McMillanElite :: Nick Arciniaga
::BLOG ARCHIVE:: Entry #203 Going For It We are now 17 months away from the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston, which means that leaves us all with only 16 months to either Qualify for the Trials or Prepare to race them. For me, my goal will be to make the Olympic Team in London. This goal a year ago for me seemed like a long shot, now as it gets closer and closer I can see it becoming more of a reality. I am starting to get a whole new attitude towards running a marathon, which has started from the confidence I have gained from the past few marathons I have run; each one being an improvement from the time before. Yet, there are still a few steps that I need to take to be able to run and compete with the top marathoners in the US, as well as the top in the world. No matter how well I think I have run my past few times out, my PR is still nearly 8 minutes slower than the World Record, and would still be over 5 minutes behind Wanjiru at the last Olympics. So what can I do to get myself better? How can I be more prepared? Should I have just been born more talented? Nope. Should I just let go of my mental limitations and just race? Maybe. That is what Greg and I have talked about over the past few months. Marathon races all over the world now are becoming just that. A 26.2 mile race. Guys are going for world record and course records every time out. Its getting to the point where a lot of them are able to hold on and run ridiculously fast times. These guys are just Going For It every time out. Going For It – That is Greg's Mantra for our team. Basically it means to not be afraid of the competition, not to be afraid of the distance of the marathon, and to go into every race with the ambition to run a breakthrough performance. Sometimes we will be ready to do it, and sometimes we won't. But looking at the alternative, if we never put ourselves out there in the mix of things, then we may never run well at all. We would be competing only with ourselves and we will almost always be behind all of the other Elite Marathoners who go out to win the race every time out. In less than 8 weeks, I will have my next real test to see how fast I can race a marathon. I am doing some pretty intense training for the Chicago Marathon, and I am setting my sights on a sub 2:10 performance, and hopefully being able to break into the top 5, which would be awesome. My preparation is going very well. I've put in a couple 140 mile weeks already, and my long runs, tempo runs, and even speed workouts are going much better than my last time out. My confidence is strong and I am preparing myself mentally to believe that I can run the pace and effort it will take to break 2:10. Less than 8 weeks to go…
Entry #195 “Happiness and Success equate with a philosophy of life and attitude, not with a destination. There’s nothing magic about the locations, runners go there because a lot of other runners have gathered there and have a social life, not because of the utopian environment.” - Joe Vigil. The past couple months have been pretty hectic for me in terms of traveling, racing, relocating, and trying to restructure my life. I have recently settled down in Flagstaff, Az, and have joined up with McMillanElite/Team USA Arizona and am representing adidas. My initial impressions of the team – Awesome. My initial impressions of Flagstaff – Beautiful. Now, after being here for a month, I am glad that I can still say that my feelings are still the same. Everyone is happy here, there are a lot of elite athletes coming and going, meaning that there are new people to run with and hang out around every week. The most exciting part, for me, is that I get to train at altitude, which is something that I have only been able to do during high school and college summer camps. Those were some of my most enjoyable memories in running, basically just being out in nature, exploring new trails and seeing all sorts of animals everywhere I run. I’ve already seen six elk this week, one of which was literally walking on water. I wish I had brought my camera with me last Sunday to prove it, but true story, I saw an elk walking across a lake, literally 100 meters from shore and in no more than ankle deep water. Just amazing. It’s been great the past few weeks to train with the team. Everyone here makes Flagstaff even more enjoyable by adding their own quirky attitudes to the runs. Things are both laid back and intense at the same time, it reminds me of how much fun I had training in high school and college. It is extremely motivating and uplifting to have such a positive attitude from everyone. The group feeds off of each other really well, and I am thrilled to be a part of it now.
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