Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Envent 5 - 5000m
Attempted to go the gym last night, as it was "Desperate Housewives" night, but was told that I needed to be home in case Louis woke up, to intercept any possible distractions to Evergreen Terrace (or wherever the fuck they live)! Nice to have a TV show put before your goals! Tonight I was supposed to be meeting up with a Throws coach (you know, javelin and stuff), but the rainfall we so badly need decided to intervene. Come hell or high water, I will be at the gym tomorrow. Foot is feeling better, but I'm in no rush to get back running.
anyway, onto less whinging topics...
Event
5000m
PB
16:05
Background
Well, finally - an event I'm actually good at. Apart from the CoolRunning 5km Challenge in December, where I ran a respectabloe 16:51, this is not an event I have raced much in recent years. Back at my peak, I used to race it once or twice a month, and ran about ten sub 17's in a row.
Potential
A week before my stress fracture earlier this year, I think I was capable of sub 16:20, and I certainly hadn't peaked. I know that if I do the training, I can run really well in this race. It's not as strong as my key range (800-3000m), but I should be able to pick up quite a few points without totally exhausting myself (this is the event where the proper decathletes start to swear).
Goal
sub-16 - this is a personal goal as well as part of training for the Double
Double Decathlon Goal
This is where the challenge begins. Running sub-17 in a double is rare (it's only happened twice in the last 5 World Champs), so it's worth a couple of hundred points
over a non-distance runner (the current world record holder, a former Olympic decathlete, could only manage 18.23 in his world record). However, unlike a fast 100m, a 5000m close to a PB would leave me fairly shattered, and with the 800m the next event, some fuel has to be left in the tank. It's a matter of how much I need to hold back.
A run that is almost all aerobic (just slower than 10km pace) would be ideal, as the recovery is fairly quick because of minimal lactic build-up (unlike the 800m). Something between 16:30 and 16:50 would be ideal (700-750 points), but would need me to be running about 15:50 at the time (which coincidently is my goal). Lots of practice at pacing, and trying to build a huge VO2 max will be needed.
From here on in, the competition becomes a juggling act - trying to run as fast as possible, yet still leaving enough for the later events. It also becomes a much tougher mental challenge, as you will be going into the next 15 events already fatigued. Why am I doing this again?
