Race Yesturday

As it turns out I raced at 100% yesterday but was nowhere near what my full potential was. I took off at the sound of the gun in a reasonable 7th place, but had to fight to catch the lead group. It felt almost identical to what my counties race last year did. Last season I had a fever of 102.5 which started on Saturday. I spent most of my weekend on a couch or in bed attempting to sleep it off in time for counties. My fever broke on Monday two days before my race was to take place. Needless to say I stepped on the line at counties with a pre-meet jog constituting my training for that week. The race I experienced yesterday felt almost identical to that race; I had a constant burning in my legs and had no time to settle into a regular pace. My lungs were straining the entire 3.1 miles in an attempt to cool down my burning quads and calf muscles. It was simply a "balls-to-the-walls" race to hang on. The only thought that went through my head was if we lost by a point to one of the 3 teams we were competing against, I would feel responsible for that. I also was running in fear of our number three Alex Diltz. I knew that if I let up even slightly, by the time we hit the final 300m on the track Diltz would go into his "400 mode" and blow right by me with no effort. As it turns out I hung on for fourth place, but Diltz did have an amazing last kick, just barely edging Mifflins' 2,3 runners. Mifflins' top runner had an outsanding race going 15:51 for the 3.1 mile course. He was followed by Tulpehocken's Tyler Reigel in 16:08, and my teamate Nate Noll in 16:24, a time that was good for third place and was also his second best time for this season. I'm proud of my team, but frustrated I couldn't stay with the lead group for whatever reason. I have time before counties to work it out. I just want to make sure that when Districts comes along I dont ruin my team's chances of making States again.

First Day

I decided to start one of these after spending some time reading another cross country runners' blog. I thought it would be a good way to spend my time considering I like writing and running, this seems to be a constructive combination of the two. Today we have a meet against Tulpehocken and Governor Mifflin. I've had a weird case of dead legs this weekend. I had a workout Friday and decided to take Saturday off. I think the day off after a hard workout allowed lactic acid in my legs to stay around. I went on a run on Sunday and could barely move my legs without an extreme burning going through them. I cut my hour run back to forty five minutes. My pre-race yesturday was also somewhat tiring. Needless to say the race today could be an interesting one; I may end up only racing at about 75% speed in order to save my legs for the larger more important meets.