Notes
this was quite an interesting race for me. I usually set a goal that I am capable of hitting, and the reason I don't always hit it is because there is some self doubt and some lack of mental ability that gets in the way. Today there was definitely some small element of that, I definitely had another small gear at the end there and just didn't bring myself to shift into it until 150 or so to go, and even then hindsight feels like it wasn't quite all I had. But the thing is I don't think that was my biggest problem today like it usually is. I think I could've locked in earlier and moved with the pack in front of me and Ryan and finished with a little more strength and still not quite been at the time I wanted. Idk. No one really took it from the gun until Ian took the field out, but that was already a ways into the race(at least in my brain when I watched it happen it was already pretty deep into the race). I also could have just been overestimating my fitness more than usual, but I really had myself convinced that I am a sub-9 guy. And I will be, much sooner than I think probably. It was also cold with a tiny bit of wind. Anyways, I could probably go on for days about the imperfections of my day, but those were the ones worth it to mention for future Arthur to look at. There were also a lot of good takeaways. I know I just low key spent this whole log shitting on my time, but I'm pretty happy with it given everything I mentioned earlier. And it was a decent mental effort as well. I got out pretty hard, locked in at a pace that was close enough to the right amount of uncomfortable, and even though my close wasn't long enough I still had what felt like solid turnover for that small period where I was putting my feet down and going for it. half decent split-wise too, Out in 4:53 came back in 4:29 for 1400, so a positive split but not too bad of one, especially considering time of year, the fact that it's a time trial, etc. Also before i forget, sorry to Ryan for bumping elbows the whole first mile, my arms were frozen :/ I stuck onto Ryan for the first mile, passed him for a sec, he passed me for a bit, I detached a little bit, brought it back and passed him in the kick. Definitely a weak point of mine mentally is paying too much attention to who I am around. If the time sounds right and I feel good, I shouldn't be afraid to run with Ryan. And mostly I wasn't afraid to run with him, but there was definitely a little guy in the back of my mind saying that I shouldn't be up there, and I shut it down until I started to detach with Ryan, where I didn't work hard enough to just hang onto the pack in front because it got harder to shut down that guy when he was saying "it's okay to be a few meters behind, they are all faster than you so you are still doing good by being nearby," as opposed to "slow down slow down you're too far up slow down."
The ultimate positive of the day was that I had a good ass time under the lights with MY FUCKIN AWESOME TEAMMATES. I love y'all.
All in all, got on the track, rocked my shit, got on RunningAHEAD, talked my shit. i'll be back at it again for the alumni meet on Jan 7, see y'all then.✌️