Thursday, September 01, 2005
5km challenge - twice
Saturday 27th August
I had Decided earlier in the week to use the Challenge as a threshold session, and a few people were hoping to pace off me, so there was no changing my mind (which was unlikely anyway after an ordinary night's sleep). Blue Dog and Lone Wolf were both looking to break 18:40, so I decided to try and give them a slight buffer, but ran as closely to even pace as I could. Funnily enough, there were a few comments at the start about how easy the pace was (as boof and co disappeared into the distance).
First km was a little quick in 3:37, but Blue Dog was sticking right on my heals. Second km was 3:38 and as a tribute to the technological marvel that is Garmin, the third km was also 3:38. The cement overpasses near 4km upset the Garmin a bit, which had us down for a 3:31 fourth km (more like 3:36). Blue Dog was still there, and some quick maths said a 3:30 last km would get us under 18 miuntes. Alas, as I picked up the pace a bit, the Doggie start to drop off, and despite dropping back and picking it up a few times, there was to be no sub-18 today. A silly sprint by me at the end saw a finishing time of 18:09.
I was aboslutely stoked by this - firstly because Blue Dog pulled a massive 21 second PB, but also because the pace felt so comfortable - apart from the last 200m, I wasn't really breathing heavily at all - compared to my 18:03 last month where I struggled from about 2km onwards.
Whether I can hold this pace for the full 21km I am not sure, but it was a great boost for my confidence leading into the Sydney Half. The even pacing was also encouraging.
Unfortunately, I had committed to doing the return leg at a similar speed, so after five minutes of chatting (making this a very unsocial run), I headed back. km splits of 3:39, 3:44, 3:39, 3:37 and 3:34 (plus 11 seconds for Garmin rounding) saw a return 5km in 18:27. This one was tougher, with the last km a bit of a push, but still comfortably in my threshold level. I am hoping that the last 200m of the first one - around 36 seconds - was what did the damage, as I would like to be feeling better at the mid-way point of the half than I did at the end of todays run.
Put off running on Sunday morning, and back-burning made a long run Sunday night unwise, so a big fat zero for Sunday.
Monday 29th August
Headed off to Loretto planning 5 x 900 in 3:00 with 300m jog recovery. Did a proper warm-up and rolled through the first one in 2:57, before a seas of lacrosse sticks appeared on the horizon, and the school had the hide to want to use its sporting ovals for sport. Thought about changing the sessino to some speed work, and did 200m intervals to that effect, but it just didn't feel right, so I headed back to my street (about 650m with a nice uphill gradient) and did four intervals of that. Popped them out in 2:26/2:26/2:28 and 2:27 which was close to my best, yet felt comfortable and controlled (well controlled anyway, there is a sharp rise about 200m from the finish that certain increase lactate production). Recovery runs were not a shuffle, so I was really glad to recover a session I could have easily abandoned.
Tuesday 30th August
Work deadlines meant time was tight, so I slipped out for an easy 7.5 km run, at about 4:30/km. felt comfortable on the flat surface.
Wednesday 31st August
Saturday had obviously gotten to my head, as once again dealing with time pressures I tired to compact my workout, and aimed to do an 8km tempo run 3:45/km, However, the slight gradient at Loretto, coupled with the grass surface meant that I was pushing to hold 3:45/km, before even thinking about 3:38. Did 5km in 18:46 - 1 second over target pace, but felt that pushing further would take me beyond threshold running, so pulled up stumps. 2km eaither side, for a total of 9km in 38:46. Not the greatest session ever (particularly as there was a young girl using the oval that was matching me stride for stride, and looked very comfortable), but solid and I stuck it out.
I'm planning the Striders 10km on Saturday, and have decided that it is time to test myself, so I am planning to go out at 3:30/km for as long as I can, and make a valiant effort at getting back under 35 mintues (for the first time since 1996!). I don't think this will be the month, as I have done very little VO2 work, but I have done enough racing within myself, and it's time to test what I am capable of. It will also be a good hitout for the Sydney Half the following week, and should give me a good idea of what time I can expect in the longer race.
