Tomorrow is the big one...

Well, it is finally here. Since last November we have had this weekend in mind - the GSC championships at Veterans' Park in Hoover, AL. We had a terrible race last year, finishing 7th in the men's race after a school record 5th place finish the year before. It ended a 3 year run of ever higher finishes and it left a bad taste in our mouths. We have trained better this year than ever before. We are runnig better this year than ever before. All that remains is to put it all together in tomorrow's race.

These things are always, at least for me, difficult to predict. Depending on how other teams perform, we could finish anywhere from 2nd to 5th. We have 2 freshmen in our top 5 and that is a little scary, as they are relatively inexperienced in this type of race at the collegiate level. However, they are both talented kids and if they let their talent work for them, they could come up big for us.

We did a small taper this week, but not a whole lot. We did 4x1 mile on Monday instead of our usual 5 and did them with three minutes rest instead of our usual two minutes. The workout went well and it was over a relatively challenging loop. On Wednesday we did 3 x 800m-600m-400m and it went extremely well. Thursday and Friday were just easy mileage days with strides at the end of the run. As the saying goes, "The hay is in the barn" so we'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out. If our guys run smart, I like our chances. The worst case scenario is that the younger kids let their emotions get the best of them and they go out too hard and fade at the end of the race. We've done all we can to make sure this doesn't happen, but, once again, one never knows what will transpire.

Regardless of how the race turns out, I am very pleased with how our freshmen performed this year. They have been a very dedicated, hard working group and we'll have a strong core back for next year's team - losing only our 3 seniors - Austin Enriquez, Jonathan Sellers and Craig Warlick.

The women's team is whole different kettle of fish. We have been plagued by injuries all year long - Jessica Gonzalez had a calf/shin problem that kept her from regular training for 6 months in the middle of the season, after she got off to a great start. Kelli Hartley tried to run through a case of plantar fascitis and developed a stress fracture and missed 8 weeks of regular training. Both girls have been back with us for one week and now, Kelli, who did the best job of cross training I have ever seen, is getting sick. We can't expect a lot out of these girls with just one week of running under their belts. They were going to be our #3 and #4 runners this year so it really hurts our chances of moving up in the conference standings. Our top 2 girls, Polina Babkina and Carolyn Mancuso are running well and should perform up to par in the race. The key for us will be how well our pack performs. How much improvement can Amy Benoit and Kirstie Lusignan and Anne Enoch show in this race. They have been running well in training and have all run PR's or near PR's at one time or another this year, but the questions remains: Can they continue this rate of improvement in tomorrow's race and the NCAA regional in 2 weeks. Impossible to tell. We'll know in about 23 hours.

That's about it for now. Got to go get the vans gassed up and loaded up and get all our extra spikes, tape, etc all on board. I'll post results tomorrow.

Monday of GSC week

Well, GSC week has officially begun. Our conference championship race is Saturday, Nov 6th. Today, Monday Nov 1, we started our mini-taper for conference. (We won't do a full-blown taper until the week before the NCAA South Regional on Nov 20th.

Today the men ran 4 x 1 mile at goal pace for Saturday's race with 3' rest. We usually have less rest - 90"-2:00 - but this is part of our mini-taper. We also usually do 5 repeats but reduced it by one to give the guys a bit more rest. The women ran a tempo run today - 3.6 miles on one of our on-campus loops. They usually do 5 miles but we reduced that workout as well.

The workouts went along smoothly. Everyone managed to stay relaxed and run within themselves. Our only concern is Peter who still seems to have zero energy. He went to see the doctor this morning and we are waiting to hear what might be ailing him. He hasn't run well in over 2 weeks now. We may have to switch his place on the GSC roster with one of our alternates - Evan Lemons. If Pete can't run, that would be a blow to our chances. When right, he is right in the mix for our top 4-5 spots.

We have an easy day tomorrow morning and then, on Wednesday, our last quality session of the week - 3 x 800-600-400 on our new grass track with 90" rest after each interval. Again, not much volume - only 5400m - with longer than usual rest periods. Hopefully, enough to keep us sharp and still let us rest enough to get the supercompensation rebound effect we are looking for.

Thursday and Friday will both be easy days without much volume. Just some strides after the runs and, hopefully, we'll be ready to run fast on Saturday.

Long range weather forecast is for a totally sunny day with a high of 60F and a low of 32F that morning. Should be perfect for our 9 AM (women) and 10 AM (men) races.

We are already starting to feel that excitement that comes from an important race in which you know you have a good chance of doing well.