Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Oxy, Bahamas, and Pre Oh My!

Well, things have been pretty eventful since the last time I posted.  There has been a lot of traveling and competing.  I won't go into the details of each and every race, but I'll highlight them to let you know where I'm at currently both physically and mentally.

The Oxy High Performance meet in LA went relatively well.  I won the second heat of the 800 which was great even though we didn't run nearly as fast as I would have hoped.  Winning a race is always the priority, but I felt that I still had plenty left in my legs.  Like my college coach always told me, "If you win every race, good times will come naturally."

After Oxy, I went home for a few days before traveling with team USA to the World Relays in the Bahamas.  As I have said before, I was extremely honored to run for our country.  I would never pass up an opportunity to wear the USA singlet.  I was the lead-off leg for the 4x800 relay.  My leg did not go as planned.  I was hoping to hand off the baton in the lead or just behind the leader.  But, at the break point I hesitated when the Kenyan took off and before I knew it, I was leading the chase pack a little over 100 meters into the race.  Looking back, it's always easy to point out what was done wrong, but I learned a lot about racing against international competition.  Overall, it was a great experience in the Bahamas and if I'm ever asked back, I will run without a doubt.  The Bahamian people were great hosts and they were a lot of fun to interact with at the meet.  And to walk away from the meet with a World Championship bronze medal was pretty awesome as well!

The final meet on my three week trip was the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene the following weekend.  I ran in the International 800m race against some of the best American mid-distance athletes.  I was feeling great for the first 600 meters of the race but my body was not working with me and during the last 150 meters, I didn't have any sort of leg turnover to accelerate me down the homestretch.  I was extremely disappointed post-race because I expected more out of myself, but after a few days of looking back at the race I was able to put everything in perspective and move forward.

Since Pre, I have been back on the track and working to get myself ready for my next race.  This weekend, I get to toe the line at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York.  It is a Diamond League event and the World Record Holder, David Rudisha, will be on the start list.  The past two years, I have had the opportunity to race in this meet and I know that this one will be another chance to get in a super fast race against some of the best competition in the world!  I am ready to set a personal best.  My training has shown it and I'm mentally ready for the challenge.  I plan on coming away from the weekend with a sub-1:45 performance!

Here is last week's training


June 2-8

Monday
8 mile recovery run
Weight Session

Tuesday
8 mile recovery run
Strides/Drills

Wednesday
Morning-
3x400 (sub-800m race pace)
Afternoon-
Weight Session
3 mile recovery run
Mileage: 9

Thursday
8-mile recovery run
Drills/Strides

Friday
Morning-
4-mile tempo run
Afternoon-
6x150m
Mileage: 13

Saturday
12 mile long run

Sunday
6 mile recovery run

Weekly Total Mileage: 62

For questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to post below or email me directly at mikeruttrunning@gmail.com!

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