Still waiting

 Still waiting for my first 400m race that I can actually finish.  Racing in my 57th college meet at Life University's beautiful track, I did only slightly better than last week.  Ran a 58.33 400m, but rigged up again about 20m out, not as bad as last week when I felt it about 35-40m out.  The good thing was that I was a little worried about my quad, not being 100%, but it was ok.  No problems.  Shortly after, I even ran the 200m just for a workout without a problem, albeit slow... (26 low).  I love this track and this environment, hope they have some summer meets like they did last year.  

It was a hectic journey there.  I probably should have stayed home and run in my local college meet in Sewanee.  What should have been a 2 hr trip, turned into a 3:15 hr trip.  They are installing a new bridge at the I24/I75 intersection so I decided to go through Alabama down I59.  But... the normal route through the mountains by Cloudland Canyon was closed, so I had to go way out of my way to get there.  I really thought I might not make it to the meet.  This is why I always leave early.  

Anyway, I was happy to take the day off from training today and do some odd jobs around Roya's lovely house.  The weather is just gorgeous, very cool.  Tomorrow's high in Sewanee only 64º and Wednesday's high only 52º with a chance of frost that night!  

I have just one full 'week' of school left.  I know it's a longterm progression to get in 400m shape, but I'll get there, as long as I stay healthy.  I'm thinking on overdistance days to do a little shorter and faster, like 3 or 4 500s closer to race speed.   In Sat. race, I had the ability to "watch myself" tie up at the end.  I had the sun at my back and was looking right at my shadow approaching the finish.  It was ugly, shortened stride, bow legged.  Not much you can do when the gorilla jumps on your back.  Still think it's a matter of pacing, as I ran about the same time in training with a very slow first 200m.  

But, there's plenty of time.  Three full months to Nationals.  I'll figure it out, I'll get there.  Not much activity yet in masters rankings,   but since I ran 57.47 last year, including that time, I've logged the 6 fastest times in the world in M60, all under 58.50... and still haven't brought my A game this yr.