Time Trial Short Analysis

Its always a nice shock to the system that first early morning workout.  An early morning easy run can be tough enough if you are not used to it, but to be at school at 5:45 and then asked to run hard, that's a whole other level.  Yesterday morning was our team time trial for the distance (and 400 runners), and 36 athletes got the joy of experience that aforementioned pain.  Even with that looming pain there is always a palpable excitement in the air as guys get to see what kind of shape they are in after a long cold winter of logging most slow miles.

I thought the 3 different heats of the time trial went very well.  The accomplished exactly what we wanted, to get an idea of the fitness level at the start of the season.

A quick look at this year's results would indicate we are starting the season in a very good place.  A few things that jumped out at me:

We had 6 athletes under 5:05 (compared to 1 last year).

We had 6 athletes run all time PRs.

Of the returning athletes who ran the time trial last year, they start this season an average of just under 16 seconds faster.  The biggest improvements are (not surprisingly) R. Tidwell 40 seconds, R. Belavich 36 seconds, and D. Nino 32 seconds.

Last season we were a part of the Dyestat sub 5 challenge, we had 11 athletes break 5:00 for the mile.  Two of those guys (R. Belavich and R. Tidwell) ran 5:50 and 6:05 in their time trial last year.  We had 19 athletes run faster than Tidwell's 6:05 this year.  Does that mean all 19 will break 5:00?  I don't know, but if you are running around 6:00 at the start of the season sub 5 is certainly not out of the question.  If you can put in the time and effort with your teammates pushing you day in and day out you can achieve great things.

 As far as the 600 time trial, I don't have previous year's to compare it to, so I can't get very in depth.   However, that fact that the entire group was consistent with the 200 splits during the effort would indicate the base strength is there for the 400 and as we continue to build that speed we should have a great group of 400 runners tearing up the track at North.