3K goal for this coming week, 1500 or 5k at Conference?

Ah okay, point taken and thank you for your encouragement as well as advice. I've always considered myself a more conservative runner who knows his limits well and can judge a good pace. However I also found that my best breakthrough races were when I just went out with people who I knew were somewhat faster than me and just hung on. It's also something that our coach always tries to get us to buy into, and while I have had some epic blowups along the way, I'm usually able to learn a lot from those instances and fine tune for the next time. I'm hoping I'll finally get the opportunity to do just that in an honest race in the next few weeks.

Just ran Conference Prelims today. When we got there it was 90+ degrees F, very dry and windy. I didn't feel great at all on the warmup, in fact I was quite drained to the point that I didn't even want to do strides. I knew everyone else was feeling the same way so I just had to tough it out.

1500: Tactical as expected. Our first two laps were a 73 followed by a 72, very slow. I stayed in 5th biding my time as some of the guys in the back went to the front tried to push the pace, but they obviously weren't able to set any pace that would get rid of me. Kicked it in a 60 the last 400 for the win to qualify, just to be safe. Final time 4:14.x?

800: I was seriously considering dropping out since I felt really tired and my throat was extremely dry on the cooldown after the 1500. Lying down and drinking cold water for 30 minutes in the shade did the trick though, and it turned out that my legs were really warmed up from the 1500, and the heat died down just ever so slightly (the dry wind didn't however), so I was feeling ready to go. Ended up being a very good race for me as I negative split a 1:58, running 59-58 with a strong kick down the homestretch to get 2nd.

Today was a big confidence booster in terms of my 800 fitness just due to how I ran it, given the conditions as well. The 1500 wasn't too much of a surprise given how I've been able to close in 61 off of a much faster pace twice now, but it's confirmation that I can do quite well in a tactical (slow) race. Very much excited and looking forward to Conference Finals next Friday as I expect the 800 to be extremely tight and competitive to qualify. Coach has me in the 5k but I'm not sure if I'll be doing it since that'll be a triple, if it's a slow race I could potentially qualify even with having 2 previous races in my legs.

Finished Conference Finals today. Not bad but ultimately not what I wanted. Much better weather than last week but still a bit warm and windy.

1500: Official FAT splits weren't available this week but the first 300 was like a 52, we came through 800 at 2:19 and 1100 at 3:10 ish? Closed in sub 60 for a 4:09 to qualify. Used a bit more energy than I would've liked ideally because I had to surge to get to the front on the second lap, but I didn't want to leave it to chance. Will be moving onto regionals, where I expect that I'll have no choice but to go all out just to even have a chance of advancing.

800: Tried getting out harder than I usually do, but I still ended up coming through in basically last the first lap with a 58.mid ish (I heard 26 for the first 200 for the leaders, which would've meant something like a 27 for me.) I tried working the second 200 to move up but I didn't have that extra gear I usually have, and ultimately failed to qualify by 1 spot, still running a very slight PR of 1:58. Kind of sad but I knew I gave it my all, there wasn't much more I could do since there was basically half an hour between the two events and most of the guys in my race were already as fast as me or faster but fresh. I figured something like this might happened but still hoped I could pull out on top, sometimes you just don't have it.

To be fair, if you are running 8:34 and 15:04, you have the ability to run sub-4 in the 1500 and certainly sub-2 in the 800. I’m guessing you are under raced in the 1500/mile.

Yeah most definitely agree, I have never seen a 15 flat / sub 15 5k guy who wasn't well under 4 in the 1500. 8:34 to me indicates at least a 3:55 even assuming more distance oriented

Well, I just wrapped up my track season yesterday at regional prelims with a decent day, not quite as fast as I'd hoped, and not enough to advance to finals but still a good, honest effort.

1500 - 4:04 (48, 66, 64, 64, forgot the decimals). Good race with some amount of jostling, got cut off an elbowed a bit but I got myself into a nice position early on. Was aiming for sub 4 but our second lap was just too slow and I wasn't able to respond once the leaders started picking it up again, I was mostly just trying my hardest to hold on and maintain, didn't have much left for the last lap but I'm happy with how I ran this race.

800 - 1:58 (57 - 61) Probably the most I've ever slowed down on the second lap, most likely due to it being my hardest first lap as well. Strangely enough it used to feel fast going out any faster than 59 but I didn't think I was going that fast and I came in at dead last in the bell. Guess after a while you get used to going out harder? Managed to pick off a few people in the last homestretch but it wasn't enough, still a small PR. I've now run 1:58 three different ways lol (57-61, 58-60, 59-58). I wonder if 1:58 is just my limit with my 54s 400m speed. Still, I'm satisfied with what I've accomplished at this distance.

Moving forward, I'll be aiming for a strong XC season and be looking to revisit that goal of sub 4 again next year. For now, just some easy running to recover from the intensity and prepare for a half marathon in ~6 weeks or so.

Okay so those splits I mentioned were taken handtimed by one of my coaches but they finally added the official FAT splits. These add up a lot better and make way more sense

1500 - 48.3 - 66.2 - 65.7 - 64.1

800 - 58.01 - 60.1