I'm flying out tomorrow afternoon...Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Paris to Ljubljana, Slovenia (thanks, by the way, to the well-traveled individuals who have helped me pronounce the name of the city I'll be flying into!).
Final preparations have gone very well. My training has been more similar to cross country preparations than what I did prior to the qualifying race at Mt. Washington. I focused on long repeats up a constant grade for that race, which helped give me a good sense of pace and the uphill endurance that I needed, but left me lacking in race sharpness.
The course in Slovenia appears to be more varied in terrain and grade, so I've focused a bit more on developing power and VO2max, with a nice supporting base of long, steady runs and lactate threshold workouts.
I'm nervous in the sense that I'm not sure what to expect and what would constitute a successful race for me. But more than that, I'm just ecstatic to have this opportunity. What will be a successful race? Well, you know at the finish line when you've given it everything you have on that particular day, and that's really all you can hope to do. Aside from that, I'm looking forward to spending time with teammates, seeing a bit of the local area, and just taking the whole experience in.
I'll post from Slovenia if I can. Otherwise, those who are interested can get updates HERE.
Best of luck, Chris. You'll be successful if you run like you did at Apple Valley. A younger run came up to me after your race and said, "Coach Foley, Lundstrom turned GREEN at the finish line." I took that to mean you gave it your all. Fight like a brave!
ReplyDeletePat
Good Luck Chris!! Hope you have a great race - and get to see some of the city/country. Looking forward to hearing all about it.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, Chris!! I know you'll do USA and MN proud! All those trail runs in Duluth and other places and, I'm sure, the 1200m repeats in Riverside will do ya well. :)
ReplyDelete