Journal
Welcome,
So this is my first entry into the journal section of my website and what I hope to do is to shed some light on what this past year has been like for me and what I hope to accomplish in the coming year. I imagine most of you visiting my website at this time are probably either friends or family: that's okay since I'm horrible at sending letters and really bad about keeping people up-to-date of the latest news. This should be a good way for you all to stay up with what's going on in my life :-)
2000 Overview
Last year was a very interesting one as far as my training and racing went. At the beginning of the season I had made it my goal to qualify for the British Olympic Trials (otherwise known as the AAA Championships). The qualifying times seemed well within my reach and I thought the experience would be great for me. The main objective was to get to the Championships and not get injured along the way. So we were extremely conservative : we kept up a high mileage training program and did a pretty minimal amount of speedwork. The times kept getting faster each week and by early June in Boston, I finally ran what I considered to be a "great race". The conditions were perfect, I was relaxed, and the race went exactly according to plan : through the first quarter in 60 secs and then as hard as I could to the finish line. I still don't remember my position in that race, but the time sticks out in my head, 2:07, a good PR in a great race :-)
It was a race that made me feel comfortable heading off to England for the AAA Championships. However, shortly after the Boston race I started to have severe pain in my right achilles tendon which turned out to be a case of severe achilles tendonitis. Unfortunately this limited my training and I ended up going back to base training - just putting in miles and trying to stay fit. It was too painful to do much speedwork so we didn't. Training never really picked back up again before the Trials and I ended up running what I considered to be a "horrible" race. It was very disappointing but deep down I knew going into the Trials that I wasn't "race ready" for a number of reasons. The first being the set-back in training, the second being that after Boston I seemed to have reached my goal (qualifying for the Trials) and overlooked the fact that I still had to prepare to run the final race - the Trials themselves. Mentally it had been a long, hard season and I was ready for it to be over so that I could have some rest. Actually the first thing I felt when I crossed the finish line was relief that I didn't make the final because that meant the season was over and I could relax for a while.
The Trials did have some positive outcomes for me. I finally realized that maybe I would be better suited to concentrating on the 1500m instead of the 800m. All my life my coaches had told me I'd be a wonderful 1500m runner, and everytime I heard it I'd let it go in one ear and out the other. The 800m was where my heart was and so that's what I had to run. Now I realize there's more to it than that. I still believe I can be a great 800m runner, however, I believe I can be an even better 1500m runner. So this year I am starting my move up to the 1500m. I still plan on running some 800m races. I know I haven't run anywhere near what I'm capable of running and I'm interested to see how fast I can go. But now I know I have to learn to love the 1500m as much as I do the 800m.
The Year to come . . .
So I look to this year with a great deal of excitement and intrepidation of good things to come. We have made our move to New Jersey and are settled in well. Kevin has a great job in the city, I am working with KPMG, and we have bought a new house out in West New Jersey in a town called Randolph. It will be finished (we are building new again) in the middle of June so until then we will be staying in corporate housing. I have also found myself a great coach. His name is Tom Flemming and he was actually one of the country's finest marathoners not too long ago. He teaches and coaches at a local high school and has some really good high school boys for me to train with. So far this year we have run some really good times indoor and look forward to a great outdoor season. The only thing I could ask for now is some good weather so we can get back on the track and work hard again. The New Jersey weather can really be a pain for training, but I guess I'll get used to it and maybe it'll toughen me up :-)
Basically the goals for this year are to train hard, race hard, familiarize myself with the 1500m again, and to run some fast times. I really think we might be ready for a breakthrough year. Stay tuned to see how things go :-)