July 19, 2005
What's up! Sunday was a very exciting day. The Gouchers and I all ran in a meeting in Lignano and it went real well. Kara started things off with a great race in the 1500. She ran 4:12, which is only a few tenths off of her pr.
That is a great result for her considering that she missed some time early this year due to injury. Then Adam and I ran in the 3000. The weather last night was supposed to be fairly cool and dry, but it turned out to be hot and humid. It was about 81degrees when we ran and it was by far the most humid night since we arrived here. Warming up I felt real good and it was the first time all year that I felt that my legs had lots of pop in them. For the 10ks that I ran earlier in the season I didn't need to be very fast or fresh because it is more like a long tempo run where sprint speed isn't essential. You don't need to do a lot of super fast speed sessions to make 67 pace feel easy.
Anyways, coming in to this race I wanted to run around 7:50 but in any case I just wanted to make sure that I got the junior record. I had just missed by .04 in an indoor race I ran earlier this year so I did not want to go out real hard and die at the end and just miss the record again. I got out real well at the start of the race and came through the quarter in 61 feeling real relaxed. I pretty much just got behind Adam and followed him in the lead pack. I was confident that I couldstay with Adam for most of the race because of all the training we did together in the winter.
Sure, he would start to pull away from me sometimes towards the end of the workout but for the most part I was able to hang with him. I figured that the same thing would happen in the race. I was sure that Adam would close hard and pull away from me, but I could stay with him until a lap or two to go. We came through the mile in 4:09 and I still felt pretty relaxed and at that point I knew that I would run fast. Adam took off with about 800 to go and probably ran his last lap in 55 or so. He is very fit right now and will continue to run better as the summer progresses. I stayed with Dan Lincoln until 1 lap to go when I passed him. He passed me back with 200 to go but I closed on him in the last 100.
I was happy to keep my form at the end of the race and finish well. I was also real happy about my time of 7:49. I was disappointed after my races in Cuxhaven and was glad that the rest I have been taking is finally kicking in and I am running well. After the race Adam and I jogged one lap and then did a very short workout. We ran 2x800, 300 in 2:09, 47. We took a 400m jog after the 800 and a 300m jog after the 300. I really didn't want to do a workout after this race but once we started I felt like we were jogging. After that we cooled down and then went out and got some pizza. The last two days have been pretty low key. Yesterday we got up and ran 7 miles. We were suppossed to run easy and ave a recovery day but we ended up running a little under 6 minute pace. Adam thought we were running about 5:45 pace for the last mile or two.
We both felt pretty good though and were not straining at all. After that we kicked it on the beach, which is only about a 1/4 mile from our hotel. The water was warm and it felt good to be outside.
I didn't really like the beaches though because they are covered in lawn chairs that people rent for the day and there is not a lot of room to do anything. Once the endless lines of lawn chairs ends there is only about 10 feet to the water. Today we were planning on going to Venice for the day to walk around after we ran in the morning. We did a real short "long run" of 10 miles at a pretty good pace in the morning but when we got back to the hotel we all were real tired and the fatigue from the race was starting to kick in. I just wanted to go to sleep, and the Gouchers agreed, so it turned out to be a pretty uneventful day.
I took a 3 hour nap and then walked around town for a little bit. It would have been fun to see Venice but the trip would have been 2 hours each way.I came here to run and that is my main priority while I am over here. We will travel tomorrow to Belgium (and yeah, they're waffles are bomb), so I didn't want to have two long days in a row which could tire me out for the race on Saturday. Well, that's all that is new from over here. See you later, Galen
3 Comments:
GAlen, just wanna congratulate you on all your running accomplishments thus far in your career! Keep it up! I read the article in RW about u and alberto...I found it interesting, but I did not agree with everything that was written in it, like the stuff that alberto is pushing you to hard. I think most runners here in the US dont understand they amount of work and sacrifices that is needed to be a world class runner. I cant wait till the day when more american such as your self catch up to the rest of the world! By the looks of it, it seems like were are getting mighty close. , Great job again!
Galen...
you are amazing! I love you! :)
keep up the posting, it's really interesting, and you are a great runner.
Can I have your autograph?
Congrats on the new record. Keep up the hard work and ignore the message boards.
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