News – the USATF is ****ed. It is messed up with its race dq’s, its elections of officers, its shady dealings with corporate sponsors, and its inequity in dealing with funding of female versus male athletes in the MUT space. And that is just naming a few of the latest issues. It leaves me wondering if I should even engage in anything the USATF touches, including XC next year. I feel compelled to because there are a lot of good people trying to change it, and because that event is well – frankly fun. But I also feel that by showing up, I am supporting an idiot organization.
Then there is the IAAF.
-John Treacy says screw it just train harder Ireland.
-More Friel on periodization.
- I think the stat on what % of boys champs versus girls champs at the HS XC Footlocker championships is interesting – as it tells a story of the arc of girls athletic development versus boys. It will be interesting to see how NXN champs play out. I’d think that Efraimson is a pretty good shot at making the Olympics in 2020.
- Not running related but a fascinating article on Yahoo’s ride as of late.
- Solid read from the comments yesterday.
Been getting feedback on my thoughts on Leadville. Good feedback where folks are telling me what to focus on, what not to worry about. My largest concern going in is the potential meltdown I’d have after the sunsets. This is based on a case study of one but I got to a point with that case where I was taking close to two and a half hours to cover seven miles. That melt down was probably a combination of being woefully underprepared (very few runs over 15 miles that year), going out a bit fast (although never faster than 8 minute pace on a flat and fast course), but mostly just mailing it in and not digging in when it got dark. I came buzzing into 50 miles at 8:22, but the smoke showing I was flaming out had started back at 20 miles. I could smell it. 13 and half hours to cover the next 50. Ouch. Bob has been happy to remind me that this 50 mile split is slower than his 100 PR. In any case, I actually held “okay” for the next two laps (or through 64ish miles). That put me around 8PM, or shortly after the sun set. From there, things went really south and miles started going to 20 minutes a mile. It was obviously some fatigue and not just the dark, but I think I checked out at that point. Bob was able to get me a little straight in the last lap as the sun was coming back up. By the way, if you look at that graph, you can calculate how I was actually AHEAD of Bob for the first 50 miles (and he’d catch me some where on lap 8). Yup.
I expect to listen to this tomorrow.
Afternoon – Bob came out to my area, and given it was cool, he schooled the daylights out of me – even though he is less two weeks out of a marathon. Did six of the kilo repeats … I really had no fight for 8 today and sadly I knew that going in. Same gig as a couple of weeks ago … odds are down, evens are up, done on a six minute round. 3:31, 3:48, 3:27, 3:51; 3:29 and 3:54. That put me at 3:39 across the six (or supposedly an average of 29:12 pace for 8k even though it was only six). An improvement in some regards over a couple of weeks ago, but a step back in others given the lesser reps. I ran faster but I ran less reps … could be that I ran faster cuz I was with Bob. I was put a fork in me done on the last climb on the last one. But even that one was only as slow as my first return trip a couple of weeks ago. I will take it as progress. I want to get to a point where I can average sub six on the climbs and the average at 3:35 (over 8). I think once I am there my confidence to hold that pace on the flats in the XC race will line up. I will be back to this one. 11 miles.
Given I saw that nearly every FKT in Valley Forge Park was held by David R, I was surprised when caught one by accident last week. Of course, I was not surprised when I saw this today:
David – go get this one.
