I discovered a loophole two evenings ago that should make my quest for #10 considerably easier. Since the 2008 Trials I’ve competed solely in the 50k event. (In 2004 I competed in both the 20k and the 50k and from 1988 to 2000 I only raced at the 20k Trials). So it came as a pretty big shock to my system in April when the news came out that the 35k which was to replace the 50k in Paris was going to in turn be replaced by the weird mixed-sex marathon relay thing. That meant that I would have to go from a 6:00 min./kilometer qualifying pace for the 35k to 4:48 min./kilometer pace for the 20k. I resigned myself to the idea that I had zero chance of making a 10th Olympic Trials. Until… I realized that very few others in the US were able to make the time either, so with a field size of 15 or 16 I “only” had to be one of the top 15 or 16 in the country at 20k, regardless of time. I knew if I could get down to around 1:50 I had a pretty good shot at making the Trials so I started training with a 5:30/km goal pace in mind. Almost immediately my hamstrings reminded me why I had shifted my focus to the 50k: They don’t like speed work anymore! I wasted the late summer and into the fall banging up my hamstrings, recovering, then doing it all over again. Rinse, wash, repeat… It’s been a roller coaster of a year, but now with the goal back to 6:00/km pace–albeit for a considerably longer distance–I feel like I have a new lease on life!
Murphy’s Law firmly in place, life got in the way on day one of training: The kids had a half day of school, and I had to spend the morning driving half-way across the county to replace our diabetic dog’s insulin after dropping and smashing her last vial the night before, so I only had an hour to spare for a workout. I figured my best use of time was a 10k tempo workout on the treadmill at the gym. I hurriedly threw everything into my gym bag, dropped the kids off, went to get the insulin and arrived at the gym with just enough time to get in the tempo workout. I quickly went down to the locker room to change and… Sh*t! Two left shoes! I’m not much of a dancer, but I don’t *literally* have two left feet so this posed a bit of a problem.
I had to wear the beat-up old retired and not-made-for-walking-fast shoes that I happened to be wearing that morning. My shins are killing me today, but I got it done. I followed up with an easier paced (~6:35/km) 16km walk today, so I’m on a little bit of a roll. I’ll need to stretch those 10k tempos at 6:00 pace into 20k tempos at the same pace, extend the long easy days out to at least 30k, and probably start doing things like mile and 2k repeats (which will eventually become 3k and 5k repeats) at 5:45 to 5:30 pace. All doable goals, I think, and with the Trials now in June rather than February I have several extra bonus months of training that I wouldn’t have had if the 50k/35k wasn’t cancelled, so maybe, just maybe, I think I can do this!
One More Try 