Pumped Up Kicks

Back in Flagstaff again.

I'm sure I complained about this place last year and not much has changed. I still don't like this place. The trails for running are pretty nice, but sometimes they're hard to enjoy when there's a constant, unrelenting 25mph wind whistling through your ears causing non-stop, irritating noise.You literally can't even think properly sometimes. You just want to shout out some curse words at it; well, I do anyways. There's also the lack of sleeping ability due to the altitude, the constant hunger, the cold(er) weather and the added pain caused by workouts or trying to run at a faster pace up here.

It's safe to say I'm not a fan.

Penn Relays last weekend went relatively well. It wasn't a great race, but it wasn't horrible either. I ran a 2:54.00 negative splitting each lap. Something like 60, 58, 56. I allowed myself to get a little boxed in, so when they made their move at the front, I wasn't able to respond right away. I closed pretty well after that though. I just need to make sure I don't let myself get boxed in again. I need to be smarter than that...Overall, our team finished in 4th place with a time of 9:23.34, which was a little disappointing.

It's always a great feeling running at Penn Relays and this year was no different. The crowd was out in full force and although the weather was a bit chilly, it wasn't a bad day. It always feels good to put on the Canadian Uniform. Having the chance to do it at a meet such as Penn Relays is even better! You can't help but be pumped up. As coach Groves at Penn State used to say, "If you can't get excited for the Penn Relays, than damn it, you aint got no soul." It truly is an amazing meet.

Here's video of the race:

Even up at the altitude in Flag and Sedona this week we've had a couple of solid workouts. I'll get some more details up about them later.

    - Linc

You Can't Always Get What You Want

This past weekend of racing was fairly successful. We were planning on using the back to back races as a trials/finals simulation and I think it went pretty well. The 1500m on Thursday ended up being a little more hectic than expected though. Originally, I thought I would be in one of the 3 sections racing on Friday, so booked my flight accordingly. Unfortunately, I didn't get in the faster heats, so I was racing at 3:30pm on Thursday; with a flight landing at 11:15am.

Sitting at our gate around departure time, they announced that our plane still hadn't left Salt Lake City yet. Great. The flight ended up being delayed a little over an hour, so we landed in LAX a little after 12:15pm. Then we had to take a shuttle to the rental car pick-up, hop in the car and battle LA traffic over to Walnut, where we were racing. We pulled in just after 2:00pm, I went straight to registration and then made a beeline for the check-in tent. Check-in supposedly closed 60 min prior to the event and I got there at 2:25pm with 5 min to spare! Not exactly ideal. But in the words of Ashley, "Whatevs."...You just have to roll with it.

As for the race itself, the goal was to run for positioning like in a heat, but with hopes of still running fast. The pace ended up being a little slower than I would have liked with a 60.5 and 2:03.1 through the first quarter and half mile. Definitely too slow on the 2nd lap. I was 3:01.9 at the 1200 and closed with a 41.9 last 300m and 55.7 for the last 400m. I took the lead earlier than I would have liked, but I was in danger of getting boxed in, so I think it was the right thing to do. My final time was 3:43.88 which I wasn't especially pleased with, but with a solid last lap and the chaos leading up to the race, I wasn't terribly disappointed. Check it out below:

After the race, I got some recovery drink/food in me as soon as possible and had a relaxing night watching the NHL playoffs to get ready for my 800m the next day. 

This race was all about running fast. It was a solid field and we had a rabbit supposedly taking us through in 51.0, so I figured I'd go to the back and pick people off on the 2nd lap. I wanted to be somewhere around 53.0-5. Unfortunately, the rabbit was 53.5 at the bell, making me a dismal 55.3. I knew it was slow at the 200m mark, but there was no sense making a drastic move so early, and really, I didn't have anywhere to go. I ran my next 200m in 26.4 to hit the 600m mark at 1:21.7(still slow) and then my final 200m was 26.8 for a final lap of 53.2! My overall time was a 1:48.64 for a new PB; even with a negative split of 55.3 - 53.2. Not exactly the best way to run a fast 800. I'm pretty confident I have a 1:47 and sub 3:40 in me right now. I just need the right race! You can see the 800m below:

We had an easy workout on Monday and our tune-up workout this morning in Scottsdale. Tomorrow 6 of us in the group will board a plane to head back east for the Penn Relays. I missed them last year for the first time in a decade, so it will be great to be back. It's one of the best meets in the World! Canada has 2 teams this year. Along with the standard 2 from the U.S. there are also four other teams, and they just happen to be probably the most challenging 4 other countries in the world for this event; Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco and Australia. The World Record for the DMR is 9:15.56, it might go down this weekend.

Hopefully, I can send an update from Philthadelphia.

Hopefully, in a good mood because the Dolphins made an intelligent 1st round selection in the NFL draft.

   - Linc

California Love

Well, I'm heading back to the golden coast tomorrow for a couple of races. I always enjoy being back in California. Why? Well, as a teammate of mine once answered Bob Barker while we were on the Price is Right, "Three reasons, Bob, the weather, the ladies and the beaches." To which Bob replied "But not necessarily in that order."

Unfortunately, another downfall to being injured and out of shape last year means I don't really have any good times to use for entries this year. Since most meets use times from the past year, my PB is a little too ancient at this point. I had already booked my flight when I found out that I wouldn't be in one of the Invitational sections on Friday, so tomorrow will be a busy day. Early shake out run, leaving for the airport at 8:15am, flight at 9:50am and arriving in Los Angeles at 11:15am. Then we have to hop in the car for a (hopefully) less than one hour drive out to Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA for my 3 o'clock race time! Should be interesting... 

I'm also running the 800m on Friday, so I'll be using the races to simulate a trials and finals situation. Running the 1500m tomorrow will be strictly for positioning, more specifically, the W; forget about the time. Then Friday will be more like finals with a hard 800m. 

Most of the races will be live online, although, it doesn't look like mine will be. But you can still tune in to catch some other track action and find my races in the video archives! Here's the link: 

http://live.flocasts.org/mtsac-live.html

I'll have my race recaps up as soon as I can.

    - Linc

Wild Ones

I'm not going to lie, it's not nearly as enjoyable to write a race recap when you're not very happy about the race. Hence my slacking in getting this up sooner.

Saturday was the season opening 1500m at Sun Angel. I knew the times we were aiming to run were a little ambitious, especially for the first one of the season. But, you have to get after it at some point, so why not right away... We had Geoff Harris to rabbit us and he did a nice job hitting splits. Unfortunately, I ended up falling in behind him. It's not the position I wanted to be in because I find that you feel sort of like the rabbit yourself there; never relaxing the same way you would in 3rd or 4th and worrying a bit too much about the splits instead of just running. No one else was going to tuck in though, so if I hadn't done it, there would have been a huge gap between him and the pack and there was no reason to waste the opportunity to run fast. The other downfall was that when Harris stepped off the track, I was the rabbit for the next 300m or so. You won't find me doing that again.

As for the result, 3:43.30, I wasn't too pleased. Breaking 3:40 was a little optimistic, but a 3:40-41 would have been a lot more satisfying. As it is, I think it's the fastest 1500m opener I've ever had, but I'm not taking much solace in that. I need to be running faster. No excuses.

Next up will be Mt. Sac and then the 1200m leg on Team Canada at Penn Relays for the USA vs. The World DMR.

This morning, Ellerton, Justin and I had a nice run on the trails up in North Scottsdale. We ran with some wild horses, which was pretty cool, and Ellerton and Justin narrowly escaped an encounter with a Diamondback rattlesnake. A pretty good sized one too. Hearts were racing a little bit. Luckily, I happened to be a few feet farther over or I may have needed a change of underwear as well.

After the run, we sauntered over to The Good Egg for some sunshine and huevos rancheros on the patio before heading back for an afternoon of NHL 2012.

Not a bad Thursday.

Here's a video of the race: (due to the video skills of an unnamed source, you can't actually see my last 80m. Which might actually be a good thing, cause I don't think it was pretty.)

   
      - Linc

Feel So Close

I'll keep this one short and sweet as most of what needs to be said is in the video below. This is the latest workout by our group down here in Scottsdale. We seem to be clicking really well up at the front right now and have been having solid workout after solid workout. I can't remember the last one where I didn't come away from it pleased with the results.

It's definitely a nice change to workout on the ASU track instead of the one at Scottsdale Community College. The Athletics Canada development camp is in town as well, so there were plenty of people at the track watching and helping to keep us motivated.

Check out the workout below! "Feel So Close" was playing in my head for almost the entirety of the workout, so I figured I might as well make it the soundtrack. Feel free to leave any questions or comments you might have...(That's me in the blue short shorts, if you couldn't tell.)

   

   - Linc