I am a miler who is doubling back in the 3200 this season. A little bit of background on my training- over the winter i ran 55-65 miles a week with a down week and have been maintaining 55 miles a week for the past month and just dropped to 50 for the season. Long runs are 11-14 miles alternating between easy, progression, and tempo in the middle. I ran a 5:20 a month ago indoors and have not raced a hard mile since for context.
I have not run the 3200 before, and yesterday I went into the race without a plan on what to do, I was just going to stick with the other girl I was racing. At around 5 laps in I just mentally was not there anymore, and got really bored from running so many laps and basically just started jogging. I ended up running an 11:57 (she beat me by 10 seconds) and am really unhappy with my performance and how I handled that race because I know it is not my best and I could have beat her. I just really struggle with pushing myself in the longer races. Next week I want to try and stick with some of the guys on my team since the other team doesn’t have a solid 2 miler and try to run 11:25. Next week I will also be racing a hard mile so unsure how realistic that time is after running 5:1x. If anyone has any tips on how to run this race, any strategies, how to push hard after a mile, and really just how to fight off boredom that would be awesome!