TROWERY TRIUMPHS IN TT

Stablemate Bjorn Trowery destroyed his 10K PB in a time trial along the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Bjorn battled San Fran’s “finicky” forecast, foggy, 52 Fahrenheit temperature, and 88% humidity, to take a whopping 96 seconds off his previous best clocking, set last July. 38:03 was the “official” watch time.

The Stable News got the low-down from Bjorn before he had time to catch his breath:

“[They] weren’t the most perfect of conditions, but I showed up healthy to the starting line and felt like I had a shot to not only PR but truly see where I was, fitness-wise.

The whole thesis for this training block revolved around working on my weaknesses and finding the pain. I never really focused or worked on threshold, and found I never really felt that heavy lactate feeling because I never pushed myself there. Enter Coach Stazza, who for the better part of the past month or so following my half marathon PB of 1:25:37, dialled up a ton of longer, faster workouts which made me question why I voluntarily pay this man to put me through this type of pain.

The fun part is that I could see the changes and see the benefits in real time. This race confirmed that. I typically negative split big, but feel like perhaps I’ve left some time on the clock, and this training cycle gave me the confidence to push hard from the start, hold on for dear life, and kick with whatever I had at the end.

Miles one to three felt fine; I was on pace and felt like I was working hard but hadn’t bitten more than I could chew. Mile four brought the work. A few seconds of slippage, but nothing I knew a kick at the end couldn’t fix. Mile five is where I found the pain. I thought of the eight x five-minutes workout at 10K pace I did on a terrible dirt track at the University of California, Berkeley a few weeks back, and thought if I made it through that workout and nailed my times, I could do it here. The training really prepped me for the worst, and I finally found the worst in that mile.

Mile six came, I looked at my watch one more time, then kicked hard for about 400ish meters, as a bunch of tourists and street vendors looked on in total confusion at this guy in a singlet, chain, and really short shorts, running like there’s no tomorrow. 38 and change on the watch. I said a loud expletive, caught my breath, and smiled all the way back to the start line.

I’ll have a half-marathon right around the start of my proper marathon block in late June/July. I wouldn’t mind another 10K because this really brought out a side to my running I didn’t know I had in me. London for a sub-3 is the main goal, and October is right around the corner.”

Assistant coach Ally Smith gave us this hot take: “Bjorn ran an excellent TT. He trusted the process, and Coach Stazza gave him the confidence to go for it—and he did. I can’t wait to see how he does in his next race.”

Coach Stazza, sipping his finest Shiraz in a hot tub, added, “Bjorn needed a good dose of threshold running to become comfortable when he’s uncomfortable. It worked a treat, and you can tell he’s enjoying the pain and wants more of it, hee-hee.”