(Photo by Andrew Everett)
Hey everyone! It’s Patrick Perrier coming in with his first blog of the 2013 season. I really want to thank MileSplit for the opportunity to blog this year. I am getting off on kind of a late start because I wanted to run a race before I put up a feature. Anyways, let’s get started.
It has been a great summer of training leading up to this part of the season. I was really disappointed with the way my track season went, so I was looking forward to getting a solid summer under my belt to prepare for cross country. Last spring, I got a nagging knee injury mid-season as a result of hard speed workout too soon. Due to this, I was forced to run just easy runs or essentially tempo runs for the rest of the year. I was still unable to finish warm-up sprints the week before the state meet. It is a miracle that I ran as fast as I did at state. Obviously, I had a poor race at New Balance Nationals. It was really hot in Greensboro, and I drank too much water trying to compensate for that. As a result, I diluted my electrolytes, and when I started sweating during the race, I sweated out the rest of my body salts. This led to me “bonking” in the last lap. It is not an excuse, though. I made a mistake and I was dealt the consequences.
Now, throughout the summer, I kept a very consistent training schedule. My mileage dropped a little to 75 miles a week, but I was doing only two double runs a week. I put in a lot more quality long runs and tempo runs into my training to develop a strong cardiovascular system. On one of my sixteen milers, I averaged 6:08 pace with my teammate Dorrian Gordon. That was a major data point to tell me where I was at.
Once the season started, we decided to cut back my racing schedule. Forest Park was my opener and Richard Spring will be my last race before Conference. The goal is to save my legs so that I will be running my best at the state meet and Foot Locker Nationals. I have some high goals of winning the 3A state title as a team and an individual. I also want to contend for the national title at Foot Locker. 14 minutes is obviously a barrier that I want to break at the state meet as well, but the reality is that I am going to win the race first, and then, I will worry about the time. Forest Park was a great start to the year, and I am glad to have run so well, but that was just the beginning. I have a lot more work to do to reach my ultimate goals. During this weekend at Richard Spring, I want to make a statement and show that last week was not a fluke. I’m going to see if I can dip under that 14:20 mark during the regular season. As for the team battle, we are not at full strength right now, so the team results may not be as indicative of our full potential. We are trying to ensure that our guys are healthy at the end of the year.
So, that wraps it up for this week. I am sorry for everything being kind of business oriented, but I will have some blogs about all of the fun stuff going on in my life beyond the running. Once again, thanks to Todd and Tony for letting me have the opportunity to blog for them! Good luck to everyone and happy running!
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