Track and Field Blogs - Nate Jenkins

I’ll be running my first track national championships this weekend. I’m very excited about it. I am not the quickest guy on the planet, my fastest 400m ever is 58.8, now that was in college and I have been able to drop my 200m speed over the four years since then from a pedestrian 28.8 to a startlingly mediocre 27.2. Those are of course hand times, in spikes, with a flying start.

I’m hoping for a big PR this weekend. I really like the Reggie Lewis track. I have raced there dozens of times from HS through college and right up to this winter. I am very fit, though I had a bit of a hiccup, coming down with a cold at USATF XC which forced me to miss a race and a couple workouts. However I’m fully recovered and was back to full mileage last week and I got in a good workout and ran a PR in the mile.

The mile was Sunday at the USATF- New England championships. I ran 4:13.29 which took more then a second off my old PR that I ran at BU the first week of January it was also three seconds faster then I have run on this track, 4:16.2 in January and 4:17.2 in December. So I was real happy with it.

So I think I know what your thinking right now, “Nate, no offense but, how the hell do you expect to compete at USATF’s in the 3000m where you’ll need to run sub 8:00, which is 4:16 pace for just about 2 miles but your happy with a 4:13 for a mile pr? For that matter how the hell can you be a professional runner with a 4:13 PR?”

While first I’m very very strong, that is why I’m a marathoner. Next to be honest I understand this is well below my distance and I’m there just to work on my own speed and I don’t have an delusions of grandeur about kicking down Rohatinsky and Olinger with a 54 last 400m. As a side note I could see Torrence or Nightingale both of whom are running very well doing just that. I do however think I can get in a good effort off of heavy miles and set a solid PR.

Next lets not get all worried about that 4:16 pace, because that is per 1600m not full mile, which is 1.6 seconds per mile difference. So my 4:13.2 becomes a 4:11.6 which is more then a second per 400m faster then 4:16. So a half second slower then my mile PR per 200m becomes the goal. That would have me sliding in at just about 7:59 flat. Not a world beater by any standard, but still a solid time that I could be well satisfied with. That doesn’t leave much room for error if I’m out too fast and PB at the mile or 1k it will be real easy to be reduced to a near walk and crawl in to an awful time. Conversely if I let the pace dawdle through the K in 2:45 to 2:50 I could be left having to run faster then my mile PR pace for the last 2k in order to get that time, which is unlikely.

Now you may have another question sneaking into your head right now “Are you planning on not backing off for this race? Don’t you realize it is a national championship? Don’t you think you could run much better if you didn’t do a 130 something miles this week?”

Ok all solid points but my reasoning is simple. I’m not a 3k runner and there are a lot of national championships out there and I’ll be backing off for the ones that are more in my wheel house later in the year. Training is key to success and if you’re constantly backing off to race it reduces your training. We can’t have our cake and eat it to so sometimes hard choices need to be made. Also the way I figure it it is unlikely that by backing out and peaking out I could suddenly be twice the man I am when I am tired and be able to run my mile PR back to back without any rest. But even if I could that would only be a 7:51.0, surely a solid time but a time that is likely to win in an even paced race. So I decided that for this year I’ll hold my fire for later in the season. If say next winter I’m back in this situation and I have dropped that mile PB down to 4:09 while at full miles, I took 4 seconds off this year and four seconds off next year would get me there. Now that would be 7:43.8 pace and the chance at that would certainly be worth backing off for. But of course that is all predicated on the idea that I can back off and run my mile PB back to back for a 3k which again is highly unlikely.

But for me this weekend is really exciting. I get a chance to run in my first national track championships, my fist televised track race, my shortest national championship race and I get to do it all on my home track in front of my home town crowd. I really can’t wait! Plus who knows I’m a competitor and perhaps if the field lets the pace stay at my pace and I find may find myself in a four wide made dog sprint over the last 200m. I may be the slowest man in the field but like I said I’m strong as hell and though I can only run about 27 for 200m I can reach down and run pretty close to that to finish.

Last thing, this meet is really one of the best in the world, even though USATF feels the need to bloat it with a bunch of superfluous exhibition events that stretch it out for 2 days. But still there are some of the best runners who have ever lived with no pacesetters just hammering each other for the right to call themselves a national champion. So grab a ticket, if you’re in the Boston area, both 3k’s and the men’s 1500m are on Saturday evening and the rest of the pro finals are on Sunday. If you’re not in Boston you can turn on ESPN2 on Sunday march 1^st from 5 to 7PM. You won’t be disappointed, and who knows maybe you’ll get to see a highlight of yours truly throwing elbows with the big dogs on the last lap.