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the steeple

April 9, 2011 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
we got to owu pretty early, so we were all just chilling for a while. i ate some food on the bus, and more at the meet, and was feeling good about the race--really excited, a little nervous too.
i asked ben to lead the warmup, since he has warmed up for steeple before, and i, obviously, have not. we ran out on a trail about half a mile, turned around, then looped around campus for about a 2mile warmup. then we stretched on the field and did the usual steeple practice warmup (i.e. ankle, knee, and hip rotations, hurdle seat rollovers, leg swings, stationary lead and trail.) got into spikes and drilled for a bit, then did some runovers. went over the barrier for the first time. i felt confident going over it, but it was definitely a different experience mentally, going over a barrier as opposed to a hurdle.
the race started. i tried to hang back at first, so that i could try to pace off of ben. i felt good going over the barriers for the first few laps, and my first water barrier was really solid; i barely touched the water (though i'm told i jumped really high). the only weird part was hitting the barriers at an angle. i wasn't ready for them to be on the turns, and i wanted to go straight over, so i hung back a bit so that i could go over by myself. i started to drop behind ben at about the mile; the barriers were tiring me. my form degraded and i felt like i was jumping more often than hurdling. the one thing that i kept in my mind was what ben told me before the race: "if you stop accelerating into the barriers, then you're out of it." so i did my best to accelerate into the hurdles, especially on the water barriers, which felt solid throughout the race. i was exhausted at the end of the race and while i tried to kick, i don't think i was going very fast. i ran a 10:24 and placed 9th, just out of scoring position. ben ran 10:08 and placed 3rd. i was happy with the way the race went, but i acknowledge that i have a lot of work to do before conference-- mostly form work, i feel, so that i'm not wasting so much energy going up and over the barriers.
after the race, ben and i talked to coach as we walked over to get our stuff. i laid on the ground for a while because i was so tired. once i had the energy to get up, ben and i ran a lazy four-mile cool down that included taking a subway order into town. spent most of the rest of the day eating and watching track events. my hip flexor (the right one) was hurting me. it's likely because i haven't hurdled that much in succession. ever. i stretched it and took it easy for the rest of the day.