Mar 14

FIT:
Yesterday (Thur): Stadium ulty. Funny story... not really funny, but a story. We were doing there and back races of only about 25 yards where you touch the line. The 11 of us were split into 3 heats to group similar speeds. In the first couple, Bock and Vicki were ahead in heat 1, and at one point, I came in last in the heat, so I got bumped down to heat 2. I don't like to lose when I know I or my team has the potential or should win. So I kicked hard and won heat 2 by a lot. I got bumped back up to heat 1. And there, I finished first for the rest of it. I don't know whether it's just that I have more endurance, or whether being in heat 2 brought out the fight in me. If it's the latter, maybe I can use those feelings for the next time I want to be fast.

Today: FC 3 - I slept 2.5 hours spread over 3 or so naps the previous night. At the psych experiment today, it looked like the dots I track were spazzing out because the computer had issues, but it seemed like it just as likely could have been my eyes. I was in no condition to be doing that reaction time and eye focus task, but I managed to pull of $21 in 45 minutes. Oh yeah, the buildup for the mile: I got myself pumped up the previous night by listening to Steve Runner's podcast on The Mile twice. Every time I thought about having to run it, my stomach would turn. It made it hard to sleep, because I'd really want that precious nap time, and then I would think "mile" and then I would feel nauseous. I could feel slight soreness the races yesterday. My arms were also tired out, which was kind of strange. It was either ridiculously delayed-OMS, or the sprints or something took more out of the arms than I realized. My knees were also giving me issuse today, but I knew they'd be able to hold for a mile. I was pumped. Finally, after forcing myself out of a quick rest in the bed, I gathered the gear for the fc. I went with spandex - first time in public - since I wanted every advantage. The temps were pretty much ideally brisk. Happened to see LD coming through the grass and said hello. After an 800 warmup and dynamic stretching, we got on the line. I kept wanting to put it off a bit rather than jump right into it, because I knew that the next 6 minutes would be painful. The first lap went by quickly and easily, with 1:28 for the 400+the 12 or 18 or whatever that little distance is. The second lap, I was slower, and I thought, "ok, today's probably not the day," and I came in at 1:32. There was so much that I'd have to recover in the last two to stand a chance. It seemed unlikely. The third lap is usually painful, but today, it wasn't, since I had taken the seecond slowly. I kept thinking, "alright, I can keep holding this," and I finished at 1:32. In the last lap, I felt incredibly good with lots of kick in me. It was strange, since I'm usually dead by then. I wasn't breathing death-hard like last time, but hard. I finished strong but with still more left in the tank at 1:26. It was a total of 5:59, perhaps minus around a second because I had trouble locating the watch button. Just barely made it, oh man. I was so surprised to see it. I wonder what I could do with more sleep and no workouts in the preceeding days. My next goal is sub-5:50. Seems kind of crazy to imagine a 5:4x time, but then again, anything with a 5 in it once seemed like a crazy goal. I'm pretty sure it can happen by June. I'm serious, each BM pyramid I do, I shave off 5s or more. I'll reach the asymtope at some point, but for now, bring on the pyramids! Oh yeah, hot weather is coming - boo. That'll put a dent in all of it, but we'll pull through. In 2 months, I shaved 28s. I have another 2.5 months before graduation. The steeper part of the improvement curve is at least partially gone. Weather's coming. Maybe I can get 15 more seconds off before graduation? We'll do 10 first and then talk more after that.