Stanford Invitational 1500m - first outdoormeet

''Control what you can control'' & ''focus on the process''. Those are two things I have had to repeat to myself over and over in the past months. I cannot control how fast (or slow...) my body is getting back in shape after my hip-injury during the winter. I cannot control when and how much my hip is bothering me (or which side decides to start hurting this time!). I cannot control what times I run in races, or by how much I get dropped by my teammates in workouts. But I can control other things, like how much I sleep, how often I do my hip-exercises and replacing my second runs by cross-training to give my hip a break. And I can control my attitude!

So therefore, I could either be really upset about today's race, or I can see it as a good learning-opportunity and as just a start of what is to come in the rest of this season. I'm currently sitting in my hotel-room in beautiful California, after I just ran a 4:29 in the 1500m. That is slow, and not what I came for. I didn't feel like I was in PR-shape yet but I had hoped to run at least under 4:25. My workouts have been promising, I just need to get more training in before I will really get in shape. I'm still confident I can run under 4:20 this season, I just need a little more time!

The race was interesting: I was right with the group until the girl in front of me slowed down a lot, just on the end of the curve, 600m in. I was on the rail in lane 1 and she was on the outside of lane 1, so for a second I thought I should just give her a little elbow and pass her in lane 1, but it just didn't look like there was quite enough room. I decided instead to slow down, pass her on the outside, speed up again... By that time, the group had a small gap on me. Of course I knew I had to close the gap immediately, but I just couldn't quite do it. The men's coach said that the group ran a 69 for that lap, and considering that at practice I haven't been able to run much faster than a 68 for a single 400, it is not too strange I couldn't keep up. Nevertheless, I am happy I kept fighting, and with a strong kick I was able to get a couple girls back in the last 100m (maybe starting that kick earlier next time would not be a bad idea... ;) ).

My coach and I are still confident I can have a very good season, and I am hoping we are setting the season up perfectly, so that I can peak at Regionals in May. Tonight, I'm going to scream my teammates to PR's in the 5 & 10k, and in 2 weeks we will all be back in California for races at Mt Sac / Azusa. Ian and I are still deciding whether I'll do a 5km or a 1500m - I only want to do the 5000m if I have the confidence that I can attack my PB of 16:06, and there is another good 5k-opportunity 4 weeks from now, which gives me more time to train. On the other hand, I still miss some of that speed for a really fast 1500m - if you want 69s to feel comfortable, you need to run much faster in a single 400 or 600, and I'm not quite at the point were 68/69s feel comfortable. So there is work to do! To be continued...