This past week of training has been great. Monday, the third, was my birthday and with that came an always-fun 2-mile time trial. The time trial went very well for all. We ran it all around our 800 course because it has less turns than the mile course. Therefore, we had to complete four laps, which made it feel a bit longer. After the time trial, I came home to 20 beautiful people that made up my surprise party! I was in shock to see all my teammates and some friends screaming at me as I walked in my house looking forward to getting in the hot shower. That very night my family went to Texas de Brazil for dinner and boy did I stuff myself! I probably had more than a whole cow for dinner. That one-mile time trial the next morning was one not to remember. Personally, my stomach did not digest the steak as quickly as I had wished, but most of my teammates performed terrifically.
Wednesday and Thursday were normal runs in preparation for “The Bear.” This workout, explained somewhere on flrunners, is one that tests each man’s soul. In order to successfully complete the workout, one must run 4 miles under 26 minutes, 3 miles under 18 minutes, 2 miles under 11 minutes, and 1 mile under 5 minutes. A 6-minute break is given between each one. For the top guys, the 4 and 3-mile portion was not too tough. After the 3 miles, our legs became very heavy and just picking up our legs was noticeably tougher. As the 2 miles progressed, 5:30 pace became more difficult to maintain. Even though it was difficult, 4 of us finished the 2 miles under 11 minutes. After stopping, our legs felt like blocks. Now picking them up was a struggle. It felt like I had just finished a marathon. I told myself I could not repeat what I did last year: die. After about a quarter mile, I told myself there was no way I could do this because the feeling in my legs was gone. Patrick caught me at the half-mile and most of my hope had vanished; Chas and Jesse were also ahead of us. With about 300 meters left, something re-sparked inside myself. Seeing the finish gave me adrenaline as well as the feeling in my legs. I took off. I caught Pat and we were in full throttle. What felt like a 4-flat pace was probably just a 4:30 pace.
We finished together and heard a time that made my stomach drop. “Five oh one!” Patrick and I stayed positive because it is not that big of a deal and we still have one more year. Later that night, however, Chappy assured Pat and I that we actually completed ‘The Bear’ because the same team (Coach Hill’s Winter Park) that we got the workout from did a 1600m on a nearby track. This meant that we had 4 guys to complete the workout, which was the most we have had since Trinity has been running the workout. When looking back on the week, I can confidently say that TPXC got faster and stronger.
