Peaking

Just sitting here and was hit with some thoughts I wanted to put down. I'm going racing Saturday at McAlpine, and I put that on my status and my old HS coach commented something about me "owning" McAlpine. I don't know about that, but in the small private school world of HS X-Country, I guess I did for a little bit. That lead me to day dream about my JR and SR year's, and the wins I had...and then the disapointment I had at my last race at McAlpine. The stars aligned for the State Championship to take place (For the first time in many years) at McAlpine, and going into the race I was probably considered the favorite to win based on times from the season of all the runners.

As it would turn out, I didn't have a good race and came in 6th place I believe. Very dissapointing given the expectation, the "home field", the crowds of supporters I had, and it being my last HS XC race. I went out in the lead, ran with the lead pack for the second mile, got boxed in, and then never could pick off the front pack once they claimed their position during the last mile. One of those times I can recall where I beleive I peaked too soon.

Peaking in running is something of a helpless feeling. You can almost feel it happening, and you begin to even get premonitions of it in the back of your head once you find yourself unable to hit the quickness with ease that you were building up towards. As my last post talked about fragility of running, this is part of that.

Top runners train regularly, workout tactically, and rest to peak for certain races. Of course, the State Championship would have been a nice peak, but I think I peaked the week before at the Conference Championship instead. It's so fragile. I can recall a couple instances in college where this would happen too. Premature peaking. We all go through it.

Anyway, just some thoughts rumbling in my head this morning. Now, back to work.