So if I wrote a note here about a week and a half ago, I would’ve probably titled it ‘Fight Frustration.’ I had placed another race under my belt since the last time I checked in. A race in the rain, where I ran 2:13 with second place at 2:17. And it was back to the drawing board to put in the biggest load I’ve put in to date. These workouts were challenging and the times weren’t as consistent or as on point as I would have hoped.
BUT
We unloaded……..and I feel good. My mood is right and my legs are moving. This week marks the National Senior Trials at home in Jamaica and I’m pumped. The nerves, the excitement, the anticipation, the anxiety are all rolling up into one big ball getting ready to detonate. Once again, at this high caliber level I’m going to the start line as underdog and I do not care J I am going to run my race and enjoy it.
**On a side note………..I felt the urge to come here today and change the background colour or my blog to a nice vibrant yellow and realized my actions were already ahead of my thoughts. And then I checked my chakra chart to see why I am being drawn to this awfully bright hue.
Yellow: Positive use of own self power, the manifestation of one’s goals**
Two weekends ago I packed my bags and headed to Clermont, Florida with a few of my teammates for a sun drenched track meet. We saw good line ups for many events, alot of elite athletes in many of the track events…….. except when it came to the few distance races.
I ended up heading to the start line with my teammate who took the lead early in the race. I stayed within striking distance as the pace that was set was manageable. I was happy to have found a kick that was visible to my coaches and clocked 2:09.41 and my teammate, 2:09.75.
I did not compete this last weekend and have had a rigorous training week thus far. Tomorrow I go in for another hard day at the track, and then look forward to some rehab and a massage in preparation for wherever competition will find me this weekend.
Patiently waiting,
Arusha
Within my training camp, I’m happy to share that it places emphasis on the mental fitness of the athletes. For about 3 months now we have been having weekly sessions where our coach focuses on finding ways to incorporate a strong mind to enhance performance. I have observed that it has been the elite athletes within the group that take these mental training sessions seriously, and I will not lag any further behind them or give them more of an edge over me.
Upon high recommendation, I have formulated my own daily mantra. If there is an extra boost to be gained from such a thing, I’m gaining it.
Today will be a success.
I am my own competition, I am my own champion.
I train hard, I run hard, I win hard.
This moment is only filled with stepping stones for me to rise.
My attitude is right, my body is prepared and my mind is focused.
I found the courage to begin the journey, I will find the strength to finish the race.
I know what maximum effort feels like, and I will dig deep and run home.
Today will be a success.
So I ran another 800m race yesterday at the Stadium East but clocked the same 2:12 as I did last week. I would have been happy with another sub 2-minute run, but it was a bit hard hitting the time on the same track (which is surely in need of some attention) I practice on everyday, running against a depleted field. Here’s the difference:
I ran yesterday at a meet so small the only other competitor in the race was my teammate who ran the 800m because her event was scratched. It was my routine warm up and focused smiling all the way to the start line. Positioning was never a hassle and I ran my first lap in 64………..last week was 60, which means I finished a whole lot better. And even though last week was faster, it was far from being being smooth (having started out fast and easing up way too much in the middle of the first lap, then having to try and build up from that) took too much out of me. This is telling me I can trust my race strategy. I am strong enough to execute the way I need to.
I have no video clip for my second 2:12 race, but here is the race I was a part off at the IAAF Jamaica International Invitational. Istart off in lane 8 with the pacemaker, Karen Shinkins.
The baptism had to come sooner or later.
It has been a moment since I have shared a post and a quite a few things have happened since then regarding my track and field activity.
I had my first track meet on a Saturday, the Milo Relays in Montego Bay, in mid February where I ran a leg of a 4×800. I went in hopeful but rather unaware of what the outcome would be. The last race I ran before this time was at the end of June 2010 that ended up being more like a training run. I found myself easily falling back into track meet mode, but after competition it was evident that getting into race mode was going to be a whole lot harder. I split 2:20 and even with being out of competition for so long, I wasn’t satisfied because I know I was at a point where my training was indicating I had more in me.
The day after, with about 4 hours of sleep, it was time to head out to Manchester to participate in a cross country race. I contemplated talking my way out of this on many occasions- I have always been told my racing pattern is based on speed not endurance, I had a track meet on the other side of the country the day before, I barely got any sleep, I have not participated in a cross country race since I was about 16. But I stopped thinking and decided to feel. I went up against two runners who did not take any years off of running, and who had a whole lot more cross country races under their belt. Nonetheless, I put out effort and placed second and started feeling so much stronger in my workouts after this. What a weekend that was to get things cracking.
Since then I ran two competitive 400m races. The first race was more to my liking- running out, floating and giving it all coming home. After receiving feedback, it was apparent that I was too easy running this race and the next race had me executing differently. Trying to be less conservative in the middle, I found myself tightening up at the end and at the end of the meet I had the urge to master consistency and strategy.
I was entered to run the mile relay at Gibson Relays. My mind played games with me all week approaching this race. I was hoping the cross country race earlier in the season was the only race that was going to require to me to go over 800m. I ran it, placed third in a meet record race, and now I have a mile time that I can use for future reference.
With some confidence emerging, I ran my first open 800m running quite relaxed, but still a bit too reserved. I ran the race as a build up, trusting my coach’s insight that there is no need to worry too much about the beginning but the end is where execution is to be concerned. I also placed 3rd here running 2:09 behind a winning time of 2:03 and second place of 2:07. I was okay but still not satisfied with my performance as I couldn’t find what I felt like I was digging so deep for when driving home.
I am around people who obviously see something in me that is lurking and I have to step up when I am called to. I was squeezed in 800m at the Jamaica Invitational 2011 at the last minute. I was up against Kenia Sinclair, Korene Hinds, Hazel Clark, Neisha Bernard-Thomas, Phoebe Wright, Karen Shinkins, Heidi Dahl and Molly Beckwith. So this was my baptism racing with the big guns. All these names can be paired with Olympic and World Championship performances and national titles. And there was me. I believe I had psyched myself out too much to perform at my best. I know it only takes one race to make a difference. I disregarded sticking to my race strategy and ended up running based off of the speedy group. I clocked 2:12 at the back of the field and have not really felt bothered by the end result of a race up until now. The winning time in the race was 1:58 by Sinclair of Jamaica, and I’m disappointed that I didn’t make use of the world class field and place a good time, or run a good race.
A week later, I have had to let that go. If it’s one thing, there is consistent improvement in my training so I know that it is a matter of patience before my time comes. Today I run my third open 800m and I’m looking forward to it because I have so much more to prove.
I have viewed myself as a competitor on any platform I can remember being a part of. The funny thing is that I have been running for so long and I am only just now being exposed to another aspect of training that I have only been forced to deal with in the past once competition rolls around. I’m talking about the art of protecting your space.
Distance running gets nasty, and being one of two girls in about of a dozen runners, I’m finding how to tolerate receiving elbows and throwing them, and creating my own bubble in a traveling vacuum. Considering I have made it this far training on my own for all these years, this new task during my workouts has added some colour and another thing I have to add to the list while running laps. If you have never heard anyone say that distance runners have mastered a certain fluid intelligence, I am saying it now. To execute effectively, we run with more than our feet.
These aren't women, these are athletes
I have never been one to approach my training lazily. If I decide to wake up at 4:30 am for the first session of the day at 5:30 am, it makes sense to follow through and put a fair workout. But it seems as if though being amongst seasoned coaches has been forcing me to remeasure my personal standard of my own effort. I am well aware of my shortcomings as it relates to my running technique and have chosen to make a conscious note of what needs to be altered, but this is definitely not the number one priority right now.
What I have heard from coaches, training partners and onlookers in the last couple of months is how at ease I seem running. I approach training with a mentality to work, but there is obviously something that others are seeing that I have not yet completely grasped. What I speak of is ‘running out of myself’ on a daily basis….Grit & pain, accomplishment & improvement.
I have been fortunate enough to have someone who I consider a track & field genius remain a phone call or message away. It is funny how caught up one can get in trying to perfect elements of execution. The fact of the matter is plain and simple though: If you want to run fast, you have to run fast. I recently consulted my friend about improving my running technique and found myself laughing at myself because his most recent blog entry which I read after my query fell right in line with what coaches say my training at the present moment should be about. No need to sweat the little things, just run out.
Find Bell’s blog entry here.
Bell's recent blog entry found here
It has been a month since I’ve checked in here and what a month it has been in Jamaica. I have thrown myself into a training regime that proudly boasts producing world class athletes. Background training is now at an extraordinary level I have never experienced before and everything hurts…and everything feels right. I am currently doing two training sessions a day that are allowing for me to get in ample mileage, conditioning and weight training. Lucky for me, I am surrounded by other athletes who are vibrant and charismatic by nature that help break the pattern of what could easily turn into hours and hours of monotony.
And that is the easy part.
Now comes a matter of battling my appetite to eat the right kinds of food and not indulging in the best ice cream in the world (…..at least not too much). Then comes filling and refilling the bottles of H2O. Plus there is the matter of freezing amounts of said H2O to ice the instep and arch that have been taking a pounding. Plus, if done right there is no such thing as too much stretching. But the hardest feat to conquer so far is going to bed at the right time. It is so easy to just do this or just finish that; it is hard to finish the phone call 5 minutes earlier that is being received from over the seas; the irresistible song stuck on repeat only comes to an end when my eyelids can no longer fight the liveliness that still has not been released from my body for the day.
It is almost as if I have taken a month long leave of absence from my blog. But the truth is I have really been in a phase that adds certain elements to the blog that make it what it is. I arrived in Jamaica on October 28th and I have decided that this is where I will be for a short time. This is all in an effort to maneuver my way to ensure I can focus on what I need to be focusing on. I packed up and left South Florida so I can pick up greater fortune somewhere along the way.
While I am here, my main focus here is to work with any of the athletic groups that have been so fruitful on the track. But, easier said than done. The colourfulness of the Jamaican way of life has so much to offer that it is a task to keep things on a regime. This is why falling into a routine has to come soon….very soon. Today marks a week that I have already been here, and all I have don’t to date is spend time around my mother, sister and aunt and my cup hath already runneth over. There is no place like home and as much as I stay thankful for having the opportunity to be a part of the realm of track and field, there is absolutely nothing else that exists that can surmount to half of what family can mean. If there was no family to enjoy athletics with, it would mean nothing.
Another mission which I have decided to dedicate some time to is a project that can hopefully mean something life altering to at least one person. Especially in a country like Jamaica, track & field does not only stand for track & field. It speaks of hope to the hopeless, and puts substance and recognition to generations of a people of small communities that have been so easily forgotten time and time again. With this being a vision that I have had for a while, seeing it being done for the wrong reasons before, and listening to a younger student-athlete I know deservingly bloviate about how she worked way to a full scholarship by herself, I was able to seriously start scheming about how I could find a way to connect the dots between the talented, bright and needy youth to the resources that are out there (In this day and age, nobody should have to work his way through the NCAA’s daunting clearinghouse on his own… Congrats Rochelle Nelson on dreaming big and being smart, you are making somebody proud). I spent time over the last couple of months in the US consulting with various officials who are well versed on the topic of NCAA compliance to learn how to go about setting up a database that will urge institutions to take a better look at all the layers of talent of student- athletes within this region.
In a bittersweet mood to know that the Commonwealth Games are days away from starting and I am not there and Jamaica does not even have a representative for the women’s 800m. I’m trying to take it all in stride, allowing this to fuel the focus I need to gear up for this year rather than it be the fuel for a fire with no purpose. I am giving many things, people, places and activities a rest this year and plan to work off of nothing but a passion.
With that being said, background work for the upcoming year has been underway. For me, this has entailed a lot of road and beach running thus far. With all the mileage that I have been putting in running on the sands makes the task easy. I’m convinced I belong near a coast everywhere I go. As for the road running…….that too brings with it its own intrigue. After a few days sinking in the sand, pounding the pavement feels like a feat well mastered. Unfortunately, running in Florida also means not being surprised or moved by having toads leaping on my legs during my runs, and wasps stinging me on my stomach because their (or my) reaction time was too slow. But being put into perspective it can all be regarded as worth it. Why…because the road is also where man meets machine (machines of a neighbourhood that is oblivious to the fact that there have been talks of a recession for the last couple of yearsJ).
My most recent 45 minute quick paced runs are placed on the same playing field as every V6, V8, V12, V-Tec, GT, twin, hemi, hybrid, hemi- hybrid, A4, R8, M3, 325i, 535i, z3, z4, x5, SLK, SLR, S550, C250, CTS, XJ, Integra, rsx, tL, g35, m56, muscle, classic, classic muscle, antique, import, LP640 (yes!!! LP640’s), continental GTC, enzo, H1, H2, H3, carrera, Aston M, F4 1000, Ninja 250, CBR, R15, GS150R.
All this ammo against my two feet.
What did you expect? I’m a runner with a constant need for speed. ;)
PS- Dear Bugatti Veyron, I’m still waiting.
