The 600 mile Weekend

Trip from Lake Orion to Allendale to Grand Rapids to Ft Wayne and back to Lake Orion.

This past weekend I competed for the second weekend in a row to start my season. This second week was to get a few more races in to evaluate my progress from the summer training. The races served their purpose very well.

Although these races are not as important as the races which will come in the heart of the season starting January and on through February, they were an important step in my training because I had been training alone for the past 6 months with no completion. It was good to finally hear the gun go and see how well the new skills held.

Getting frustrated now will only hold me back. I knew going into these three meets starting the season that there would be some flaws and hopefully some positives to work from. I was right to think in this way, there were plenty of flaw which come from not racing. Luckily all of the issues are fixable and I now have 4 weeks to make changes and continue to work on the summer skills I have been forcing into habits.

I began my weekend by taking a vacation day from work, so I could race on a Friday. With no work to deal with, I woke up and prepared my breakfast, my lunch for the next two days, and my breakfast (hard boiled eggs) for Saturday. My driving began with a 160 mile drive to the other side of the state of Michigan. Driving for 3 hours, I got to the track very early so I could unravel my cramped up body. I raced in the prelim, won my heat with a comfortable 8.34 gaining the automatic finals spot from my heat. The finals came along and I was the 3rd fastest from the heats round. I raced and I leaned for the second place spot...missed it by .02 to finish 3rd. For me, it’s not about the placing at this point but rather the time. I was not entirely satisfied with the time I ran but I felt the problem during the race. Following the race I immediately messaged my coach to tell him how it went. My goal was now about bettering my time the next day. After cooling down, stretching, and saying bye to a former University teammate, I left the first track of the weekend feeling unaccomplished and slightly disappointed. I went to eat then drove 30 minutes to a friend’s house in a nearby town to spend the night.

The next day I woke up and ate my eggs, and got back on the road for a 180 mile drive down to Ft Wayne Indiana. This drive seemed very long and by the time I got to the track I was very tight and beginning to feel sore, but that’s part of the game. At this meet I got to say hi to my alma mater University team and former athletes I coached. Prelim Round I won easily, the competition level was not that great for this day. Moving to the finals I knew I would have to push myself to better my time. It would be tough after driving 400 miles and racing 3 times already. The one thing I gained from this race was confidence that I am consistent in my interval times and I am very comfortable over the hurdles. This was my first win of the season, and a win is a win.

Driving home 200 miles was very difficult. Muscles tight, mind tired, and stomach hungry I just wanted to get home to shower and sleep with no alarm to wake me the next day.

Looking at the video from Saturday I was able to spot some major areas to work on. That was the goal of the weekend so I will call this tough weekend a success.

Time for a hard 4 weeks of training to get ready for some of the biggest and most exciting races of my career. Taking steps forward, hoping for the best.