Notes
USATF-NE Championships @ Franklin Park, first ever XC 10k. A little nervous about the distance, had a goal of breaking 35, knew that two weeks ago was an underperformance and didn't think it was impossible that I would split faster through 8k and hang on but that seemed like a stretch. Was hanging out at Ryan's house last night (he was home for the weekend) and Joe Kelley gave me a shot of Jack Daniels saying that's what the Sox did before AL game 7 in '04. He said I would have to do it before "every 10km race over grass" if I broke 35' the next day... I guess the precedent is set.
Was feeling pretty confident going in, legs felt fresh on Saturday's run and after popping a pre-race caffeine pill, I was even feeling really good on the tempo. Goal was to play it conservative, be very in control for the first half of the race. Wanted to go out slower than the last two times out at FP, especially given that this was a longer race. Wyler said he was shooting for 5:40, so I slightly keyed off him / hung at the back of the GBTC group. Still hit the mile in low 5:20s... but nbd, I was relaxed. GPS is off for mile 2, I was a little over 11' at 2 miles, but it was strong. Don't remember tooo many details of the rest of the race, just that I felt amazing. Consistent pace / effort, was passing people the way whole way albeit not in droves, totally confident that I was gonna get to 10k without falling apart. Came through 5k in 17:22 (FP PR), at that point I thought I would just be happy if I could get an 8k SB. Slowed a bit on bear cage but made a point to pick it back up at the top and didn't die at all. I kinda had a sense that there was a pack of GBTC guys not too far up from me, slowly caught Riley in the final Wilderness Loop but it wasn't until I got to the final field that I could see another 3 or 4 just out of reach, not enough race left to catch anyone. Didn't have a crazy kick or anything, but it was strong.
Really strangely happy with this, as a performance it wasn't anything special but it was for sure my best XC race of the fall and is the best I've felt about any race since Indoors my Sr year probably. Felt really strong the whole time, my legs were not a problem - I actually seemed to be aerobically limited. My breathing was really heavy the last two miles, whereas in the past my quads get tired and heavy before I seem to reach that point. Maybe just caught a great day, but hoping it is part of a trend / a good sign. Legs still felt fresh afterwards, I was ready to go for another one on the cooldown! Not sure where exactly this came from, taking caffeine probably helped, perhaps the iron supplementation has had an effect? Shannon is skeptical ;)
Still dunno if I want to do club nats, it would be fun and I would love to get in another XC race, but traveling will be a little inconvenient and costly. No matter what, plan for the rest of November / December is to keep doing what I'm doing, get in some consistent 80-90+ mile weeks, and incorporate more regular tempos / MP tempos. Need more LRs too - all the basics! Actually, could probably stand to work in some early pre-rep work took, in preparation for indoors...