Heading into winter training next week and I just wanted to vent my feelings about this upcoming track season.
To start off, I'm super excited because winter training seems to be where I improve the most! I went last year from about a 6:30 in the mile to a 5:34. Since then I've improved that even more to a 5:01 just a couple weeks ago. Hoping to get that time into the low 4:40s by the end of track season. It will not be an easy task, but I'm willing to put forth the physical and mental effort to accomplish it.
With my 3200, I expect that to lower to a low 10:40s if not faster. This past XC season, I have been examining my strengths and weaknesses in running and have found that I am not the strongest finisher in the world. In fact, my last rep or lap in workouts is usually my worst. My last mile in cross races has always been less than impressive (with an exception of a few races and miles). I am kind of a wimp when it comes to pain and suffering, and usually just give up when I "can't take it anymore". That is why this season I am really going to work on speeding up when I hurt the most in workouts or races. I hope to apply this and speed up my 3200 7th and 8th laps (which last season, were my slowest) and also to my 800's 2nd lap.
I rememer a race last season where coach made me do the big three at region. It was the 800 and I was just as ready as ever. I ran the first lap in my record 400 time (which wasn't saying much last season) and I was actually in the lead. If I would have followed through with that, I would have won my heat and PRd. I was hurting and I just decided to slow down just a little. That little added up to being a lot because I could not get myself to speed up after that. Ended up somewhere in the middle of the pack and had probably one of the worst races ever. It was an eye opener that no matter how much you hurt, you must be relentless and push through the pain and just push the thought of pain into the back of your head. 800 this season, I want to get to sub 2:16.
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