A couple weekends ago I made my Oiselle debut at the McQuaid Invitational all-comers race in my hometown Rochester, NY. The last time I ran this race was in the midst of my very first season of XC as a high school Senior. Needless to say, I was excited to be back.
It had been a almost a full year since I last raced, and over 2.5 years since I raced cross country. I was NERVOUS at the start, seeing as it had been so long… what if I forgot how to do it?
I found an old friend from the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) and we agreed to go out conservatively around 6 minute pace together. Plans never seem to work the way we want them to, and for the first time in my life I went out REALLY REALLY conservatively way over 6 flat pace. There was a bizarre feeling of being above my body at the race start, where the rush of the bodies around me made me sit back and observe the race going on. I was tentative and unsure, and really thought that I just forgot how to do this racing thing altogether.
There’s nothing like getting passed by a bunch of middle aged dudes to give you a kick in the ass. My eyes scanned the crowd ahead of me for any woman in sight, and once I found one- the chase was on. During the second part of the race I drew upon all of the tips I usually give my men and women that I coach.
”Work the crest of the hill” “Set physical ‘go-points’”
"Stay positive" "Commit to your moves" "Be aggressive"
I had probably the strongest finish I’ve ever had in a race, period. I also beat my old high school time on the course by FOUR MINUTES! All in all, it was a great day and a great way to enter back into competition.
The past few weeks I’ve been focusing on some speed endurance, something that I haven’t done much on since college. I’ve been enjoying some mixed pace work, and seeing some really great improvement. I ran my first sets of 400’s well under 80 seconds since my time at NAU and that was pretty dang cool!
I’m searching to hop into something next weekend on the roads and see where the past few weeks have brought me. Our racing schedule for the college team has ramped up so it’s been difficult to plan races of my own too far in advance. Overall, I’m just really excited to be feeling so good again. High iron, a little bit less mileage, and sometimes working out without a watch have all been very good to me.
Fly on!
It had been a almost a full year since I last raced, and over 2.5 years since I raced cross country. I was NERVOUS at the start, seeing as it had been so long… what if I forgot how to do it?
I found an old friend from the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) and we agreed to go out conservatively around 6 minute pace together. Plans never seem to work the way we want them to, and for the first time in my life I went out REALLY REALLY conservatively way over 6 flat pace. There was a bizarre feeling of being above my body at the race start, where the rush of the bodies around me made me sit back and observe the race going on. I was tentative and unsure, and really thought that I just forgot how to do this racing thing altogether.
There’s nothing like getting passed by a bunch of middle aged dudes to give you a kick in the ass. My eyes scanned the crowd ahead of me for any woman in sight, and once I found one- the chase was on. During the second part of the race I drew upon all of the tips I usually give my men and women that I coach.
”Work the crest of the hill” “Set physical ‘go-points’”
"Stay positive" "Commit to your moves" "Be aggressive"
I had probably the strongest finish I’ve ever had in a race, period. I also beat my old high school time on the course by FOUR MINUTES! All in all, it was a great day and a great way to enter back into competition.
The past few weeks I’ve been focusing on some speed endurance, something that I haven’t done much on since college. I’ve been enjoying some mixed pace work, and seeing some really great improvement. I ran my first sets of 400’s well under 80 seconds since my time at NAU and that was pretty dang cool!
I’m searching to hop into something next weekend on the roads and see where the past few weeks have brought me. Our racing schedule for the college team has ramped up so it’s been difficult to plan races of my own too far in advance. Overall, I’m just really excited to be feeling so good again. High iron, a little bit less mileage, and sometimes working out without a watch have all been very good to me.
Fly on!