I Said It And I Still Mean It

Things have been going really well up north since school resumed almost a month ago.  Firstly, I couldn't be more satisfied with the way I've been running lately.   As I was talking a lot about in my last blog, I got to put in some solid work back home over the holidays to get ready for this season and it's starting to pay off.  Since Christmas, it seems like every workout has been better than the last.  I've just been in a really nice groove where it seems like everything is falling right into place.  Cross country and track seem like night and day already, and the outdoor season hasn't even begun.  The Kevin from cross country season seems like a distant memory that I would really like to forget about.  But the truth is that I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't run so poorly in cross country.  As time goes on, I'm beginning to understand that the cross country season wasn't a failure at all.  Just like Good ol' Thomas Edison said, "I haven't failed, I've just found 10 000 ways that don't work."  Let's be honest here, I found a whole load of ways that didn't work in cross country.  But those mistakes I made were the ones that needed to be fixed for this season, and I think that because I'm taking care of what I need to I've been able to get back on track and I couldn't be more psyched for the season to begin.  We're about a month out from our first race, so now it's all about consistency in workouts and stringing together good, hard weeks of running.  As soon as I get racing, I'll try to throw up some more blog posts and update the Schedule/Results page.  Until then, you can be sure that the Seawolves are working hard for a big season and that we'll be ready to rock and roll in California 27 days from now.

Back to School

I just landed in Anchorage yesterday, and I've got to say that I'm pretty disappointed with this weather.  For a month, I've been spoiled with no snow and daily temperatures above freezing making it perfect for some solid running in Toronto.  But sadly, my good luck didn't follow me up north.  I arrived in the Airport to hear the pilot say "Welcome to Anchorage, where we have clear skies and a temperature of -6 Fahrenheit".  It's almost a 40 degree drop in the temperature I had when I left Toronto, and understandably I wasn't really excited at all when I walked out of the airport.  The only other time I've spent outside so far has been to go to and from the treadmill in a building across the street, and honestly I really didn't even want to walk that far.  Hopefully things warm up in the next few days for school on Tuesday.  I have to say that I'm pumped for this semester.  Maybe it was the long break or the idea of getting back to training with the team, but either way I'm ready for school to begin.

This time around, I'll be coming into track season with a good idea of where I'm at in terms of fitness, and what I need to do to translate my fitness into fast times on the track.  Over the break I had a chance to run some of the major workouts I did in high school, as well as running some longer tempos faster than I ever have before.  The good news is that I've never been this fit in January.  One of the ways I've always been able to track progress is by looking back at myself one year ago at the same time in my season and comparing my fitness to this year.  In cross country season, I was definitely behind on my grade 12 fitness albeit due to an injury, but things have really gone well this past month and now I can certainly say that I'm ahead of January 2011. Also, apart from a little turnover, I feel that I'm just as aerobically fit as I was in the beginning of April last year.  It's obviously a good sign that I've been able to develop a significant base, but now I've got about six weeks where I'll need to focus on gearing up and getting into racing shape.  I'm still not sure what I'll be running as my main event, but I don't think there is any question it will be either the 1500 or 5000.  I guess time will tell.  Apart from training, there really isn't too much going on in Anchorage to talk about.  I'll try to put up another blog as soon as track (and hopefully the weather) starts to heat up.

It's Been a While

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!