I caught up with Brooks Katie Mackey today before she races in the women's Wanamaker mile tomorrow.
You can watch/listen to the interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG4XnmFR2oU
Mackey comes into the mile after only running 9:07 for 3000 at the meet at Camel City Elite Races at the JDL track in North Carolina (her pb is 8:52 outdoors). Mackey things she'll improve off of that showing.
"JDL was my first race of the year and I wasn't sure what to expect as we hadn't done any speed stuff yet. Actually, the longest distance I'd run at 3k pace was like 500 meters so it felt fast. Going into the race, I knew it was going to feel pretty fast from the gun and it did so I just tried to hang in there and compete. We've had a few workouts (since my opener) that should help with that baptism of lactic acid. I'm really looking forward to racing my first mile of the season tomorrow, " said Mackey.
"[But] this year, obviously the main focus is July, and I want to to fell really, really good in July so I'm trying hard to be patient and keep that in the back of my mind. Although I'm excited to get on the track and get my spikes on and run really fast and I want to run as fast as I can - that (July) is the ultimate goal."
Mackey said she hopes to get the World Indoor standard of sub-4:30.00 tomorrow and if she does that she'll race the 1500 at USAs. Looking ahead to outdoors, Mackey, who ran the 5000 at USAs in 2015, said she'll return to the 1500 at USAs this year.
I talked to a bunch of other mile racers as well which you can listen to here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/letsrundotcom/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=1