Mile Time Trial, Part 2

Time Trial #2

After an illness kept me sidetracked last week, I came back with another mile time trial today in my bi-monthly journey toward breaking 5:00 for the first time since the spring of 2007.

Despite a stale and lingering hangover caused by a booze-soaked tribute to Rod Blagojevic last night (complete with a lot of bourbon and a couple pre-game in-shower beer chugs, :19 and :21, respectively) I drove the four miles out to West Olympia's Capital High School, the nearest all-weather track to my house, and incidentally the site of my 400m PR, where I opened up the JV 4x4 team with a 52.8 in a fit of rage-induced speed from having been pulled onto the all-distance relay team at the last second.

The reason for the all-weather track is that I wanted to test out my newest accessory, a pair of Adistar MDs that came in the mail from my sponsor, Solomon Industries, a week or so ago.

After a mile and a half of warm-up on the trails around the school (where I also ran a xc invite in high school, but can't remember what place I came in, all I remember is that it was my one and only career loss to Olympia High School's Jesse Stevick) I laced up the spikes, stretched out my legs, focusing on my particularly tender left side, and stepped up to the mile line.

The spikes gave me some undue confidence as I hit the 100m mark in :17-high, but the windy back stretch leveled me out, bringing me through the 200m mark in a pre-planned :39, which I rounded into a 1:18.06. Lap 2 still felt pretty smooth, with a 1:19.78 giving me 2:38 800m, but instead of that split giving me hope that I might break 5:20, the coming dread in my chest only allowed me to instead grow confidence in my chances at breaking 5:30.

Lap 3 started out hard, and got harder as evidenced by the beginning of a series of grunts that, by the middle of the bell lap, had grown in frequency to the point that they were coming with damn near every step.

But I tried to stay focused on the fact that each step would bring me a little further beyond the halfway point, and I fortunately came through in 1:23.82 (no 90 second scares like last time) before closing in 1:22:23 on the strengh of a :38 second final 200m, followed by a lot of Blagovian cursing and a slight desire to collapse, which I fortunately overcame.

Final Time: 5:23.89 for the full mile.

But that last lap, let me tell you, was a bitch. Fuckin' shit.


The first thirty seconds are easy to take off, the next thirty not so much.

See you next time,
BTB