1.5 mile shakeout. Princeton 1500 - 4:01.00 (48.44, 66.82, 64.42, 61.34). 4th place in the heat. On the surface, this race was not anything that impressive. I ended up leading through 800 and took us out slow. Mike and I wanted to stress the racing aspect so we had said that if I end up leading, don't feel like I have to be everyone's rabbit but at the pace I was going I would have expected more pressure from the other guys in the race. For whatever reason, everyone seemed timid yesterday despite the beautiful racing conditions. Every heat was out pretty conservatively. So for me, the primary focus was get another punch in the gut and focus on winning my race. The eventual winner of the heat took the lead from me 700m out and started pushing but I did well to stay on him through the bell. I got passed by a couple guys right before 200m to go and I think the order was about the same all the way through the finish. I was pretty aggravated during the race because my shoe came untied and it got to the point on the last lap where I legitimately felt like my foot was going to pop out of it. This wouldn't have magically made me run a 58 last lap but it definitely hindered my stride. I felt like I couldn't drive as much on my toes without my foot coming out of it. I still closed in 45 which isn't bad this time of year. It felt more like a grinding kick than that true pop I feel when I am in really killer shape. That is basically just affirming what I already know, I am strong and just need more exposure to races and race-type efforts in training to get those extra gears. Basically I was out 3 seconds slower than last week and only ran .65 slower overall even with the shoe issue in the last lap. I felt pretty fresh after the race. I think I could have done a solid 800m race after like last week. My mood was surprisingly upbeat after the race. Mike and I did a long cool down on that trail next to the XC course and talked about the upcoming weeks. I just have a lot of enthusiasm right now. I believe in the plan going forward and am excited to pepper in the sharpening workouts and keep racing. This coming week I am going to get in some good workouts and then come back at Widener Invite doing the 1500/800 double again. 2 mile warm up, 5.5 mile cool down.