Last week in review

The secret of life is gettin up early
The secret of life is stayin up late
The secret of life is try not to hurry
But dont wait
Don't wait.
~Faith Hill, The Secret of Life

After two weeks of watching track meets I just couldn't take it any more, so I entered last Saturday's 3k at the Indiana Relays. I knew I probably wouldn't PR, but I was hoping to at least compete for a win despite putting in my highest week of mileage ever. As the week soldiered on I slowly realized that the miles in my legs would provide plenty of trials for my confidence. Here's a little recap of the highlights and lowlights:

Tuesday was the second installment of our T.I.E.W.B. evening training series (Team Indiana Elite Women in Bloomington). After a lot of indecision we settled on 4x3x400m, with each of us leading one 400 per set, and each set getting progressively faster. The first two sets went by in a snap, but the last two took their sweet time. I was pleased to be able to get down to 72s for the last set, but wish I could've been able to do a few more intervals after that. Ben wanted me to do an extra 1k, but my legs just wouldn't allow it and I knew it was time to cool down and go home. Perhaps it was a sign when halfway through our last set Rick Rumple turned most of the lights off on us in the Fieldhouse!

Thursday I tried to sneak in another workout. Ben had suggested two-to-three 800s at race pace, although he never told me what race pace should be. So, I assumed it should be at least 2:37, hopefully more like 2:35. My first, and subsequently last, 800 on Thursday was 2:40. I threw in some 200s to get some leg turnover in, if nothing else from the workout, then slogged through a two mile cool down upstairs around Assembly.

Friday, the day before the big 3k, I did not want to do a workout at all, I barely even wanted to run! When my alarm went off at 7:18a.m. that morning I looked out the window, saw rain morphing into sleet and just couldn't bring myself to get out the door. I stood in my living room starring blankly at the weatherman on the TV screen trying to decide what to do. I eventually shoved a ton of running clothes into my book bag and headed to work, bitter that if I didn't run in the morning that I had gotten up that early for nothing.

All morning I sat at my boring desk debating if I should try and run at lunch or after work. I decided lunch would be best (more recovery time before the race the next day), borrowed a friend's student ID and ice skated over to the HPER building, all ready to use a treadmill for the first time this winter. I should've guessed that at lunch time the one singular treadmill at the HPER would be occupied, but I didn't and was disappointed. With the ground covered in ice I wasn't about to go outside and bruise my tail bone, so I turned on the iPod and resigned myself to run my 8 miles on the 6-laps-and-138-feet-to-a-mile indoor track there.

The flatness proved glorious, despite the nearly 90 degree turns, and the new downloads on my iPod made the first 30 minutes go by quite quickly. I didn't even mind dodging the frat boys, sorority girls or old men in short shorts lap after lap. Out of curiousity I decided to clock the next mile, then let out a small grunt of disbelief when I saw the time, so I clocked another one. Shockingly, I saw the exact same thing, 6:36! Besides the intervals on the indoor track, this week I had been slogging through a lot of 7:30 (or slower, I try not to think about it) miles, so it was thrilling for a pace so much faster to feel easy! It was also awesome to watch Jordan go for a sub-4 mile, and although he didn't quite get it this time it was amazing to hear the whole Fieldhouse cheering and clapping those last four laps!

Alas, the glory of easy fluid movement for me was short lived. Saturday on my shakeout run in the morning with Georganne and Jane I had to stop twice on my way back to my apartment to loosen up my left knee and left upper calf. I was pumped up after watching Dani run to a huge PR in the mile and thanks to the mercy of my old trainer at IU the leg felt better while warming up, although not 100 percent. Just being in a race was fun (I hadn't worn buns since June!), but not being able to respond when others pushed the pace was disheartening. I finished fourth in 9:55, a full 26 seconds slower than when I ran the 3k in the exact same race last year. My excuse for this is all the miles in my legs, but I still don't like even having an excuse. That is why this sport is so difficult to master. I takes this bizarre combination of patience and impatience. The patience to know that the current pain will pay off later, yet the impatience to train and race as though there's no tomorrow.

Sunday proved to be another interesting run. I had the bright idea to run the three miles from my apartment to meet Jane, Dani and Allison at Bryan Park. It was downhill, it didn't feel too bad. Even with company, the next 12 miles hurt. My lower legs wanted to amputate themselves at a few points. During the Rail Trail portion of the run we saw a National Guard guy puking his guts out and later saw a man with a large dog and shotgun, it was very odd. When I finally stumbled into my apartment a little over 2 hours and 15 minutes later, I made a quick batch of Endurox then pretty much collapsed onto the floor. I remained there as a blob for I don't know how long, and the rest of the day felt like a zombie. Probably was a bad idea to run that far at the end of a long week with no water or Gatorade along the way. I was only supposed to do 16 miles, but I was feeling ornery.

At the T.I.E. Super Bowl get-together at Coach Chapman's that night, I couldn't stop yawning. Luckily I managed to stay awake to witness the best game of the season! If the Giants can beat the Patriots, maybe there's hope for some of us T.I.E. underdogs to make it to the Trials :) I know logically those two things have nothing to do with each other, but when you run races 26 seconds slower than the year before you'll take any small dash of hope you can get!

The secret of life is a good cup of coffee
The secret of life is keep your eye on the ball
The secret of life is to find the right woman
The secret of life is nothin at all
Oh, its nothin at all
The secret of life