Race Recap: Double 1500 Trouble

From February 25th to March 2nd, Emily raced two 1500s in a 6 day span. Not that that’s a ton of racing or anything, but since they both played out similarly, I thought I could recap both of them in one fell swoop, while highlighting some of the differences.

Part One:
Race number one was at our alma mater, Trinity University, on Saturday, February 25th. The goal for the day was simple: to run fast, and if possible, to PR. Emily’s PR was set two years ago at this very same meet, although back then it was held a week later. This time, just like then, she hadn’t done much in the way of specific 1500 preparation - repeats at roughly race pace, for example. Most of Emily’s workouts have been focused on 5k-10k fitness, not mid-distance.

As the gun went off, Em got out pretty hard, as planned. The goal was to hammer from the start and try to solo a 4:34 (Em’s PR is 4:34.9). The first lap was a little too fast - 71 seconds - but nothing too extreme. Unfortunately when you’re not prepared for that kind of pace, it’s going to REALLY hurt. So she slowed down quite a bit on the 2nd lap, which she ran in 76 seconds.

 

 

At that point I was able to let her know she’d slowed down too much, so she picked it up, but not much - 75 on the 3rd lap. On the last 300 she rallied quite well, and hit 53 seconds, meaning her last 400 was run in 71-72 seconds. The final time of 4:35.3 was only a third of a second off of her PR, which was a little disappointing, but in the end nothing to get too down about.

Trinity Open 1500m video HERE  

Part Two:
For the meet at University of the Incarnate Word, we knew that Emily would again be 15-20 seconds faster than anyone else in the field, so we came up with a different strategy: Em would go out slower, and try to get someone else to take the lead for the first lap. From there she would play it by ear and try to crank down the last 800 to a fast time. But the best laid plans...

As you can see if you watch the video below, she was unable to get anyone else to take the lead. So much for that. But the rest of it played out as planned, as the 400 splits got progressively faster. In fact, the last lap of 69 seconds is the fastest I can recall her running in any race, ever.

Incarnate Word 1500m video HERE  

It is an unfortunate fact that women’s running is, on average, less competitive than men’s running. It is very unfortunate that she has to do these races completely by herself from start to finish, while the men’s races at the same meets are comparatively deep. All that means in the end is that we have to take advantage of the few races where she can come across top notch competition, like the University of Houston indoor 3k or the Rice outdoor 5k. But on the plus side, scenarios like the two 1500s above are a good opportunity to practice different tactics, different strategies, and different facets of fitness.

Team Watebear at the UIW meet