Past Year Recap

YOO.  Before I get into what's ahead for me I feel I should provide some context of what I have done in the last year. This post is going to be really boring but necessary.

Last outdoor I ran 1:54, 3:50, 8:34 and 14:37 for 800, 1500, 3000 and 5000 respectively. I ran my 1500 and 5000 pb down at sea level in late May and spent the rest of my season solo'ing 3:54/55 in Calgary and Edmonton. My work schedule wasn't very flexible so I had a tough time getting away back down to sea level to race. Most people don't realize it but your times in Calgary will be slower than anywhere else. In a 1500 it's around 1 second per lap compared to sea level. I don't mind it because I know when I do go to sea level I'm going to have a good race. Last summer it was just a matter of getting down there. Overall I took 6 seconds off my 1500, and 38 off my 5000. Decent improvement curve but I knew I had more to give.

Fast forward Off Week where I had my fair share of "apple juice" and a week later I started to build base for xc. It's easily one of my favorite times because you get into a routine. You don't have to worry about staying up late because your body literally doesn't let you. It's awesome. Coach Doug Lamont and I decided 600min/week would be reasonable based on my past base seasons. HOLD UP, WAIT A MINUTE (I think that's a top 40 song but that's the only part of it I know. Please comment if you know the title). Seriously though, when building base please build up gradually. I took 3 weeks to build up to 600 minutes. Then I took a down week and then rattled off 3 600 minute weeks. We got into racing and our team was doing well. We acquired Russell Pennock from Vic and recruited Alex 'Hames' James and Ryan Grieco. Add in Gareth Hadfield plus myself and our top 5 was pretty decent. Hames, Pennock, Hadfield and I were tightly bunched up throughout the season so we knew if we could keep that tight grouping at CIS we would surprise some people and place well. Alas, XC is fickle. We did not perform as we wanted and could not get the grouping, finishing 8th overall. I finished 18th, my best finish, and Pennock was 19th with a dirty kick to win ROY. In XC the team achievement is much more important than personal achievements. Anyone who thinks different is a plug.

Moving on from an anti-climatic XC season I jumped into indoor a little too quickly. After Off Week I got back on the track my second day back and paid for it by missing a few days a training with shin splints. Big Idiot=Roman. I healed up and built up running again. With the new conversions we were thinking that Edmonton would be one of the faster tracks for racing. The field wasn't deep enough to run fast times and our distance crew was headed into Canwest with no guarantee we were going to CIS. Scary stuff right there. The guys team were ranked 4th going into Canwest 17.5 points back of 1st. We knew we had a shot at winning if some stuff went well. Everything went well. Hames got 2nd in the 3km in 8:18 with a 16 second pb. I anchored the 4x800m to 2nd splitting 1:52. Garrett King won the 600m. I won the 1500m. Also, our relays scored 28 points. Every running event scored at least 1 point. It felt like we couldn't lose, someone would win a race and the next person would be like watch this I can do better. Incredible stuff. We ended up blowing out Canwest and winning by 14 points. Two weeks later at CIS the sole bright spot was the veteran Garrett King 600m Bronze. Hames and I had pretty average races. We learned a lot and hope to compete in races with deeper fields next indoor to come into CIS with a bit more confidence and faster times.

Considering how bored I am as I write this I can only imagine how bored you are reading it. Hopefully it gives some context as well as it should give me a reference point for future posts.

From the KM High City.

Rome