All I See is Gold!

The Running Indians Wrestlers chillin' after the race.

Well, almost.  Copley Wrestling participated in the Akron Marathon Relay for the 9th straight year, with four teams making up the 2013 contingent.  The coaches' team has never placed first out of our squads, but Team All I See is Gold gave the three student teams quite a scare this time.  I can honestly say that my time of 52:35 for 7.5 miles (more than 2 minutes better than I did last year) was what put us in first from mile 15.5 to mile 25.  None of us saw team 5 Kage cross the finish line, so for a few brief moments we celebrated and talked trash, thinking we'd won, only to be disappointed when the anchor runner of the real winners made it up to the bleachers.  Oh well.

I had 17 days to prepare for the race - far less notice than I had last year - yet I shaved a decent chunk off of my time.  Before finding out about the race, I had been in Texas for a week-long business conference, and then out west on a road trip for nearly two weeks, with limited workouts during those excursions.  Oh, and I almost forgot - I slept just shy of 5 hours the night before the race, had a root beer an hour and a half before hitting the hay, and my ankles had been killing me from a foolish decision to wear my Five Fingers shoes for a six mile run while training.  How I pulled it off, I'm not entirely sure, but I do have a few theories.

For starters, I believe that I've been more committed to my training and nutrition overall this year than I was when I first moved here.  I weigh less than I did a year ago and have been more serious about wrestling.  But the real gem may have been the "elevation training" I received from my road trip.  For most of our time we were at base elevations of about a mile, and many of our day trips brought us much higher.  One outing in particular was a hefty hike to the 11,000 ft summit of Snowbird mountain.  All that huffing and puffing during our ascent proved worthwhile when I did my first run upon returning from vacation.  Despite not having been on a normal workout schedule, I felt fantastic during my runs that week.  Unfortunately the effects had all but worn off by the time the race rolled around, but it was the catalyst I needed for my last-minute preparation.  Easier said than done, but I highly recommend going up some mountains if you get a chance...

See gold,
Jeff

P.S.  Speaking of gold, keep an eye out for my next posts, where I'll talk about Jordan Burroughs' third straight World/Olympic title, as well as updates on the Olympic outlook on wrestling.