When I get back to campus, I'm going to ask a favor from The Coach to time me. I know for a fact that people in the actual Track team have talked about me. I've even ran with them a few times trying to keep up. When I first started running on campus last year and around the whole area, if I know that a Police Officer knows who I am (his partner once stopped me over because I was making a "disturbance" - I think someone called the cops on me. Anyways it wasn't related to training or anything. But the Police Officer saw me run ocassionaly on the local highway and he said to his partner: "He's good.") Then they let me go.
My training is unstructured but these are the core parts of it:
50-60 miles a week + strength training/posture drills
10-14 mile long run especially when it's hottest outside
7-8 miles of easy runs
But within those easy runs, I always do fartleks, hills, strides
Working on Turnover is also a priority, so I should do sprints. But I remember one time I was sprinting on the local highway up a hill and that was one of the reasons why I got ITB. I'm always weary about that.
And coffee. Nick Symmonds always recommends Run Gum, but I recommend cheap Folger or Maxwell House Coffee.
The last ingredient is emotion. I would have called it Pure Hate right now but I just woke up and still relaxed
You think I'm joking on this one, but whenever the emotion gets to me, that usually causes me to do speedwork and strides. It's impulsive.
The point of my training is to rely on my natural speed and build up on it through aerobic base building. Having proper posture is also key.
I hope one of the coaches or assistant coaches who reads this thread know who I am when I approach them. If they refuse to time trial me, well I'll have found a way to achieve a FAT timing before that time.
If I do time trial myself, and it's 1:50 +2 seconds, then I'll consider that a success. But what I'm most worried about is finding a way to FAT myself and I'm still not race shape ready. In August I'll provide an update. By mid September, the dream is for me to be on our college's T&F website. No one really browses the athletics pages because we all suck, but they've never ever heard of Asian runners before have they? Perhaps I can inspire other Asian people to run and then we'll have a running boom.
I have to stop coming to this thread because I'll spend at least an hour every day just reading and replying. I can do 1000 bodyweight squats in that time.
But thank you for keeping me up to what I post. You'll see that most of the things I've written are consistent because they're real. They might not have exceptional PRs but this one is the most real thing I'm trying to achieve which is why a 1:50 PR must be exceptional.
This thread has also changed my perspective on runners. I'm more inclined to race people now and that is something I've internalized for my Pure Hate.
Maybe some of you will see me run around in Boston, but just know, if you're going to challenge me to a race, I will beat you because middle-distance running is perfect for challenging people: We have sprint speed and decent mileage, which is perfect for racing around and in the city.
Ciao, Observer of Things.