On The Eve of War

Well, the heats are over. I think it was probably the most nervous I’ve been for a race in a long time. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had to go through this process and my confidence isn’t quite where it should be right now! Time to turn the swag on… I was in the first heat of three and Milne set an honest pace from the start; I just went along for the ride. It didn’t feel as easy as I would have liked, but it also wasn’t too bad. The important thing is that I got an auto qualifier with a 3^rd place finish in 3:48.95.

Our group had a good couple of days with everyone making it through to the 800m finals and then all five of us qualifying for the 1500m finals today! Why the 800m guys get a day off in between their heats/finals while the 1500m is on back-to-back days is beyond me?!

The meet will be airing LIVE on CBC from 4-6pm EST. You might be able to find it streaming as well: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/ My race will go off at 5:20, so make sure you tune in!

It’s going to be a battle tomorrow…Feet fail me not.

    - Linc

The Show Goes On

Alright, so I’ve been M.I.A. these last couple of weeks. I guess I’ll blame it on the fact that I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and I’m back in Flagstaff now; where, yes, the internet still sucks. The fact that I’ve been lazy has nothing to do with it!

I guess I’ll rewind to almost two weeks ago when I was in Vancouver for an eight day stay. The Marpole-Bird family was kind enough to host myself and Ellerton for a week while we raced a couple of times in the Vancouver area. Their hospitality was much appreciated, as was the view:

J-Bird, Ellerton and I went downtown Vancouver to watch Game 2 of the Stanley Cup in a bar and it was a great experience. The place was crazy. The dance floor even got packed with people sitting on the ground just to watch. Very cool atmosphere…It was quite unfortunate to see the reaction of people when they lost game 7. The stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me…At least good ole Kaberle got to hoist the Cup!

Race number 1:  800m at Simon Fraser University. I knew I was in better shape than 6 weeks earlier at ASU, so anything over 1:50 was going to be a disappointment. I stayed off the pace a little bit through the first 200m, as the rabbit took it out a bit too hard. Then the pace slowed coming through the bell (in about 53 sec.) and I found myself chopping my stride a few times until the 500m mark. I was running even with G-Mart going into the last 100m in a tie for 4^th. I felt pretty good coming home and was able to finish up in 3^rd place with a 1:49.30. I would have been ecstatic with a 1:48 in that race, so I was pretty satisfied with the result!

Race number 2: 1500m at Rotary Stadium in Abbotsford. The plan was to run significantly faster than the last time I raced this distance. I wanted to go out hard to get used to a faster pace and if I died, so be it. It was actually quite windy out, but we stuck to the plan and Kyle set the pace at 57-58 through 400m. I came through the 800m mark in about 1:58, the 1000m in 2:28 and then had to fight the wind up the homestretch. Ellerton went by me at the bell and I knew I was in trouble. He started gapping me and I had virtually no response. It was going to be a long last 350m. I started to fade pretty badly in the last 150m and Justin moved past me into 2^nd and that’s where we stayed. A 3^rd place finish in 3:47.74. I was pretty frustrated and embarrassed with the time, but it’s only one race. No sense dwelling on it…

After the race last Wednesday, we came back to Flagstaff and will be staying here right up until leaving for Nationals. With Calgary being a little over 3000ft, living at 7000ft leading into it will certainly have its advantages. The weather is significantly better up here this time, although still extremely windy. Did I mention how much I hate the wind? Well, I do.

As for training, it’s been very solid lately and while my confidence isn’t quite where it should be, it’s coming around. As is my speed. Now it’s just a matter of resting up for the 1500m heats next Friday.

Hopefully, I’ll get another update out in the next few days with a few more details on training!

   - Linc

Rolling In The Deep

So, I’ve decided to try something new for this post, hopefully it’s entertaining! Enjoy the old school cartoon theme song!

Also, I’ve updated my Schedule/Results page and added a Media page where I’ll include any news I happen to be in…

- Linc

On To The Next One

I apologize for the delay in my post race recap, but I was a bit busy with travel and training…Who am I kidding, I was pissed off at how I ran and didn’t feel like writing about it. Now that a few days have passed, I can’t say that I’m any happier with the race, but I’ve put it behind me and I’m looking forward to the next one. (I was legitimately without the internet the last 4 days though...)

The Race:

We were told that the pacemakers would be taking us through 400m in 57 seconds and the 800m mark in 1:55. This being my first 1500m in what seemed like forever, that pace was a little quick for what we thought I was ready for. I decided to tuck in at the back of the pack and go along for the ride; hopefully coming through 800m in about 1:58. I’m not sure what happened, but the rabbits were 61!? How you’re 4 seconds off, I’m not really sure. They picked it up quite a bit after 400m, but for some reason, the leaders didn’t even go with them!? I blame myself a bit for not making a move here, but it was a big field to move past and I couldn’t expect them not to go with the rabbits when the sole purpose of the meet was to run fast! I ended up being 63 through 400m and then 2:05-2:06 at 800m. Great. I can’t even remember the last time I was that slow at the 800m mark, other than a championship race! We got it going on the next lap and I made a hard move with about 500m to go. In retrospect, it was probably too early for me to go, but I didn’t have much choice if I wanted to run fast. I faded pretty badly in the last 100m and finished in 3:47.42. Needless to say, it was not was I was hoping for. On the positive side, it felt easy, my last 600m was in about 1:26 and I got the first one out of the way!

The weather that night was absolutely perfect for racing, so I’m frustrated by the fact that it seems like a wasted effort.

It was great to see some old friends at the meet and go out for a couple of wobbly pops after wards. I got an easy run in through the streets of Pasadena at 6am the next morning before heading off to the airport with Darren and Peter. Had a final goodbye with the roomies (several tears were shed) before heading off to my gate to board the plane bound for Philadelphia. I’ll be spending about 9 days here with Mel before heading back to the West coast for a couple of races in Vancouver.

The humidity is unbelievable here. I knew it was going to be a bit of a change from the dry heat in Arizona, but this is brutal! After living my whole life in the east, I thought I’d be fine coming back. Nope. I definitely forgot how oppressive it can be! I’ll take the 100 degrees in Scottsdale over the 85-90 degrees and 75-80% humidity here any day!

Below is a video of the race…

    - Linc

Going Back To Cali

Flagstaff ended in the same way it started; in cold, crappy, windy weather. Wednesday’s final race tune up was done in sleet at about 1/33 degrees. It was no fun at all. I felt sluggish and never really warmed up…I was again cursing the fact that I was in Flagstaff and not sunny Scottsdale! Here are two pictures of the weather, which doesn’t quite do justice to the full on snow storm.

Thursday morning I packed everything in the car and headed down to Phoenix to catch my flight out to Burbank, CA in the afternoon. The flight was uneventful, other than the fact that I almost didn’t make it through security on time. Once in California, I rejoiced in the fact that I was no longer in Flagstaff and we headed to our hotel in Pasadena where there’s about 8 of us staying. We got in a short shake out run before heading to Daisy Mint restaurant for dinner. It was actually really good Thai food. Darren and I split some chicken panang and chicken pad thai. Both were outstanding.

Friday we headed into Hollywood to do the touristy thing. We saw the walk of fame, Hollywood sign, Kodak theatre, Chinese Grauman theatre, took some pictures etc. before having lunch at Hollywood & Highland. We lost Lemlem a few times and although she could have been added as a new blvd. attraction, we managed to get her back.

We went back to the Thai place again for dinner Friday. I’m not sure if it was quite that good, but it hit the spot again anyways…

Today is race day. The top heats in all the events tonight are STACKED. We requested to have me bumped down to the second section because I’m not ready for what the top heat would throw at me! As it is, I’ll have my hands full in the 2^nd heat. It’s my first 1500m since 2009 and with the new training, I’m not really sure what to expect. But, it’ll be nice to get back out there and mix things up again!

The races will be live on Flotrack starting at 10:00pm EST, 7:00 PST so make sure you tune in!

Watch Live!!

     - Linc