First race of the season...

Thursday, April 14, 2011

I attended Jack’s first track meet of the season. He was running the 800…a race that requires both endurance and speed. He’d been sick the entire previous week, missing the team’s first meet and losing some valuable conditioning. I didn’t have high expectations for him to be ready. He’d told me his race plan was to go out hard and see what happens.

The gun fired and 16 runners came charging around the first turn and into the backstretch. Jack is very fast and was leading from the start. He held this lead through 400 meters, running a very quick 58 seconds…too quick. By the 500 meter mark, his weakness from the illness and lack of conditioning began to tell and he fell back. He managed to come home in 5th place, struggling mightily over the final 100 meters.

As a coach, I like to see aggressive runners. They let it all hang out…unafraid to suffer the consequences. There is seldom anything left in the tank when they cross the finish line. Jack is new to racing and has tremendous God-given talent, but will have to learn that a lot of hard work and smart racing goes into getting the most from that talent. He will…in fact he wants me to take him through a special workout this weekend so he can learn more about pacing and to develop the strength he needs to finish the race strongly. Later, he ran a leg of the 4x400 in a very respectable 55 seconds. I’ll try not to over over-coach…in fact I’ll probably under coach just to be cautious.

I went out on the bike for a longer ride. I headed for Willoughby…riding to the house of my childhood…just to break the monotony of doing the same old courses. I like riding past old haunts, friend’s homes, and the home of so many fond memories. My hamstring began to bother me as I pushed through Willoughby and I started cursing out loud wondering what I would be able to do if I couldn’t at least ride. The cursing had the desired affect…or maybe it was the reduction in gearing and speed I was riding…and I continued home with no further issues. I packed my knee in ice upon my return and lounged around feeling the soreness of the underutilized muscles I’d stressed the previous day with my survival workout. It’s a good soreness…unlike the knee. John phoned to suggest a change of day for the triathlon since the forecast for Saturday was cold and wet…and I’d have a little more time to recuperate. “Any time I have to recuperate, I’ll probably use to hurt myself more. If the weather’s close to okay…I’m going,” I said. Well…we’ll see.

Bike duration: 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 1575.