About Hometown Hopefuls Hometown Hopefuls follows Atlanta Track Club Elite Team members Abe Alvarado, Brandon Lasater, Keturah Orji, Yolanda Ngarambe, Jarryd Wallace and Allie Wilson as they continue their journey toward Olympic glory. Be there every step of the way from training camp to the Olympic Trials and to Tokyo with every workout, every split, athlete reflections and coaches' comments too. Six athletes. Six months. Six shots.
Lasater reflects on his training period between March 22-April 4 in this post. To learn more about Lasaterclick here.
Workouts for the Week: March 22-28
Monday: 8 miles easy at the river with the guys. I did not bring a watch so I relied on Avery to give me the distance.
Tuesday: Just over 6 miles for the track workout at Life. Today was 12 x 200m with 1 min rest, ideally cutting down to 800 pace. We switched to spikes after the 8th rep. Splits were 28, 28, 28, 28, 28, 27, 27, 27, 25, 28, 31, 29. I backed off after the 25 due to some glute/hamstring stuff.
Wednesday: Travelled to Texas in the morning then ran 6 miles along the river there at 7:10 pace. All things considered an easy trip. Wore Firefly on the flight to keep the blood moving.
Thursday: 5 miles easy along the river at 7:13 pace. Did easy strides afterwards although I think I was meant to do pickups during the run.
Friday: 4 miles at 7:08 pace then strides. Feeling pretty alright, leg lift is good and stride seems good.
Saturday: Shakeout then 800m race at Texas Relays. I had planned on going out in the back of the pack so I wouldn’t get tripped up but then it happened anyway and I rolled my ankle. I probably should have stopped but for various reasons I finished. I didn’t cooldown. Final time was 1:55. No cooldown or post-race workout.
Sunday: Attempted to run which didn’t go well so walked back to the hotel and milled about in the water.
To view results and watch the 2021 Texas Relays click here
Photo by Bert Richardson
Commentary and Reflection on the Week: March 22-28
I’m never sure what to say in these circumstances. The amount of emotions I feel from a bad race seem disproportionate when you think about it. Right after the race I couldn’t really run and with how the race went, I was pretty emotional. I hoped in the moment no one saw but I cried a bit in the corner of where we were camped out. Coming home from the meet, Avery asked me an interesting question about how I deal with multiple subsequent setbacks. Given this is a reflection, it is counter to my normal coping strategy of never thinking about the race again. I’m sure there are better ways, but historically if I have a race as bad as this one I don’t reflect on it past the first few hours. It’s gotten harder with the lower amount of racing. I am not the best at articulating my need to run well. I’m just looking towards the next race.
Commentary and Reflection From Coaches Amy and Andrew Begley on the Week: March 22-28
Brandon started the week well, but had a rough ending. He looked great on Tuesday. His stride is getting more fluid. His speed is coming along well. He came off of the travel to Austin feeling good. He was a little extra nervous, but that is expected after a long time off from racing. The lead up to the race did not go as expected. Typically, you report to the clerking tent 20-30 minutes before a race. For this race, the athletes were held in a tent for 50 minutes before being allowed on the track. The weren’t allowed to do strides, and didn’t have much room to move around for the entire 50 minutes. They were allowed to do one brief stride, and were expected to race. The end result was all of the athletes were very tight in the first part of the race. The athletes got out slow, and everyone broke for the rail at 200 meters. Brandon did not get out well, and ended up being in the back of the pack. When everyone cut in, almost everyone got cut off. That meant everyone in front of Brandon put on the brakes. He had to dodge out of the way, and ended up spraining his ankle. He finished the race, but should have dropped out. Running 600 meters on a sprained ankle could have led to a major injury. As it was, we lucked out, and it should be better in a week. This happens during competition, and you just have to brush it off and get ready for the next race. Control what you can control, and don’t worry about the rest!
To learn more about the coaches click here.
Workouts for the Week: March 29-April 4
Monday:60 minute bike with 20 x 1 minute hard/1 minute easy. Saw Phil for PT.
Tuesday: 60 minute bike with 10 x 3 minute hard/1 minute easy.
Wednesday: 60 minute bike with 12 x 2 minute hard/1 minute easy. Saw Dr. Josh Glass for chiropractic adjustment.
Thursday: Run on Alter-G. 5 minutes at 75%, 5 minutes at 80%, rest at 85% body weight. Ran 5 miles total. Got down to 6 minute pace. 60 minutes easy bike later. Lifted with Amy after the Alter-G.
Friday: 7 miles on Alter-G. 5 minutes at 75%, 5 minutes at 80%, rest at 85%. 6:40 pace down to 5:15. Saw Phil for PT.
Saturday: Workout on the Alter-G. 2 mile warm up with 5 minutes at 75%, then 5 minutes at 80%, then the rest at 85%. 6 x 800m with 200m recovery. 2:30, 2:28, 2:28, 2:26, 2:24, 2:20. Rest pace was between 6:40 and 6:15.
Sunday: Hour bike with two sets of 5-4-3-2-1 minutes with 1 minute recovery.
Commentary and Reflection on the Week: March 29-April 4
Not a lot to say about the week other than I did a lot of rehab and exercises for my ankle. I just have to keep chugging along and not worry about any single setback. I definitely need to focus on the next race and making sure I stay out of trouble and maintain my space.
Commentary and Reflection From Coaches Amy and Andrew Begley on the Week: March 29-April 4
Brandon was on the comeback trail this week. His ankle is getting better, but he still has some work to do. He cross trained early in the week, and did some Alter-G running over the weekend. He will try running outside on Monday, so hopefully that goes well! He is in great shape, so we need to get him back into normal workouts soon. We don’t want to start to lose the fitness he has fought so hard to get back.
To learn more about the coaches click here.
