I come to race.

Gentlemen, please try always to remember: the track is a tempestuous mistress. Some might go further and dub her a saucy minx; she will pluck at your heart(ham)strings and drive you to despair, yet under the spell of a euphoric daze she will entice you with riches of gold and record-boards.
Such has been my plight over the past week. I had been easing myself back into more serious track workouts in an attempt to prepare for OUAs when my hamstring seemed to be acting up again. Frustrated, I began considering the prospect of canning the season in order to let the hamstrings completely rest so as not to jeopardize my summer season. With only a week before OUAs and 3 before CIS, I figured that it might be better to cut my losses now than try to limp on for the rest of the season and watch despairingly as races slip from my grasp. My coaches and advisers, urged against rash decisions and advocated a return to the basics: simplicity in training and racing. I heeded their words, yet opted to abstain from the weekend's track meet at McGill in order to preserve myself for OUA's the next weekend. A chance email informed me that I had no choice but to race at McGill, as I needed to have run twice during the season to compete in the championship events.
And so with slight foreboding I went to McGill and raced a 1000m. And won in 2:27.4. Without any inkling of hamstring trouble. In fact, it felt better after the race than it did beforehand.
Now I struggle to decide which races to run at OUAs. The 1500 is a given, but which of the 1000m or 4x800m do I compete in? Is it greedy of me to want to race them all, given that I was considering staying home as of 5 days ago? Alas, how the fickle heart can be swayed.

Regardless, for all of my rather melodramatic prose, I am glad to be back running and racing. I can still feel something in my hamstring, but it doesn't seem to limit my running. Any workouts that I am doing now take place on hills, in order to ensure proper muscle recruitment and running form, and I am maintaining my glute and core strengthening exercises.
When I toe the line at OUA's it will be a stress-free and enjoyable experience: I cannot change what has happened in the last few weeks, whether my hamstring injury was a figment of my fevered imagination I will never know, but I come to race. I come to race.

Be Easy.

I guess someone has to carry the flag!

In other news, my sister Steph just broke 10mins in the 3000m down in Boston. She ran 9:58.58, which is not only a new indoor pb (personal best), but equals her outdoor pb too, which is often difficult to do as the tighter turns on the indoor track slow things down. Not to mention the fact that she won her heat by a whopping 11 seconds, pretty much running the whole race alone.
Look out for more from this girl in the weeks to come!
Be Easy.

Fartleking around

Well this has been an interesting and frustrating last week and a half. Lets start where I left off last time....I was a day out from a workout with the sprint team, to work on my "git down" speed. The practice went well, I worked on my form when running fast - we did some starts (Sprinters 1: Matt 0), then we ran a 350m which I approached rather tentatively and only ran a 44.9 (Sprinters 2: Matt 0) and then we finished with 3 x 200m about 25-26sec (Sprinters 2: Matt 3)...I just needed to tire them out a little bit first! My hamstring were good...at the time, for the next day I woke up with a localized pain in my left hamstring - a sure sign of a strain. Foolishly, I jogged 6 miles on it thinking I could run through it. Didn't help.
I took the next day off and then hit the bike and the pool for the next 3 days. In that time I tried to figure out what the cause of these recurring hamstring strains is and sought help to correct them. It seems to be a combination of overstriding when going fast and mis-firing glute muscles which causes added strain on the hamstring.
So, following a visit to a trainer for some strengthening exercises, some research by myself and Kev, and a trip to a masseur, I am now back running. I have just been fartleking and steady running this past week in order to reintroduce my legs to running with a little speed work thrown is as I feel. (Fartlek is a swedish term for "speedplay"). I was supposed to run York last weekend, and then Boston this weekend, but pulled out of both in order to let the h-strings recover as best as possible.
As we look ahead, I will ease into more strenuous, faster workouts and will race the 1000m at McGill next weekend. I just need to get a race in so I can run the 1000m at OUAs as the beginning of my championship push on the following weekend. In a scenario reminiscent of cross-country CIS last fall, I hope to build up from injury to peak at just the right time. I won't be pleased with a 13th place finish this time though!

Be champions.