Land of the Kiwis A runner in New Zealand

Kiwi Nationals Day 3

I apologize to my loyal following (read "mom") that I've taken so long to get this up. I've had some pretty bad writers block and just keep putting it off. I guess we'll have to collectively accept this is going to suck...

OK, now that we're in the spirit, here we go... Today is the final day of this culminating Kiwi meet. So far the weekend has been going well, but as I put weight on my feet this morning I knew I was in for a tough race. What a difference between wearing spikes and not. I'll have to look into my spike's  affect on my stride in more detail in the future... Today though, it was all about squeezing the last drops of performance out of my calves.

So I got to the track feeling fit but not too springy. I took a great deal of time before hand just lying in some obscure corner of the locker-room listening to some tunes and massaging my calves. Finally, about 45min before the race I went out for a nice jog. Temperature was cool, clouds were heavy, and despite the calves, I was feeling pretty sharp physically.

What I wanted (ideally) was a good pace where I could get dragged around to the fast time I knew I could run and drop some of the big competition with the process. Unfortunately, that dream lasted about 100m. I went out at the usual slow acceleration, taking in the competition's movements and interpretting their intentions. Unfortunately for me everyone slowed up on the turn and so I just slowly took the lead after a slow 62 first lap. I was actually happy when I found myself in the lead because I still didn't feel like I was exerting as much energy as the pack jostling in back of me and 63s felt mad easy. I broke the waves for everyone through 1000m and just about at the bell Brett Tengay (sp?) absolutely bulled his way out of the pack to dead sprint kick with 400 to go. From my perspective I just saw Matt Smith grab at Brett's singlet to prevent being blown out of the water. Within 10 steps, I was passed by 6 athletes. I finally got my chance to move out and push into pre-kick mode. I was still in good position with 200m to go and I'm convinced I could have had second place with a little more strength in my achilles. But you can literally see in the footage how flat my feet were landing. I had good turnover but it's almost like I stick in place unnaturally. I finished 5th behind all the big guns minus Tengay who paid pretty dearly for his aggressive all-or-nothing attitude.

The race result brought me back from Cloud 9 (where does that saying come from!? I hear it everywhere), but all in all, it was a successful and confidence-building weekend of racing. I'm proud to say I was the best doubler and therefore in some ways the most fit (recovery wise) of the competition (though carson might have been able to pull off a double victory but I completely understand his choice to focus on winning the 1500m). From here on out it's all about falling back into 3 weeks of base-like building full of calf exercises, plyos, and strengthening drills. When I next emerge onto the track for some workouts, the big thing I want changed is I want to be able to crack 25 in a 200m (I happen to have tried a few all out 200s recently and I failed to even break 26). But huge room for improvement in my stride and my power, something that I've never been super impressive at. Get excited!