Notes
Tough, but good race in heat 2 of the Dartmouth Indoor Classic 3k. Seeded at 9:06 and wanted to run about that, hoping to come through 2k in ~6:05 and finish strong. Huge heat, 25 people! It made for a very stressful first half of the race. I think I ran pretty even, ~37s the whole way, but that's a little misleading, because for most of the first mile I was in lane 2 (even 3). After repeatedly getting boxed I figured that I would run smart and put myself on the outside of lane 1 /. lane 2 for the first lap and my goal was to get my spot from there. But unfortunately it was a total clusterfuck, there was a big pack of people who all had a similar idea of wanting to move up, so people were running 2 wide and kept cutting outside, after we kept coming through in 37s I wanted to get up front but was having a lot of trouble making a big enough move to get there, I would go way wide on the straight and try and sprint up but end up hardly making up any ground. Eventually I got my spot on the rail but at that point I didn't have the energy or the drive to move up from there, I didn't fall apart and I rallied a bit in the last few laps to pass some people who had gone by me, but it wasn't a fast finish. Steve did a much better job of getting a good spot in the front earlier, and Colin really ran terrific after having a similar first half to me, closing in 2:52, so it IS possible.
But, I thought it was a good race, I was very mentally engaged the whole time and just thinking about where I needed to put myself and make passes. Mile next week, 3k at LLs, should be able to Q up for states in both for sure. I definitely think that I left some seconds on the table today with the extra work I had to do in the first half, + another two weeks training should get me the 9:0x I want. Of course the biggest thing I need to focus on is DIET / PORTION CONTROL!!! I've got the running aspect of training more or less figured out, I do what coach says, I run a lot, I double consistently, 2 hour long runs, good workouts, all that stuff is great but need to accept that the HARD part for me is the eating side of things. The biggest issue I think for me is what I eat between practice and bed (generally one long binge...). Need to be FOCUSED during this time, eat something healthy, stop when I am full, go to sleep, do homework, play the guitar, keep myself occupied. Recognize when I am eating out of boredom or whatever and CHOOSE to STOP because I CARE about running. 2.5 months ago I ran 9:14.24 for 3k at a time trial at the end of cross country. Today I ran 2 seconds slower. In the 86 days since then I've ran OVER 1100 MILES, had some great workouts - in short I am much FITTER since then. The difference is I weight 9.6 lbs more than I did for the TT (172). Assuming a 1-2 sec difference per lb per mile, that means that I could be 18-36 seconds faster per 3K TODAY if I was back down to 172 (assuming all weight gained is unnecessary, i.e. fat, but the lower end of the range probably takes care of that). So, that's 8:40-8:8:58 I could (should) be running. GET A GRIP. Have done it before, can do it again