The first phase of the 2016 Olympic year is now complete and the indoor season is over. My season was not bad. But it was not highlighted by a breakthrough performance that would show I’ve reached a new level of fitness. And with the Olympic Trials only a few months away, I was hoping to make more progress in my preparations for a chance to make the 10K team this summer.

Although 2016 has not gone as envisioned, the only option is to keep logging the miles and to be patient with the process.

My high expectations are in part a product of the immediate success I had when I started working with my coach, Mark Coogan, last year. In 2015, I set big PRs in the 3K, 5K, and 10K. Even though I know it is not realistic to have a linear trajectory in this sport, I still hoped to continue taking large steps forward in 2016.

But my lackluster results on the track prompted a change in my race schedule. The original plan for the end of this season was for me to run the 3K at the U.S. indoor championships in Portland, Oregon. After I ran two 3K races, one in 9:01 and the other in 9:03, I did not have the standard (sub 9:00.00) to compete at world indoors. And based also on my 15:37 5K at the Millrose Games, I felt that my track speed at the time was not enough to be competitive against the field at USAs.

My coach and I decided to switch gears and prepare for the NYC Half Marathon, which was exactly one month after Millrose. I was hoping to end this portion of the year on a high note to build confidence going into the outdoor season.

My long runs and weekly mileage were already on the higher end for an athlete running the 3K and 5K. I have been doing about 90–100 miles per week, up from 75–85 at this time last year. So the switch in race distance was not daunting. To further prepare for the half, my workouts became longer. I did a 9-mile progression run, for instance, getting faster every 3 miles.

This adjustment should also benefit my 10K preparation this spring. Switching from the track to the roads was mentally refreshing in that it provided a different challenge before I return to the track for the outdoor season.

I really enjoyed the build-up for the half, as well as the race itself, and came away with a PR of 1:12:35. My previous PR was 1:13:29 from the Brooklyn Half in 2014. Despite the PR, however, the performance to me was similar to the rest of my indoor season—good, but not a breakthrough.

Although I am disappointed not to have produced faster times so far this year, there has not been a single race in which I felt that I underperformed or did not give my best effort on the day. I simply need to continue working on my fitness.

Over the past year, I made some good lifestyle changes to help support my training, such as eating more cleanly, sleeping longer, and logging more miles per week. While I will continue to identify areas for further improvement, the main task will be to challenge myself at practice.

I’ve been reading the book Mindset and trying to apply the principles from that to become a little less fixated on immediate results and more observant of what I can learn from the process of training. So rather than dwelling on past performances and allowing myself to be defined by them, instead I’ll be looking to extract additional fitness from each workout.

April will serve as an uninterrupted training block to prepare for the start of the outdoor season. It is a great opportunity to push myself into better shape before my first race, the 10K at the Payton Jordan Invitational on May 1 at Stanford University. Whether or not that race is a breakthrough performance, I plan on continuing to test my patience and perseverance in pursuit of my goals.

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