rough day

It's inexplicable as to why I performed so badly at the Louisville meet.  It was my worst 400m all season.  Hell, I even ran faster at Centre with a strained ham.  I ran faster 3x indoors.

Conditions were bad.  50º with a stiff shifting wind, felt more like 35º, occasional rain showers.  

I even had good lanes.

57.49 - 400m
25.37 - 200m

Lane 4 for the 400m.  With the scratches, it was just me and one other guy who was seeded at 49 in heat 1.  During warmups, I felt a possible left quad strain coming on, so I wrapped it and that took care of it.  It didn't bother me after that.  So, I went out conservatively, not real fast, but still felt like I died in the last 20m.  It still hurt the same as any of the others at the end.  We ran the home stretch into a stiff headwind but still, god it was slow.  Not the way I wanted to end the college season.

I felt pretty bad afterward.  Sore, stiff, questioning whether or not to do the 200m.   But I did anyway.   The wind had shifted, giving us a occasional tail wind.   But it didn't help much.  The second slowest time of my outdoor season.

Overall, very disappointing and unexpected, considering the work I put in.

Saturday
The next day I felt unusually tired, beaten, sore, stiff, lethargic... old.  But I did some yard work.

Forward
I guess it was unrealistic to expect to improve or peak when racing 9 of the last 10 weekends since Indoor Nationals on 3/16.  Not really an effective way to periodize toward a peak.  Racing a a 400 and 200 every weekend is stressful for an old man.  Instead of taking more recovery, I took less.  Was always fighting strains and that prevented me from doing those fast 150s and speed building explosive work.  My flexibility also seems lacking, may need to reevaluate my start, need to build foundation, and also lifting and plyos for strength.  My weight isn't bad, but I think I've been leaner.  Should give up sugar.  Right now I'm a little beat up.  Maybe should get in the pool early next week, do some weights, recover, then start working on foundation.

Foundation is important for me, my weak point.  Wish I had the same foundation I had when racing 5ks.   The two leading guys in the M50 World 400m rankings (I'm 3rd right now), are 800/1500m guys.  They run 2:01 and 2:03 800s.

The season is not over.  I have the 2 masters meets in June, and I was thinking I might race the 800m for the first time on June 7 at the Music City Distance Carnival.   We'll see.  

I'll be posting probably a little more sparsely in the coming weeks.