Daniel Wallis: Pre-Race Day
Well I am currently sitting in a hotel room in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We arrived by bus last night after what was about a 7hr drive. We were originally going to fly, but a day before we left our flight was changed which messed up our plans, so on the bus it was. We arrived at about 4.30ish at ran at 5.00 around campus as we were told not to run around where we are staying… turns out this town is the most frequently used on “cops”. In all honesty, it’s a right shit-hole.
Today started pretty late after a good sleep in (the best thing about travelling). At 11:30 we arrived at the course for a bit of a jog. It is three 3.3km loops over a golf course here. The golf course is pretty shitty though, so it’s not the race track that we had last year in Fort Collins. There are a few hills and quite shit terrain but it still looks to be reasonably fast. It gets pretty narrow though and there is a lot of tight turns.
I think it’s fair to say that we definitely have the hardest region in the country. Last year I finished 33rd – this year I really want to be All-Region (Top 25). It will be close up there in that Top 30, but I’m in better shape than last year. I want to get in the mix and then run tough, if I am in a good position and can run like I did in the middle parts of Dellinger and Pre-Nats, things will be sweet. I’m pretty certain I will feel better than Conference as we changed things a little to come in feeling good rather than flat which was the case a couple of weeks ago. We have basically done light workouts every mon/weds/fri since Conference, with last Friday still being pretty tough: mile cut-downs. 4.55, 4.45, 4.36 then an 800 in 2.14. This week everything was pretty short and sweet and felt decent enough.
Soon we will be off to some shit chain-restaurant for tea that the girls have chosen.
Good luck to the other kiwis running this weekend around the country, and to those running in Hamilton this weekend.
d-wal