Saturday, June 13, 2009

CA State Meet 3200m. reflection with Reesey Byers...

Today we chat with Santa Rosa distance runner, Reesey Byers who just recently finished 17th at the CA state meet 3200m. running 9:06.93. Quite an accomplishment for an athlete who came into this season with a PR of 9:54.02. As Byers will explain, his breakthrough race this year came at the Viking Classic (Montgomery HS) where he imroved his 3200m. PR by 21 seconds. At the NBL (league final), he finished in 2nd. place in the 1600m. (4:29.55) behind teammate Rory McLeod and won the 3200m. in 9:32.59. The following week, Byers finished in 5th place in the 1600m. (4:24.98) but chose not to advance in that distance. He finished in 3rd. place place in the 3200m. running 9:23.03 trailing only Erik Olson and Sterling Lockert. Going into the NCS MOC, Byers was one of several runners who felt like they had an opportunity to qualify for the state meet. Byers came through by finishing in 4th place (last qualifying spot), running another PR of 9:14.15.

1) What did you do training wise (day by day) following the NCS final on Saturday to the 3200m. final yesterday?
I only had one workout on Tuesday and the rest were easy 20 min. runs with 2 laps of ins and outs on Thursday.

Here is the workout:
Well, my coaches told me to put on my spikes. I did a 1200 first which was broken up as follows: 400 slower than 2 mile pace, second 400 at 2 mile pace then next 200 33ish and last 200 all out. I hit 72, 68, 32 and 29. I got a 3:21. Then after 10 min. of rest , I did a 900(I know, it's a weird distance). First 500m was between my mile and 2 mile pace, stride a 100 then last 300m was all out. First 400 was in 68 but I 'm not sure what was my 500 split which was then followed by the last 300m. in a 42. Not sure of the overall time but I came through 800m at 2:15. Then, following another 10 mins. of rest, I did an all out 300m. I did better than I had hoped to do. I wanted to hopefully get under 39 but ended up running a 37.83 and PR'ing in my 200 as I split my 200 in 24 which was nice. I hit all of my splits and better so it was a good workout for me. The workout was at various paces.

2) What was your race plan going into the 3200m. final? Were there runners you were focusing on or were you focused on running certain splits?

I told my coach that I wanted to try to hit 68s and I was focusing on a couple of runners, Sterling Lockert and Wyatt Landrum.

3) Tell us a little how your race progressed from the beginning and how it unfolded as it got into the second 1600m.

Well I just tried to stay relaxed and focus on hitting the splits I wanted. I tried not to worry about anyone elses race but mine. I felt pretty good with a mile to go and then really started to feel it at with 800 to go. I had a pretty good last lap (65sec.), so I was happy.

4) What was the toughest part of the race?

The hardest part of the race was probably the last 200m. I really felt the pain but somehow I was able to push through it.

5) You had a great race at the NCS MOC to qualify for the state meet and another breakthrough at the state meet. Was there a point in the season that showed you that you could run that fast?

Yeah, I had a 21 sec. pr at the viking classic track meet going from 9:42 to 9:21. It opened up the possibilities of me breaking 9:20 and going to state.

6) Any races coming up for you this summer?

I am running the summer track series at Maria Carrillo and the Kenwood footrace on July 4th.

Thank you very much for your time Reesey! AJC

1 comment:

Calvin said...

congrats Reesey, way to go man. seems like you have a lot of talent - I'll be looking for your name this fall, can't wait to see what you'll do to the Spring Lake course. Tear it up!

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