Indoor Track Update

• Ran two indoor races

  My first race of 2024 was a 1000m, which is an uncommon distance raced mostly indoors. I hadn’t raced one since I leveled-up in running (in 2020), so my personal record (PR) was a little soft (2:47) relative to my PRs in other distances. I ran a big PR of 2:41 and placed 4th, behind three professionals who are sponsored by Nike, New Balance, and Asics respectively. I was pleased with the race! It was fun to do an unusual distance and it was good preparation for running a 1500m at around that same pace, which is my ultimate goal for the spring. I always know I did my best when I either get a splitting headache or throw up right after a race. In this case, I was graced with the headache. I don’t really know why I get the headache, or how to prevent it, and hope it’s not bad for my long-term health.

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  I also paced the first mile of the 5k, in which the top runners were trying to run the 5k Olympic Standard of 14:52.1 Pacing races is good fun and good money. The announcer bestowed upon me the highest compliment by calling me a Human Metronome during the pace job. At left is a photo of me pacing the 5k. Right behind me is Alicia Monson - 5k and 10k American record holder and Olympian. Credit: Justin Britton.

• I ran an 800m race the weekend after and that didn’t go as well. I’m not exactly sure why - could have been tired from the last race, could be that my training wasn’t right for the 800m, or I wasn’t feeling great that day. I ran 2:06 and placed 11th. For reference, my indoor PR is 2:04 and my outdoor PR is 2:03, both from last year. It was a disappointing result but I got The Headache, so there was nothing more to be done during the race.

• What I do on race day that I don’t do on other days

  • Ingest 100-200mg of caffeine. In an attempt to heighten its effects on race day, I don’t have caffeine regularly, other than 1 cup of black tea in the morning. I’ve tried various forms of caffeine before races including coffee, caffeine pills, Good Day chocolates, and now I use a caffeine-containing gel made by Clif. It’s convenient and contains carbs, which are also good for racing.
  • Listen to music. Ever since my kids run days (pictured in Newsletter 1) I’ve enjoyed listening to Enya before races. Her music has a nice calming intensity. There are now others in the pre- race playlist but Enya is always a staple.
  • Eat a big breakfast, usually pancakes and eggs. The closer I get to race time, the more nervous and less hungry I am. So, I try to eat as much as I can early in the day. I’ve found that Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free pancake mix yields the best gluten-free pancakes, pictured at right. I stopped eating gluten a few years ago because it hurts my stomach and I’m always searching for excellent gluten-free products.
  • One time I tried taking a sodium bicarbonate product made by Maurten. Sodium bicarbonate (a.k.a. baking soda) has long been recognized as a performance enhancer. When I tried it, I got one of the worst headaches ever after the race, which didn’t even end up going well. So I don’t use it anymore.

• Race strategy

  Sometimes people ask me about strategy for track races. This may be an unpopular opinion among diehard track fans, but I don’t think there is much strategy.

  There are two types of races: time trials and championship races. In time trials, the goal is to run a certain time - a standard, a PR, a national record, etc. In order to run as fast as possible, it’s physiologically optimal to run the same pace throughout the race. Pacers are employed to run even splits at a prescribed pace for the first portion of the race, to ease the mental load of the time trialers. That’s about it. If you’re running a time trial race, you’d decide on a goal pace and try to maintain even splits throughout the race. You’d employ a pacer to follow in order to make the pace feel easier. The indoor races that I’ve been doing have all been time trial races.

  The other type of race is a championship race, in which there’s a little more strategy. In championship races, the goal is to win or place in the top X (e.g., in the Olympic Trials the goal is to place in the top 3) and pacers are not allowed. Different people might have different strategies for winning but there are two strategies that encompass the vast majority of championship races. You could draft behind other people and then unleash a furious kick at the end, good example here. Or you could lead the race at a fast enough pace that everyone else gets too tired to keep up by the end, example here. Track is fun and exciting but there isn’t a lot of competition strategy involved, compared to other sports. This might be partially why it’s not a more popular spectator sport.

• Stats

  If you’re like me and love stats, you might be interested to know that World Athletics keeps a database of Track & Field performances. You can see my top 10 performances at the bottom of my profile, screenshot below. My 1000m two weeks ago was my 6th-best performance ever, based on the scoring table developed by World Athletics (each performance has a score associated with it - far right column).

  

  The scoring system is a nice way to compare performances between people and across events. For example, a 4:00 mile for men on the outdoor track is worth 1074 points.

  Next race

  My next indoor race is the David Hemery Valentine Invitational at Boston University on Friday February 9th. I’m running the mile (1609 meters). I have high hopes for this one since the competition will be great, the track I’m running on is fast, and I think I’m in good shape for the mile. My PR is 4:33 from 2022 and I’ll aim to better that. A 4:33 mile is roughly equivalent to a 4:13 1500m. I don’t know why both the mile and 1500m are regularly contested, but, confusingly, they are. The mile is more common indoors and the 1500m is more common outdoors. The qualifying times for the Olympic Trials were recently published here: the automatic qualification standards for the 1500m and mile are 4:06 and 4:25 respectively.

  My race is scheduled for 4:45 PM; the full meet schedule is here. You can pay to watch the livestream here, you can check the live results here for free, or if you’re in Boston you can buy a ticket to watch in person (100 Ashford St. Boston, MA), more info here.