one last kick at the can

I'm not sure why I felt so flat and tired on Friday night, but I think regardless of excuses, it's probably better for me not to spend the money and time to go to Windsor to run nationals, when I can get a race more geared to my level in Ottawa the same week. If I had been able to run under 4:10 on Friday (as François predicted) I would have gone for it in Windsor, just for fun, and confident that with a couple more workouts and a taper I could drop to 4:00 range. I could probably run that fast this summer if I gave myself a few more weeks, but I don't have the desire to keep this up that much longer. 4:25 is just way too slow--slow enough that it is clear it was an anomaly, but still, slow enough to make me pause.

I did 5x500 on Tuesday in an average of 1:24 with only 2min rec in heat and wind (yes there were both). Here are the splits:
1:21 (32,33,16)
1:23 (32,36,15)
1:23 (33,35,15)
1:27 (33,37,17)
1:27 (34,37,16)

Compare that to 4x500 in 1:22 with 7min rec (and a whole lot more effort) and I think it shows a definite improvement. I fell apart a bit at the end, but it was mostly in the windy section.

I don't even know what the splits were for Friday night. Saturday I went swimming with my parents and then Sunday I did a really nice trail run on the mountain for about an hour. I didn't want to go (felt down about the race, was hanging out with Miriam which is more fun than going for a run when I don't feel like it), but I did and it was very good. I probably ran too fast, but I just needed to go and have a solid run, you know?

So, yeah, today some fast 200s (10-12 in 30-32), and then we'll see. I'll have to work on getting better sleep over the weekend and early next week. I think that getting to bed late, then up at 6 (if only briefly) made me kind of tired. I also felt that I wasn't quite recovered from the big workout on the weekend, or even the 500s, AND (excuses coming to an end soon...) I think I was sick, or at least on the verge of coming down with something. I started taking vitamins again, just to buffer a bit. Can I find anything else to blame? Oh, I did some new exercises in the weight room on Wednesday. Same program, new phase, but I probably should have stuck with the same stuff. I'll talk to Liz today about it.

I feel better today and most of my school work is taken care of, so I should be good to go. It seems like whenever I have a really BAD race, I follow it up with a pretty good one (Cross des couleurs followed by 10k PB for example), so I am upbeat and confident that there will be a 1500 PB this summer.