Race-time!

In the Netherlands I was never a great fan of the indoor-season. With the cross country-season and the indoor-season coinciding, I usually chose for cross country. Also, with my long legs, the tiny 200m banked track in Apeldoorn was not ideal. But in the United States the indoor-season happens after the cross country-season, and we have some amazing meets with crazy good competition at the University of Washington in Seattle, a 3-hr drive from Portland, on a flat 307 meter track. I missed the first two meets, but yesterday I got to race the 3rd one!

I ran a mile, and it wasn’t anything impressive at all (4:53), but it was good to see where I stand and to get out there again! I am still not close to being in shape, but in two weeks from now, with four more workouts in my legs, a fresh body (I trained through this meet, and was quite sore and tight), and a race under my belt, I think I can do much better. Although my teammates are killing it, running PR’s and even school-records left and right, I know my own indoor-season won’t be anything special; it is all about preparing for Outdoors. But that’s okay! It means that I can have a lot of fun and just enjoy racing, without any pressure or expectations. Over the break I was afraid I would have to miss the entire indoor-season, so now that I get to race after all, I am just trying to enjoy it to the fullest!

I am slowly but surely getting back in shape, and it is really cool to see the progression over the past three weeks. My first workout was 5x800m from 2:46 to 2:40 with 3 minutes rest, joining the freshmen-group (one of the few moments so far I have felt ‘old’!). The next workout was 16x200m in’s & out’s (meaning we ran 16 faster 200s in 39 seconds, followed by a 200m ‘rest’ (decent jog-pace) under a minute); since this went well and my hip was completely fine, I got to do a 5km-tempo + 6x200m in 1500m-pace in the second week; 12x400 from 78sec down to 72sec; and a hard 15 miler. Last Tuesday it was really great to see the improvement compared to 2 weeks earlier, as I did 6x1000m in 3:20 – both more volume and at a faster pace than the 800s. Hopefully the progress continues, and I am back at my old level in no time.

As of now, I am not sure yet if I will run the mile or the 3000m in two weeks. Although I really love the 3km, I know I am not in shape to attack my personal best, and since I haven’t ran anything this indoor-season I will be in slow heats in both events, so as of now I am leaning towards the mile. I may also run a 1200m in the Distance Medley Relay the day before, an event only popular in the US. It consists of a team of 4 girls running a relay consisting of 1200m, 400m, 800m, and 1600m. If this is actually happening, we are trying to break the school-record. All the more reason to stay healthy & get in better shape (in that order) !!