Ladies,
Make no mistake about it, running hard two days in a row is hard, physically and mentally. Yesterday you guys were up and excited about doing 800s; today, it was all deathly quiet and serious. The weather was fine, not perfect, but fine for running. You had the flat surface. You had an easy starting pace. Still, you have to wrap your mind around running hard for over 20 minutes. That's a tough sell, even when you're fresh. Believe me, I know.
In spite of that, and in spite of the fact many of you really suffered from yesterday's hard workout, a few of you really did shine today. Here are the results:
Start at the top with Danielle and Carrie. The goal was 6:50 pace, which they surpassed slightly the first mile. Then the bill came due... and yet, it was within acceptable limits. Losing only 10 seconds the second mile is fine, especially since the third mile was faster than the second. Listen you two, it's a good rule of thumb that whatever you tempo, you race. To get into the weeds a little bit, though the tempo is only 3 miles and a 5k is 3.1, you are not rested now and you will be Saturday (at least more so). Add to that the race environment, and you have the ingredients of faster times. Ergo, whatever you tempo, you should be able to do in a race.
Even if you don't accept that, look at the Actual 5k Time. That's the time you would have had today had you run one tenth more. Notice anything? They're your fastest times this year by far. It's real. You did it.
There's something else worth mentioning here... Danielle, you have absolutely taken charge of the front of practices, exactly as a captain should. I don't have to tell you it's your responsibility to do so - you know it. You have to ability to lead workouts from the front, and you do it without complaint. Today, you ran as hard as you could for as long as you could. Then you showed the second element of leadership I greatly admire in you.
When I saw you were slipping away, I realized the only way to keep you both in it was to send Carrie to the front. You spent yourself pulling the first two miles, even though you felt terrible while doing so. No matter; when Carrie took over, you weren't about to let her get away. I guess what I'm saying is people get the idea that running in the front is easier than running in the back, because you get done faster and you make it look easy. The truth is, and you know this, it's darn hard to be in the front, and you have to fight to stay there every single day. You couldn't beat Carrie today, so you did the next best thing; you didn't let her get away. That is one heck of an example for everyone.
Carrie, you deserve great praise too. You didn't flinch a bit when I sent you up. You took it, and more than that, controlled it as if you've been doing this all your life. You held even quarters, then brought it home in a hurry at the end. What you did is an example of the push/pull concept - you pushed Danielle to her limit, but you encouraged her to stay in it. It is truly great to watch you guys train together.
Speaking of that, I failed to mention adequately yesterday how pleased I was to see the effort Alli put in, and what great leadership it showed. Once she understood what our situation is with regards to Sectional/Regional, she took the personal responsibility to challenge herself. She jumped way above the time goals I set for her and performed with the top runners. She took the shot. What leadership! Today was more of the same... I know the leg hurt from yesterday, I know it did, but she did 2.5 miles tonight hard. It would have been easy to complain about her leg, but she didn't. Instead she dropped 26 seconds per mile from last week's pace. So what if her time drops this year aren't mercurial? They are steady and consistent, and coming off a major injury, I can't say enough about it.
Bret, you may not think I'm noticing you really running hard the first portion of your speed workouts, but I do. You may not be able to hold it all the way either, but you know something? You dropped 40 seconds per mile on the pace in a week. You'll hold it a bit longer every time. Don't be afraid to reach for it, it's there. Keep it up!
Chloe and Locki, Locki and Chloe... man, what a duo you've become! You both negative split your runs, and did you notice something else? Your times were within four seconds of one another, despite the fact you ran separately. It's very solid running you're putting in right now, and I suspect you guys just might see another massive drop soon. Oh, and Locki... that's 76 seconds per mile dropped in one week. Wow!
Diana, you definitely struggle in this type of running mainly because I don't have anyone with whom you can be paired. This means all the runs are on your own. In spite of that, you dropped 22 seconds per mile off last week. That's over a minute in a race!
Shelby, every distance runner has a tough patch. You have only been running for this season, so we have to cram all those experiences into one season. ;) The truth is, you are not 100%. Whether we are talking exercise-induced asthma or allergies, it's very clear you can't breathe. This will pass. A good, hard frost will knock out the pollen and mold, and I'm guessing that will improve things a great deal for you. True, today wasn't a great workout. Yesterday was, and your times are getting faster. It will come together.
Hanna, keep plugging along. It will get easier, and dare I say it, even... fun?
Now for our German readers:
Make no mistake about it, running hard two days in a row is hard, physically and mentally. Yesterday you guys were up and excited about doing 800s; today, it was all deathly quiet and serious. The weather was fine, not perfect, but fine for running. You had the flat surface. You had an easy starting pace. Still, you have to wrap your mind around running hard for over 20 minutes. That's a tough sell, even when you're fresh. Believe me, I know.
In spite of that, and in spite of the fact many of you really suffered from yesterday's hard workout, a few of you really did shine today. Here are the results:
| Runner | 1 | 2 | Pace | 3 | Pace | AVG | ||
| Danielle | 6:48:00 | 13:49:00 | 7:01:00 | 20:49:00 | 7:00:00 | 6:56:20 | ||
| Carrie | 6:48:00 | 13:49:00 | 7:01:00 | 20:40:00 | 6:51:00 | 6:53:20 | ||
| Alli | 7:02:00 | 14:39:00 | 7:37:00 | 18:35:00 | 3:56:00 | 7:26:00 | ||
| Chloe | 8:00:00 | 15:53:00 | 7:53:00 | 7:56:30 | ||||
| Locki | 8:02:00 | 15:49:00 | 7:47:00 | 7:54:30 | ||||
| Bret | 7:59:00 | 16:11:00 | 8:12:00 | 8:05:30 | ||||
| Diana | 8:21:00 | 17:24:00 | 9:03:00 | 8:42:00 | ||||
| Keeley | 9:16:00 | |||||||
| Shelby | 7:24:00 | 14:33:00 | 7:09:00 | 7:16:30 | ||||
| Runner | Actual 5k Time | |||||||
| Danielle | 21:30:38 | |||||||
| Carrie | 21:21:20 | |||||||
| Alli | 23:02:36 | |||||||
| Chloe | 24:37:09 | |||||||
| Locki | 24:30:57 | |||||||
| Bret | 25:05:03 | |||||||
| Diana | 26:58:12 | |||||||
| Keeley | ||||||||
| Shelby | 22:33:09 |
Start at the top with Danielle and Carrie. The goal was 6:50 pace, which they surpassed slightly the first mile. Then the bill came due... and yet, it was within acceptable limits. Losing only 10 seconds the second mile is fine, especially since the third mile was faster than the second. Listen you two, it's a good rule of thumb that whatever you tempo, you race. To get into the weeds a little bit, though the tempo is only 3 miles and a 5k is 3.1, you are not rested now and you will be Saturday (at least more so). Add to that the race environment, and you have the ingredients of faster times. Ergo, whatever you tempo, you should be able to do in a race.
Even if you don't accept that, look at the Actual 5k Time. That's the time you would have had today had you run one tenth more. Notice anything? They're your fastest times this year by far. It's real. You did it.
There's something else worth mentioning here... Danielle, you have absolutely taken charge of the front of practices, exactly as a captain should. I don't have to tell you it's your responsibility to do so - you know it. You have to ability to lead workouts from the front, and you do it without complaint. Today, you ran as hard as you could for as long as you could. Then you showed the second element of leadership I greatly admire in you.
When I saw you were slipping away, I realized the only way to keep you both in it was to send Carrie to the front. You spent yourself pulling the first two miles, even though you felt terrible while doing so. No matter; when Carrie took over, you weren't about to let her get away. I guess what I'm saying is people get the idea that running in the front is easier than running in the back, because you get done faster and you make it look easy. The truth is, and you know this, it's darn hard to be in the front, and you have to fight to stay there every single day. You couldn't beat Carrie today, so you did the next best thing; you didn't let her get away. That is one heck of an example for everyone.
Carrie, you deserve great praise too. You didn't flinch a bit when I sent you up. You took it, and more than that, controlled it as if you've been doing this all your life. You held even quarters, then brought it home in a hurry at the end. What you did is an example of the push/pull concept - you pushed Danielle to her limit, but you encouraged her to stay in it. It is truly great to watch you guys train together.
Speaking of that, I failed to mention adequately yesterday how pleased I was to see the effort Alli put in, and what great leadership it showed. Once she understood what our situation is with regards to Sectional/Regional, she took the personal responsibility to challenge herself. She jumped way above the time goals I set for her and performed with the top runners. She took the shot. What leadership! Today was more of the same... I know the leg hurt from yesterday, I know it did, but she did 2.5 miles tonight hard. It would have been easy to complain about her leg, but she didn't. Instead she dropped 26 seconds per mile from last week's pace. So what if her time drops this year aren't mercurial? They are steady and consistent, and coming off a major injury, I can't say enough about it.
Bret, you may not think I'm noticing you really running hard the first portion of your speed workouts, but I do. You may not be able to hold it all the way either, but you know something? You dropped 40 seconds per mile on the pace in a week. You'll hold it a bit longer every time. Don't be afraid to reach for it, it's there. Keep it up!
Chloe and Locki, Locki and Chloe... man, what a duo you've become! You both negative split your runs, and did you notice something else? Your times were within four seconds of one another, despite the fact you ran separately. It's very solid running you're putting in right now, and I suspect you guys just might see another massive drop soon. Oh, and Locki... that's 76 seconds per mile dropped in one week. Wow!
Diana, you definitely struggle in this type of running mainly because I don't have anyone with whom you can be paired. This means all the runs are on your own. In spite of that, you dropped 22 seconds per mile off last week. That's over a minute in a race!
Shelby, every distance runner has a tough patch. You have only been running for this season, so we have to cram all those experiences into one season. ;) The truth is, you are not 100%. Whether we are talking exercise-induced asthma or allergies, it's very clear you can't breathe. This will pass. A good, hard frost will knock out the pollen and mold, and I'm guessing that will improve things a great deal for you. True, today wasn't a great workout. Yesterday was, and your times are getting faster. It will come together.
Hanna, keep plugging along. It will get easier, and dare I say it, even... fun?
Now for our German readers:
Locki und Hanna,
Ich wurde an einen deutschen Freund von mir sprechen, und ich erwähnte ich hatte zwei Schulerinnen aus Deutschland. Ich weiß Hanna kommt aus Berlin, aber ich konnte mich nicht erinnern, wo Locki kam. Jedenfalls großartige Arbeit so weit Damen. Sie vertritt Deutschland sehr gut.
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