. Originally, I thought I would be in one of the 3 sections racing on Friday, so booked my flight accordingly. Unfortunately, I didn't get in the faster heats, so I was racing at 3:30pm on Thursday; with a flight landing at 11:15am.

Sitting at our gate around departure time, they announced that our plane still hadn't left Salt Lake City yet. Great. The flight ended up being delayed a little over an hour, so we landed in LAX a little after 12:15pm. Then we had to take a shuttle to the rental car pick-up, hop in the car and battle LA traffic over to Walnut, where we were racing. We pulled in just after 2:00pm, I went straight to registration and then made a beeline for the check-in tent. Check-in supposedly closed 60 min prior to the event and I got there at 2:25pm with 5 min to spare! Not exactly ideal. But in the words of Ashley, "Whatevs."...You just have to roll with it.

As for the race itself, the goal was to run for positioning like in a heat, but with hopes of still running fast. The pace ended up being a little slower than I would have liked with a 60.5 and 2:03.1 through the first quarter and half mile. Definitely too slow on the 2nd lap. I was 3:01.9 at the 1200 and closed with a 41.9 last 300m and 55.7 for the last 400m. I took the lead earlier than I would have liked, but I was in danger of getting boxed in, so I think it was the right thing to do. My final time was 3:43.88 which I wasn't especially pleased with, but with a solid last lap and the chaos leading up to the race, I wasn't terribly disappointed. Check it out below:

After the race, I got some recovery drink/food in me as soon as possible and had a relaxing night watching the NHL playoffs to get ready for my 800m the next day. 

This race was all about running fast. It was a solid field and we had a rabbit supposedly taking us through in 51.0, so I figured I'd go to the back and pick people off on the 2nd lap. I wanted to be somewhere around 53.0-5. Unfortunately, the rabbit was 53.5 at the bell, making me a dismal 55.3. I knew it was slow at the 200m mark, but there was no sense making a drastic move so early, and really, I didn't have anywhere to go. I ran my next 200m in 26.4 to hit the 600m mark at 1:21.7(still slow) and then my final 200m was 26.8 for a final lap of 53.2! My overall time was a 1:48.64 for a new PB; even with a negative split of 55.3 - 53.2. Not exactly the best way to run a fast 800. I'm pretty confident I have a 1:47 and sub 3:40 in me right now. I just need the right race! You can see the 800m below:

We had an easy workout on Monday and our tune-up workout this morning in Scottsdale. Tomorrow 6 of us in the group will board a plane to head back east for the Penn Relays. I missed them last year for the first time in a decade, so it will be great to be back. It's one of the best meets in the World! Canada has 2 teams this year. Along with the standard 2 from the U.S. there are also four other teams, and they just happen to be probably the most challenging 4 other countries in the world for this event; Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco and Australia. The World Record for the DMR is 9:15.56, it might go down this weekend.

Hopefully, I can send an update from Philthadelphia.

Hopefully, in a good mood because the Dolphins made an intelligent 1st round selection in the NFL draft.

   - Linc