Dragons

Last week I somehow got left out of the race results. This didn't much bother me but I was concerned because I needed to get my Grand Prix points from the event. When I ran into Jason on campus, I mentioned the situation to him. He said he would use his SAR powers to right these wrongs. I thought it really wasn't a big deal and I would just never again mention the situation.

Then Saturday as I was getting some Brooklyn pizza with Train and my little brother, my phone rang. It was Coach Borg, the official timer.

"Blax, I got an issue!"

"Good! I got an issue with you too -- so go ahead."

Turns out his issue was my not bringing my issue up with him. I explained that I understand he's a busy guy and I never meant to 'go behind his back' -- I just thought it wasn't a big deal. All I wanted were the points. He seemed to understand and we began chatting about the 5k on Sunday (yesterday). He asked what I was planning on doing about it. I told him I'd like to try and break 17.

"Just go out really hard."

Works for me. Apparently, they've done studies and 60 percent of the time, it works every time.

Arriving yesterday morning, I warmed up with Mike and Lucas. Recollecting last year's course, I was pretty excited. I knew the areas I would likely try to slow down so I could counter this. The competition seemed rather lean as well.

Naturally, on the warm up I had to realize that, to my luck, the course had been changed. It still opened on a northern route on Columbus -- but now it veered none and took us to the river path where we ran through some soft-ass dirt, made a sharp U-turn, and ran back.

So what do I have to say? I went out hard. I slowed pretty predictably and finished in fifth (same place as last year). I was reminded after the race (as I am after every effort that isn't 5 miles at 7:15 pace) that I need to do more core work, speed work, focusing, miles, and weights.

More important than anything else, fellow Dragon Mike Salkowski came up with a win today. Standing at the starting line, he would have been my easy pick for 2007 Lighthouse Champion, but you should definitely read his race recap. The dude knows how to be a winner. Good sportsmanship is a cornerstone of Dragons and Mike exemplifies it with his post here.

I should have been pretty disgusted with an 18:30-something but I honestly wasn't even phased. I had quite a bit of fun and was dog tired at the end. I got to eat some Chuys at 9am, listen to some BOB-FM, and politely decline a massage. There was a rock-climbing wall and some drum group. I walked away with an age group victory and the pair of socks that came with it.

During the cool down though, I was reminded of why I was running 18:30-somethings. At this time last year, I was a minute faster and improving. Right now, I sort of feel like I'm in a rut. Still, the only difference in my training is that last year I was hitting WOG twice a week. I think I am really starting to realize the benefits of workouts.

I've never claimed to be a student of the sport (triple-A baseball is more my bag), but my inability to coach myself has become almost completely apparent in the recent weeks. It might be an underestimate, overestimate, or something in-between of myself. It might be a simply lack of training knowledge and an even greater lack of focus for reading books about training. If you don't believe me, I have a couple books I checked out from the library like last summer sitting in my room. Every few weeks I get an email telling me they are due so I just renew 'em online. It's finally reached a point where I've renewed them too much and now I actually have to take them back. I can't tell you one thing either of those books taught me.

So with a couple months until the Spring Cross Country Classic, I am going to be going the way of the Arizona Cardinals and looking for new coaching direction. It's bad enough that I've been running like Denny Green -- I don't need to be coaching like him too.

That being said, I do look forward to being away from races for a little while. I was definitely happy to get in a couple competitions after the build-up I put in over winter but now I'll be happy to get in another bulk training period. Especially one with more direction/structure.

I haven't gotten this week planned out yet (an attribute of a truly bunk coach) but I suspect it'll be a push back towards mileage with maybe some mile repeats somewhere along the way.


Mike's Recap -- Dave's Run next Sat -- Spring XC Classic