After racing in Boulder the previous weekend, the following week of training was a struggle. I was battling a very sore hamstring, which did not help my motivation. On tuesday I was able to do a good day of fast strides. On wednesday, I headed out to the track with Matt to do a fast 1500m session. During strides it started snowing and after coming through 34 seconds in my first 200m I decided to cut the workout and do a few 200m to stay sharp. Took Thursday off and flew to Austin on Friday.

Texas Twilight 1500m
Perfect weather at 8 PM. The Texas coach came up to me and told me what the rabbit was going to do. I was instructed to tuck in and let them do all the work. This plan worked out well. We came through 61 seconds and I felt very comfortable. What a difference a week makes (and sea level), the week before when I hit the 400m in 61 I was out of gas. The rabbits slowed down a bit and we came through 800m in 2:03. I feel asleep a bit and let a small 2m gap form between me and the lead pack. I hit the bell in 2:48 and felt like I had something left. Came through 1200m in 3:03 and told myself to hold back and wait to strike. Well race instincts took over as I found myself in the lead 20m later. With 200m to go I felt like I was all in, but when an athlete came up on my shoulder I found and extra gear. Same thing happend with 100m to go and again with 50m to. I kept finding gears I didn't think I had when someone would come up and challenge me. I was elated to cross the finish line in 1st place, victory always feels so sweet. I was shocked when I looked up at the scoreboard and saw my time, 3:45. Wow, I finished in 42 seconds for the last 300m. I was very pleased with the effort, a step in the right direction. Austin is a fun town when the sun goes down.