Sunday, April 3, 2016

Outdoor Track=Identity Crisis

The arrival of my first collegiate outdoor season has led to a very serious identity crisis.  Why?  Because I no longer have any idea what I am.  During the fall, I can obviously tell people I am a cross country runner.  I know during indoor season that I am a mile/3k runner.  But so far during outdoor, I have run the 10k and the 5k, and will be running the 1500 and 3k steeple at some point during the season.  That just leaves me with too many options open.  Do I say I'm 1500/steeple?  3k/5k?  What do I tell people?  I'm obviously still distance, but you can't just say, "Oh, I'm on the distance team."  That would be like a tiger saying, "I'm a large cat."  While it is true, there are many types of large cat.  Are you a tiger?  A lion?  An overweight housecat?  It just leaves too many options open.
To narrow it down slightly, I'm almost 150% positive that I am not a 10k runner.  I did race the 10k last week, but it was definitely not my favorite.  My coach tried to subtly sneak the idea past me by saying my options for the week were to do either a tempo on Thursday and speed work on Saturday instead of the meet or do the mile pace work on Thursday then a tempo on Saturday...on the track...in the distance of 10,000 meters.  For some reason, I decided I needed at least one 10k in my resume and that 25 laps weren't really that many.  Although it honestly wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, I also wouldn't say I want it to be my main event.  Around 19 laps, I hit a wall hard and honestly contemplated faking my own death and fleeing the country to avoid finishing, but alas, I had made it that far, and there were people everywhere so I was far too visible to make escape feasible.
The 5k definitely seemed like more of a possibility.  Although yesterday was the first time I've ever raced it on the track, it went fairly well.  I was about two seconds off of a personal best outright, and eleven seconds faster than my previous personal best after altitude conversion.  All in all, it was pretty good, and I think the fact that it was only 12.5 laps instead of the 25 I did the previous week definitely helped.
The 1500 and the 3k steeple have yet to be tested, as I've never raced either event.  I'm both excited and terrified to try the steeple, for reasons I think are obvious.  My greatest fear is that I will take myself out over a barrier and get concussed or something.  Hurdle drills have been going reasonably well in practice, though, so I'm at least 62% sure I won't totally wreck myself.  #prayforlys2k16

No comments:

Post a Comment