Something Old: On July 4th, 1776 members of Congress adopted the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams declared that this day should be “celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other.
In the spirit of the holiday there is nothing better (to me) than running a race! Fort Collins Firekracker 5k is a really superb local race that draws some really good runners from surrounding areas as it has one of the highest payouts for top finishers in Northern Colorado.
Something New: For the FIRST time in my life I out kicked someone at the finish! This is huge for me as I’ve definitely lost plenty of races in the last few seconds of the run. And yes, I’m proud of myself. And yes, it deserves a blog post all its own 🙂
I ran cross country and track in high school and loved it. From my freshman to senior year I qualified and competed in 4 events every state meet. My best event was the 2 mile and from 1997 to 2000 I got second place every. single. year. It was always the same scenario- out kicked in the last 200m, and it was maddening. I didn’t run competitively again for various reasons until just a couple of years ago and I found myself in the same situation race after race. For whatever reason I wasn’t able to find that extra gear and really dig deep when it came down to the final stretch.
I’ve been really focusing on improvement this year- small things one at a time that will build up and in the end help me perform better.
Here is what I think helped me most: My weekly schedule is loosely a long run on Sunday, recovery run on Monday, workouts on Tuesday/Friday and the rest of the days are easy runs. In the last couple of months I’ve added 4-6 strides at the end of my easy runs on the day before I have a workout- so Monday and Thursday. It’s not much, just 30 sec for each but I think adding that speed after being fatigued has helped me tremendously.
Cheers to small improvements!! They all add up and I’m really embracing being thankful for constant forward motion.
runningonamountaintop 