Sorry for not updating this blog in a while, I lost internet access in my apartment for a few weeks right before nationals, and just recently got it back in time for finals week. Let's start things off with Nationals. The meet was a great experience. Both teams ran solid races in the snow, and finished the season off with a 6th place on the women's side, and 8th place for the men. I didn't get the opportunity to race, but I think the coaches made the right call as I wasn't close to the fitness I had before my Achilles trouble. However, I still got to go and get a feel for what it's like to be at a National Championship, and I know that will pay off over the next few years.
So that brings me to my season in review. Overall, I had pretty mixed feelings about how this season went. On paper, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that I didn't race well. In fact, I'd go as far to say that the Kevin from last year would have destroyed me in every one of my races. But there's a little more to it than that. One year ago I may have been running better times, but I was doing the same stuff I was used to for most of my high school years. This season I got to test out doing some higher mileage. It's something that didn't work out for me at first, but something that I knew I needed to continue to build on in order to keep improving. And in order to keep building volume, I knew I needed to start taking all the precautionary steps to staying healthy. I would have to say that the things like post-run naps, deep massages, stretching consistently, strengthening, and staying hydrated are some of the things that I think had the biggest impact on my running, and will continue to have an impact on my track season. In a sense, I think that getting injured so early on in the year really helped me understand some of the stuff I need to be doing to stay healthy, and I don't think I would have learned any of these lessons had I decided to run another year in high school. So I guess you could say that the season had it's ups and downs but I know that I've learned from all the mistakes I made earlier in the season, and I can't wait to get after some fast times on the track.
On another note, this is my last day in Anchorage before I head home for the holidays. Pretty unreal to think that 4 months ago tomorrow I settled down in Anchorage and now it really does feel like a second home. I have to say I really had no idea how I would like living in a totally new city initially, but I really enjoyed it. I gotta give a shout out to my roommates for putting up with the constant smell of burnt food in the apartment and to all the people on the track team who helped me get adjusted to the university life in Alaska this semester, you know who you are. Now it's time to head home to Toronto for some snow-less running and a pretty relaxing month hanging out with friends and family.
Time for me to get ready, I've got a flight at midnight and I haven't started packing yet. Oops!
Later ANC, see you in a month!
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