Disney Shuttle Hurdles/110 Finals

I woke up this morning feeling a little more fresh today than I was yesterday, that super cold ice bath I took must have helped a lot. JMac came and spent the night over the house last night because nobody wanted to go get him in the morning, we were already leaving the house at 9am, we would have had to be out at least a half hour earlier to get him and I needed every ounce of sleep I could get.

We got to the track and started our warm-up, it was already cloudy and gray when we got there, then it started raining. It wasn't too bad, but it was a steady drizzle all day. The first thought that came to my mind was I'm sure glad I didn't was up the Impala yesterday like I planned on because I would have been hot!

I was the pop off leg, Aub-Rida ran second, Joel was third and JMac was anchor. We ended up running 56.10, I split 13.21. Joel and myself ran with the wind at our backs because we ran from the finish line to the actual 110 start line, Aub and JMac ran into a serious headwind. I was running up so close to the hurdles with that wind at my back. Joel almost fell on the ninth hurdle, his lead leg ankle was bothering him, but he taped it up and helped us out anyway. I can't wait to run the shuttle's again, the next time we are going to line them up is at Florida Relays in a couple of weeks.

The finals of the 110's were about two and a half hours later. I was hoping that the wind would die down so it wouldn't be as tough of a race seeing what Aub and JMac had to deal with in the shuttles, but it didn't, the flag was standing straight up in our faces. I didn't really mind, I prefer to run in to the wind. I ended up stopping the clock in 13.33, Aub came second in 13.83 and JMac ran 14.20. I don't know what the wind reading was on it, but it was most definitely on the negative side. My calf tightened up on me around hurdle eight, I don't think its serious though. Joel didn't run the hurdles, but clocked 21.53 in the 200, into yet another headwind.

I was hoping to run in the 13.1 range this weekend, I felt like I could have outdone the 13.26 (+1.7w) I put on the board last year, but I am happy with the way my three 110 races went given a variety of factors. I haven't had a full week of practice since the week before the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix, I'm still race modeling like it's indoor season, the negative wind factor and Brooks has commented several times that my technique is looking the best he has seen it. I think once I get some more race modeling in, combined with better training shape, I will have a better showing next time I step on the track, which tentatively is scheduled for Florida Relays in two weeks. I'm going to hop on this calf situation immediately.