Anyone seen my wheels?

Because whatever was left of 'em seemingly fell off the wagon last night at BU. My race in the mile was, in a word, embarrassing. I ran - if what my legs were doing even resembled that - 4:24 to place next-to-last in my heat and 33rd overall. For the record, it was my slowest mile/metric equivalent since my freshman year of college when I ran 4:06 indoors for the 1500 meters. To reiterate: embarrassing.

I'm not sure what happened - in fact the more I think about it, the more questions pop into my head - but I fell apart so badly over the last two laps of this race that it made last week's disaster look like a work of art. Going in, I was hoping to run around 4:16, and despite a slow start, heavy legs and a lot of jostling, I was still on pace through 3/4's. I never felt good at any point of the race, but my legs locked up so bad over those last two laps that I don't think the Jaws of Life could have opened them back up. Kevin clocked (probably with a sun dial) my last 400 in somewhere around 70 seconds. For the third time: embarrassing.

Needless to say, my last two races have been rather frustrating, mainly because I know deep down inside me that neither are indicative of the level I know I'm capable of running at. It's disheartening to be running the same times I was running as a college freshman while knowing that I'm in a helluva lot better shape than I was back then. My training has been very consistent over the last few months and the way my workouts have been going lead me to believe that I should be racing faster than I currently am. But why aren't I? Wish I knew the answer to that question.

I've been feeling a bit run-down over the past 10 days or so, but I hardly view that as an excuse. Perhaps I'm still getting used to Kevin's system and running workouts twice a week with my new teammates. I haven't raced less than 5K, or on the track for that matter, in almost two years - maybe I'm just readjusting to the overly anaerobic demands of mid-distance races. It could just be one big mental block, but who knows for sure? All I do know is that whatever the reason for my recent racing woes, I'm definitely in a bit of a funk right now. I'm confident, however, that sooner or later things will start clicking and my times will start dropping. As Billy Mills used to say: Believe, believe, believe!

OK, enough whining about my misfortunes, they'll eventually sort themselves out. Driscoll ran a great race last night and obliterated my ass with a 4:15, dropping seven seconds off what he ran at the Armory a few weeks back. It was an up-and-down day for our Reebok Boston crew, as Ryan ran courageously in the 5K, hanging with the chase pack through a 9:03 2-mile before finishing up in 14:40. I really believe he's gonna bust out something sick on the track this year. He's due. Mark ran well in an earlier heat of the 5K, finishing strong in 14:54, while Joe Ciollo looked super strong as he ripped a 1:54 800 to place third in his heat.

After the races I headed over to T. Anthony's for some pizza with Oscar and his old pal Steve Slattery, who ran away from the field in the 3K with an impressive 7:51. He came back to rabbit the mile in 1:58 through 800 as Max Smith of Providence broke 4 min for the first time. Slatts said he's planning on running the 4K cross trials before heading back to Boston for U.S. Indoors, and I do believe that he's going to turn some heads at both races. Keep an eye out!

On my way home I was still feeling a bit hungry and reached in my pocket for a GwythBar, courtesy of Quinnipiac's own resident Betty Crocker - a.k.a. Katie Gwyther. While they haven't hit the mainstream market just yet, these tasty little treats are an excellent energy source for anyone looking for a quick pick-me-up and could be giving Mr. Clif a run for his money a few years down the road. On a side note, the same Katie ran like a badass today in the 3K at BU, finishing a close 3rd to Princeton's Clack Ferrell in a huge PR of 9:18. The official results haven't come in yet, but after this weekend I do believe that her and Driscoll can lay claim to the title of the Terrier Classic's Fastest Couple.

And it's now 11:43 and I'm set to head home from work. I'm feeling rather wiped, so a good night's sleep is in order before running long tomorrow morning at some point. For time's sake, I'm going to bypass on tonight's "10 Random Things About Me" list and put that off until the next entry. Take it easy all.

Quote of the day:

We are what we continually do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
-Aristotle