View Workout (Jake Avery)

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Nationals

June 17, 2016 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
End of year log:

Both the season and this race went by so quick, it's just crazy. I woke up after getting some pretty good rest and went on the bike for about 5 mins of moderately hard effort until I was sweating, just to get my body woken up. Then I ate and just hung around the hotel room for a little. Then me and Weishaar headed down to the track where I got dropped off and checked in. About like 10-15 mins after I got there I started warming up for the race. I did two big loops around the warmup area and I was good. I relaxed for a little while after that and then did some drills and strides in the warmup area. I felt fairly relaxed there. Then I started jogging back to where the bleachers were when I saw that the check in area was already filled with all the milers ready to go. I went in there without all my stuff and they got pretty mad at me. When they were looking away I snuck out and grabbed my spikes from Weishaar and headed back in. I got everything together quickly and then they called us up to the track. We did a stride down the the 100 mark and we just waited out there in the sun for awhile. I didn't think the heat was that bad until we just had to wait there on the track like that. I tried dumping water on my head which helped a little bit. The Corning guys and their coach wished me good luck before I went out there. We watched the girls races, then jogged down to the start line. Overall the whole check in system was very confusing for me. I was in the first heat so we lined up first. They shot the gun and I was out hard. I had my best start of the season and I was in the lead for the first 150 meters or so, until I started overthinking. It caught me by surprise that I was in the lead in such a high caliber meet. I felt the wind hit me so I just sunk back into the pack. I don't know what I was thinking, the pace felt easy and I could've held the lead easily. I guess everyone was just reluctant to take the lead. Instead we came through in 35 and I was caught in a deep pack. I was trying to get off the rail but this kid kept pushing me at the 250 mark. I elbowed him off me and held my ground by that distracted me a lot. I don't even know what my paces were from there but they were slow. The next lap I got caught up in some of the many distractions at the meet. There was music going on at each side of the track with different songs, and midway through the lap I looked up and saw the huge megatron which was displaying the race live, something I've never seen before. I snapped out of it and started moving up about 700m into the race coming out of the turn. Made up a few spots but not enough to get to the leaders. Came out of the turn again and made another move like we practiced. I was finally in the racing zone again, and though I went out way too slow I was ready to get back into the race. Physically I felt fine, I didn't even feel that fatigued until I started pushing to move up. As I kept moving up they said "And Jake Avery from Ithaca New York is now moving up with a nice move" or something like that and I was thrown off again mentally. I snapped out it again with 600 to go and I kept moving up to the top 3 ahead of me. I caught the first guy easily and was moving up well. I felt pretty tight from here arms wise but didn't try to think about it. Went into the last lap with momentum. Passed into second place easily and was hunting the top guy. Then the said "Jake Avery only a Junior moving up to the leader now." "The top 3 are all juniors." I was distracted a little by this but blocked it out more easily. Made up a lot of ground on the top guy but I let him have way too much room to begin with. Was tying up the last 100m and just trying to go to my arms. I knew I couldn't pass the top guy so I was just trying to finish hard. One guy caught me so I settled for third. Finished and wasn't too tired until I payed down and then I realized how hot it was. I got a mean headache and didn't get up for a good 5 mins. I didn't know what my time was but I knew it was slow. I was disappointed that I couldn't give it my all in my last meet like I normally do. I just got caught up in all the distractions at the meet. I talked to Weishaar after the race and I should have taken the lead from the gun and just held onto it. I was trying to race the pack when I should have been running my own race and racing myself. That's something I have to teach myself throughout summer training. Also he said that something that needed work in the race was my racing tactics. Something I'll study through books and practice for next track season. Overall I was happy I came to this meet. It was a great learning experience. This is my first national level meet, and I learned an awful lot from it. I needed this experience for next year especially because I'll be able to block out all the distractions a lot better because I'll know that they'll be coming. I won't get all messed up with the confusing check in system. And also I thought that since I was at a national level competition everyone would be crazy fast so I was caught by suprise when I was in the lead from the start. I though since I barely made it in, that everyone would just be running quick times. I though wrong and raced as if they were going to run fast times. They didn't and I got caught in a pack going way too slow. Next time I'm going to just run my race whether that means going out last if the race goes out too hard or taking the lead and just holding on if the race is too slow. I bought some nice stuff after the race and walked around the track taking pictures of everything. Walked out of the track with Weishaar and my dad and said goodbye to Weishaar though I'll see him soon this soon at fun runs. I was thankful to have him there at the meet with me, definitely made things a lot easier. I'll be back here next year and much improved. This whole meet was a great learning experience but I'm not gonna be coming down next year for the experience I'm gonna be coming down looking for an all American finish or even the win. Besides this meet being a learning experience the whole season has been one also. That's one of my favorite things about the sport. You can never master running, there's always new things to learn and I'm just the student. So here's some of the things I have learned about the season:
This season I've learned more about myself in this season then any season. I've learned how to set goals for yourself. Basing them on just having a good race, not aiming for specific records or anything. I've also learned how to deal with your body's lot better. Such as dealing with my arms, my main struggle all year. They aren't perfect now but they are improving. I'm still in the process of learning how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable in taking over races, I learned it from Stacs, then implemented it in sectionals by taking over the race, and sorta lost track of that at nationals. I learned that I can stay with anyone, states was an eye opener in that regard. But I just have to know going into cross that I should be going for the win in every race I'm in. I learned what to do 1 min before your race- clearing your mind, and just racing instinctively, instinctive racing is better for myself, seeing and reacting to what the race throws at you. If you get too caught up in pacing you aren't even thinking about racing. I learned that sometimes you just have to go your own pace in workouts early on in the season, and started doing that and was able to get much more out of my workouts. I also learned that momentum is everything in a season, the season started out and I had some very specific time goals, and when I wasn't hitting them early on I thought I was doing something wrong. Instead I was thinking about racing wrong, I should've been thinking about feeling good and racing in the moment not thinking about the next few laps ahead. Later on in the season I started to get some momentum going and it propelled me into states and to nationals. This season was mainly a builder for next season for cross and track. I just wanted to learn all I could and use that far next season where I'm looking to have my best performances yet. I know I'm improving because my natural speed definitely improved through the season. I hit a 51 on a 4x4 on my third event of the meet. I hit a 1:57. That just shows that my speed has improved from last year. My stamina has also improved as my cross performances were a lot faster than last year and my mile time went down 5 seconds from last year. My 3200 isn't a good indicator for my stamina in track, I could've gotten a lot more out of myself. Was a great overall season but I gotta keep building going forward. Now I'm gonna be off on a much needed two week break both mentally and physically. I'm gonna be itching to run in a week though, but I need the full time. For now here are some of my goals for next season.
Goals to me are processes to create your quantitive goals. So my goals are to work harder this summer than I ever have before. I also want to be smart about training/staying healthy, by doing the little things consistently and being proactive in stretching and rolling, be the best leader I can possibly and be/more responsible(not losing things, on time always). Plus I want to just fix my arms, they were starting to get better at the end of the season. I realized when doing normal runs you don't need to pump your arms back. It's a very small motion really. Pumping them back on every run just pump strain on my shoulders, neck, and back. I just want to be as relaxed as possible throughout the summer runs. The speed rating/ places are outcomes from your goals. So my outcomes I hope to get from my goals are just effort goals, I want to be in the contention for the win in every race, it doesn't matter if it's a duel meet or at Manhattan. I want to hold my own. With that will come fast times and speed ratings simple as that. In races that I know I should be winning by a good margin, I want to leave everything out there and not be afraid to be racing alone, I want to find new ways to get everything out of myself.
Here are some of my plans for the summer for people besides B and Ian to look at because the are already part of my XC Google folder I created:
-Bring in Insomnia cookies each Monday for people who show up at least a certain amount of days
-More team dinners (BBQ/movie night)
-email athletes each week
-Make the runs more fun
-Do more of the little things- drills/abs/hips/stretching almost everyday
-Plan runs for each day of the week prior to the week
-Bring granola bars/water for after each run
-Come up with more team spirits
-Step up as a captain- be assertive but fun, make sure everyone is doing what they need to be doing
-Form good relationships with rest of team that you've never talked with before
-Start up more Name games
Overall, hoping to have one hell of a senior XC season both individual and team wise and I'm looking to be the best captain I can possibly be.