MileSplit XC Journals 2011
Meet Grace Tinkey, Foot Locker finalist from First Presbyterian GA. Grace will be sending in a journal several times over the course of the 2011 season to update you on her running and the life of an elite HS runner. Enjoy!
Hey Everyone!! Sorry this blog has taken so long to be completed. I hope everyone’s Region meets have gone well, and that State goes well also. It’s hard to believe that this XC High school season is almost over.
Starting off from where we left off on the last blog, I ended up not running the Last Chance meet because we had Region the following week and I needed to focus on getting back into “Race Mode”. If any of you have experienced injuries before, you know what I mean by that. There’s a totally different mindset that you have when you are race ready. It takes 1-2 meets just to get that back after some time off. My workouts confirm the fitness level is still there which is encouraging. It just takes a little time to bring it all to the table.
Getting back from taking time off from injury is awesome. I love having my running routine but mainly running in general We have been careful not to jump back right in where we left off to make sure the injury does not reoccur and thankfully I continue to run pain-free. Our 1st “quality” workout back was at the track doing sets of 1000s to see where my fitness was. Many people really enjoy track workouts, and that’s awesome! But Track Interval Workouts aren’t what I would necessarily define as fun because for me I’d rather go out and do longer runs where I can see changes in scenery as opposed to running around in a circle. But hey everyone has their own preferences.
This year we haven’t done much Interval work at all, because we have found through trial and error what works and what doesn’t work for us. Some runners get faster by doing a lot of anaerobic interval workouts but I respond just as well with heavy focus on aerobic up to 85% (tempo/threshold) workouts.
Crucial Interval Workout
But even though I don’t do a lot of interval workouts, this one was very important in deciding what was next in my workout progression. The 1st interval went pretty well. It was tough getting back into that type of fast leg turnover. From experience I know the 1st one is always the worst. Splits were right on target. On the 2nd one I got a little too excited and went out too fast on the first lap by a couple of seconds. I got completely anaerobic and went over the “cliff” while still having 600 meters to go. It was not a good experience.
Coach Sam, our TEAM POD coach, knew that I went out too hard and we talked about how on intervals we should be toeing the line of “redline” running but not going over the cliff. It should be a hard pace, but I shouldn’t be completely 100% anaerobic midway through the interval and dying at the end. But it’s also not supposed to be easy.
After the 3rd one it was getting tough and I knew we were only half way done. With several intervals left to go and being close to worn out the thought of repeatedly getting so close to anaerobic with 300-500 meters left to go kept going through my mind. It’s at this point when it’s SOOOO easy to bag-it and make myself think I can’t do it, or simply give up. I don’t want to give up but once it starts hurting it’s really easy to give into that urge to slow down. But this is when I really test out just how strong I am. I know that during a race there is definitely going to be a point where the pace starts getting tough and I want to KNOW I have the capability to hold it. I need something to remind me how bad I want it and how much I believe in myself and my training! I know that sounds cheesy but it’s true.
So after coach and I quickly broke down the first 3 intervals we modified our approach. We held back an extra 2 seconds on the 1st 400 meters and maintained that pace instead of starting off harder and fighting to hold on. Just like that the intervals started getting better. There are a few workouts where starting out faster is good to practice, but for most intervals it’s better to maintain a constant hard effort and hurt, than blow up and steadily get slower on each one. I finished that set with my final 1000 meter interval being my fastest of the set. It was the strongest interval workout I have ever done. It was a much needed confidence boost.
Junior Class Fall Festival
After the workout, which we did around 10ish, it was time to get ready for Fall Festival . The junior class was in charge of the middle/elementary school Fall Festival, and my friend Caty and I were in charge of getting over 600 cupcakes for the Cupcake Walk booth. So we spent pretty much the whole afternoon making them, and trying to keep our siblings from eating them. We definitely wouldn’t rate them as the best, but they turned out pretty good anyway.
This week on Tuesday and Wednesday we had half days at school which was awesome because the teachers didn’t give us quite as much homework as normal.
Track Workout before Region
Tuesday night at our Team POD track workout we had a lot of fun because Region was on Thursday so we did an extremely “light” quality which was really nice for a change. After our warm up and some strides we only did 4 x 400’s at around 5k race pace. It was nice, kind of like a long stride. Coach Sam brought a sound system to play music while we were running. We ended the workout with a “mini” dance party ha-ha. It was really funny because we were all just having fun and acting crazy which definitely helped to lighten up the mood with the big races we all had coming up.
That night was really exciting because our teammate Jimmy Mehserle ran an awesome 1st workout back from IT band injury. That was really encouraging for everyone. We all like taking pictures to “capture” the moment and try not to laugh every time we do. It’s so awesome having some of your best friends as training partners because they completely understand everything you are going through. You get to experience all your disappointments and joys together while running and training with them.
On Wednesday at team practice, we had our typical easy day before region on Thursday. It was a sad day for some of our seniors at Team practice because it was our last “big group” practice. Because after Region only top 7 continue practicing for State.
Region Meet
On Thursday we only had to go to school till 3rd period because of the Region meet which we have in Fayetteville at Our Lady of Mercy. We had lunch at one of the senior XC girl’s house. It was really nice. Her mom had a lot of food for both the guys and girls teams. It was really funny because on the table after we all ate there was a gigantic bowl of grapes. After all the girls went into a different room for a “pre-race” talk when we got back, literally 6 minutes later, the guys had devoured the entire bowl along with the chips and humus. This didn’t affect them too bad because they all ran pretty well at the meet.
When we got to the meet it had gotten pretty hot compared to the other days last week which were relatively nice. After doing our normal pre-race warm-up, we lined up and started the race. The race didn’t go as well as I’d hope for time-wise, but I was thankful to be racing again. To be honest it really didn’t feel like a race just because it had been a while since my last meet. But for the 1st meet back, I just needed to shake off some of the “rust” from not racing. Sometimes I just have one of those days where I’m not really in “race mode” and my Region meet was one of those days.
Thankfully most of my teammates did well and the 5-6-7 place runners on our team did really well helping our team win Region. The guys also ran well and won their Region meet.
FPD Girls and Boys Teams
Landmark Christian School XC Team
We have some good teams in our Region especially Landmark Christian. Their team had probably the nicest girls in the world on it, and they are all really good too. They have a younger team but they are going to be an up and coming Power House for the next couple years. Along with a great Varsity team they also have really fast Middle School runners as well. One of which is Kathryn Foreman, an 8th grader, who definitely has the potential to be a future footlocker finalist because she recently ran low 18’s!
Landmark top 7
It’s awesome having Landmark along with other teams in our division, cause it helps everyone on our team and probably theirs too, to have competition to help everyone PR.
State
State is next Saturday in Carrollton, GA so this week the training will be a little bit lighter so our legs will be ready to race on Saturday and be in “race mode”.
On Saturday (yesterday) the weather was awesome! It was probably 50ish, and the sun was out so it was perfect for running!! Did a semi-long run in the morning, and got to see the GISA state meet which was going on at Wesleyan College. It was awesome seeing some runners that we used to race against until we moved to GHSA. Congrats to Ellen Powell and the other Division winners too!
College Visit
After watching the meet and running home to eat lunch and getting some homework done, Coach Sam, Jimmy, and I headed out to Georgia Tech for the Clemson/Georgia Tech game and to meet Coach Drosky who is the head coach of the cross country program. It was a lot of fun and it was really cool seeing the campus and hearing about their “training” philosophies. It was my 1st college football game, and it was Huge! There were sooo many people and it was so much fun. Luckily it didn’t get too cold because we all brought a lot of jackets ha-ha. The excitement of all the fans was really awesome. I think if you went to a game for like 30mins and then ran a race, you’d run a lot faster, cause you would be super pumped up. There’s an overlook point where you can see the entire skyline which was very cool. We got home after the game around 1 in the morning, but it was so worth it.
Hope everyone has an Awesome State and has fun! All your hard work and determination has prepared you, like the quote says, “All the hay is in the barn!” For everyone that has been training to peak at state, this week is crucial because all your fitness level is there, and now there’s nothing else left to do, but you could mess it up if you try to do too much. It’s time for taper which a lot of people enjoy!
Hope to see all the Georgia runners at State!