Notes
STEEPLECHASE
Twilight steeplechase @ Oneonta. Wanted to break 10. Pretty happy with my race though. Went out fast, 78 (200+) 76, 5:12 @ 1600, pretty much in last place. Did a good job of focusing on the mechanics of striding and hurdling. Fell apart in the last 3rd, hit 83-86 for laps 6 and 7, settled in too much behind the Utica guy even though he was really hurting. Rallied o.k. over the last 600, nothing special. Felt GREAT going over the barriers today, was hurdling smoothly (with both legs!) and accelerating into and out of the water barrier pretty well.
So all in all this season was pretty good, certainly much better than last spring. I PRed by 33 seconds, but didn't score at states and didn't break 10. I think that I was definitely in shape to break 10, I needed to be a little more focused on laps 5-6, but also I think that the races these past two weeks just went out a little too fast for my fitness level. DEFINITELY think that the goal for next year should be qualifying for ECACs, the first half of the race tonight was on pace and even though I didn't really come close to holding it, I can definitely see myself getting to that level with another year of training.
SEASON RECAP (Indoors/Outdoors): 130 day streak beginning on January 2nd (knee hurt on New Year's). The only hint of injury trouble I ran into during the duration was the week after Indoor States where my right heel was hurting, my calves were really tight and stretching/rolling did the trick. No sign of last year's knee trouble. Preseason buildup (Dec/Jan)was similar to last year's in terms of workout quality, some longer temp'ish runs and also incorporated the sprint days once a week. Maintained a slightly higher volume (60s) than last year once racing started, easy runs a little faster and some quality long runs (and stayed longer further into the season). Felt terrific at Dartmouth in early Feb for a mile PR, ok double at LLs, great race at Cornell, was very confident I could PR and did. No long run and a few easy days before states, had a very bad race, but turned right around and got into outdoor training. Much more miles than last year, had a great pre-spring buildup of 75-81-68-81 miles, with the 68 being at altitude. This period also featured a lot of very solid longer efforts - long runs of 14+ miles where the second half would be under 7' (culminating in a hilly 16.57 mi run @ 6:40), tempos, long fartleks, and hard progression runs (6+ miles at or under 6' pace) which would be the day before or after an interval workout. Felt like absolute garbage the week in Colorado, otherwise in a pretty good rhythm of feeling good for hard days and beat on the other days. Also lost 4 lbs during this 4-week period. Was pleasantly surprised to find that I was much better at hurdling than last year. Opened the season with a big 3k PR, pretty happy with that. Kept the miles up over 70 for the first half of the season, much more than last year, and kept up the 14+ 7' long runs. Big PR in the steeplechase that felt really easy. Felt really strong in all the outdoor workouts, including the ones over hurdles. Overestimated my fitness and ran stupid at LLs but held on for 6th, then ran smarter at Cap District for another PR (10:06) to get me in the states fast heat, where I wanted to be. Started cutting the miles back at this point, still ~20 mpw more than last year. Decent effort but disappointing result at states, PRed on a hot day and me and Jon Cyganik moved from last two in the slow heat to last two in the fast heat, but I really fell apart towards the race's end. And here we are.