Well, after a speedy 800, by all means my indoor mile should be worst case scenario high 5.30s to 5.40 ish. This is assuming I don't screw off and sandbag like I seem to love to do as of late. Truth be known, I do not like to lead because I feel like I'll be the ass that everyone sits on only to get passed in the end. I don't have enough time in a mile to open up my trademark gap in the mid to late stages of things like I do in long races. Lena and Anya and Nadya were all there and I pretty much figured out that screwing off the whole race only to kick in the final 200 was dangerous since the last time we ran top 3 were all on top of each other at the finish. I figured at the very least I needed to run 5.40 and Lena would likely be the only one who could keep that pace with me. My plan was to go out 2.50-52 and then either park it or try and pick up a little.
ONCE AGAIN EPIC FAIL in the opening. Anna led us the first lap-45 eeiew- slow. Lena and I were right behind and Nadya also tucked in behind us. 400m 1.33 Oh, for the love of Christ this is a mile not a 10k and God help me that I don't get swallowed up by all 3 ladies in back, but this is NOT my pace and IAM OUT OF HERE before I lose anymore time! I risked it and went up front and ran MY pace. I needed to do that. I knew Lena would try and hang on but I just dropped things lap by lap-2.15, 2.57 (YUCK that's how I sandbagged last time)...each lap I just kept picking up by a second or so or maintaining til I was running where I SHOULD be which is more like 82-3 for the 400s. As soon as I picked up and Lena went along, the other 2 ladies dropped back. I just kept hammering as I was annoyed with losing a sh!tload of time in the beginning. There comes a point when you go out TOO conservatively and it costs you. In hindsight and Coach said the same, I should have just gone out at my own pace starting at 85 for the opening 400 and racheting down from there. It's tough to guess since things are not going to be as fast on an indoor banked track as they are outdoors. So Lena and I just duked it out to the finish she got me by just a little 5.41/42 we finished. Ana busted her tail for 3rd finishing just ahead of Nadya but some 23 sec back today.
...Or so we thought....I went to check the results after my cooldown and saw some other girl with a 5.42 in 2nd and me in 3rd and Anya in 4th? WTF? I wasn't the only one who said WTF. Lena asked how the hell I could be 3rd if we finished together! Anya had no idea she was listed in 4th either. It turns out they mistakenly put someone in to run with the 29 and under group who was supposed to be with us! Of course she had the advantage of seeing how Lena and I ran beforehand so she had a goal time to go for to try and bump one or both of us. Ummmmmm wait a minute.....
Lena said that's ridiculous. 2 yrs ago when she had no one to run with, she asked to run with the under 30 group so she could go for a faster time and they said, "NO!" Last year, we both wanted to do that and again a NO. They have always been strict about not letting people run outside their division and today they just up and allowed it? That's what got our goats. Let her run with us, if she beats us , fine, but at least it's fair. Coach was not happy either. Well sh!t Lena and I want to run with the youngsters too if that's the case. 3rd youngster was 5.44 but the leaders were mid -high 5.30s so she had a nice rabbit or 2 up front. Yeah the handicap seems to be close to 7-10 seconds since the youngsters were about that much slower than they were outdoors.
Lena said if you run outside your category, fine but then it shouldn't score and most everyone agreed with that. Some divisions run 2 heats but they divide up slower and faster runners in which case this girl would have ended up with us where she should have been. So when they called us down for the awards Anya found out only then that she wasn't 3rd and her husband wasn't too happy either. Hell, they let a lady run in one of the men's heats too and I can't tell you how many times I asked to run the 3 and the 5000 with the boys at the masters meets because I knew I'd be damn lonely. They never allowed me to do that (most likely the boys were afraid some of them would be chicked).
Sure, I cut 9 +sec from last time, but I was totally effing off last time too. Today, I effed off the first 400 then got down to business. Yes, no doubt, had I had someone to chase from the get go, I likely would have held my own. January will be a crap shoot. I'm going to be back to high high volume and not sure where I will be speed wise. I should still be ok as long as I plan mile week as my rest week I take every 4 weeks anyway. We'll see.
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