Tuesday 112409

As I suspected, I felt great this AM.  Rather than do a full fledged workout – given the strong possibility that I will race on Thursday, I elected to do “straights and curves.”  We were back in town for a short period of time, so I jogged 2 miles over to BHS track, and then jogged a mile there.  I then would accelerate the straights and float the curves.  Did a mile of this, then an easy mile and then another mile of it.  The straights and curves miles were in 6:18 and 6:11 respectively. Jogged home.  10 miles 75 minutes.

Fitzgerald, author of Brain Training for Runners, contemplates Jenny B’s very tough day at Nationals.  I am not sure how / if the brain subconsciously calculates the remaining effort-time-distance in a race and then hence determines the amount of muscle activation – but I certainly have not studied this the way Ross-Tucker-Noakes-Fitzgerald have.  I guess I am thinking about those events that run long:  we have all heard of guys starting their kick a lap too early and holding on anyway.  

In any case, very good read … and it sort of reinforces some thoughts I have had regarding expectations of races as of late … generally I have found that I perform much better when my expectations are low – and I far exceed what I expect.  The inverse often (painfully) holds true:  when I have high expectations, I often don’t meet them.  But I don’t meet them by just a little.  I implode.  But I think my explanation for this is a little different:  when my expectations are low, I start more conservatively.  When expectations are high, I start way too fast.  And then I fall apart.

Justin has a great wrap up of all the Thanksgiving day action in the area coming down.