View Workout (Brandon Carreno)
After the Gunshot Echo Fades
October 19, 2014 (Night)
Exercise Type: Other
Weather: Probably Chilly
Comments:
Another long log incoming.
So that was my Junior Cross-Country Season. Even though Coach hasn't sent it out yet, I'm reasonably certain I'm not on the Conference roster this year. I can't say I'm really surprised. I've never been one of the lead runners on the team, but I was hoping to maybe hit some solid middle of the pack times. As far as my preparation went, I think I'm ok with it. I ran every day that I was scheduled to this summer, even starting a hair earlier than I was "supposed" to. But I could have so much more and better. I started my hills a bit too late, and my steady states way too late. I didn't do any dedicated workouts the previous summer, so I did have a bit of a jump on that, but I should have done what coach had on the summer documents. Other than that, I was more consistent with abs, but didn't really do much for strength/lifting.
Despite any minor discrepancies in training, I felt comfortable with what I had once I got on the vans to camp. But I was not prepared for those runs. I'm not sure if it was only the hilliness of the terrain, but the paces we did them at just felt ridiculous. That put me in some serious self-doubt. I had thought my training runs were all at a reasonable clip, but compared to what we were doing as a team, it seemed as if I had walked all my runs. Did I just not remember how camp runs felt? Had I actually been way too slow for my entire summer? Am I in terrible shape right now? All of this was going through my head up to, and including the time trial. Where I ran slower than I did last year. It wasn't until our first tempo on MLK that I realized what I could actually do. That my work actually did pay off. From that point on it was just getting to practice every day and doing what I had to do.
It's at this point I have to acknowledge a few things. I did have to do my Wednesday workouts early, and since I had a limited amount of time to do everything, I often had to cut short, or cut out entirely, the lift on those days. That can't possibly have helped my season. Maybe if I'd been better about my lifting I could have seen some better results. Stronger legs for hills, or greater power for the kick. This kind of transitions into my races. Which other than the disasters at the farm (the farm doesn't count), actually went ok. I ran all of my 8ks strong, tough, and smart. Only two were PRs, but Oberlin should have been by all rights. I'm always hungry for faster times, but given everything, I'm satisfied that the season was better than I expected it to be during camp.
Right here, I was thinking about writing something really sappy about the team, but I think I'll save that for the banquet next year. For now though, it's been an absolute blast, and I'll be cheering like a maniac from the sidelines of the big races. I'll see you all in track!