Racing in the USA again

nrippon
Feb 3, 2015
2 min read

This season’s schedule, as requested by my coach, was meant to be primarily non-USA meets. I was supposed to gain success outside of the country. I have not raced in the US since the first weekend in December, and my time coming back is my career best. I have been making some major changes, weekly and daily so there are some variables that go into my results.

This past week was no exception when it comes to making changes. Coming back from Germany, Coach Johnson and I studied the film and made some decisions which will in the end create a smoother run over and through to the next hurdle. With so many changes, though, at the start line my mind was racing with thoughts of what to do, how to make the changes, go fast, get down faster...and win.

My prelim race didn’t go so well. From my evaluation I was able to see that one of the aspects of change was at fault for the slowness. Knowing the issues makes it easier to fix in the finals, even more so when your coach wasn’t able to travel with you to the meet.

The finals went a bit better but were still not to my liking. I managed to go from a 8.46 to an 8.25. A pretty big improvement from one race to the next, allowing me to win by .25.

Although this race did not go as well as I was hoping, there were some positives which will come from it. I saw some improvement on my intervals including one which was at the target interval time. This week will be filled with lots of full speed reps trying to get myself to perform a better first half of the race. Looking at the numbers, I know what I need to do, and the one meet that is important will be in 3 weeks. The time before then will be utilized to get quicker, become a sprinter before and after the hurdles, and hopefully improve my time.

My next races will be at Hilsdale College and then the day before I fly to Germany at Grand Valley State University.

This week I will be training at Eastern Michigan University, Avondale High School, and Macomb Community College. This brings my indoor training facilities up to 6 (7 if the shakeout in Germany counts).

I’m putting in the work, driving the miles, and pushing myself to a new level.