5km Time Trial

I ran Hansen's Road as a warm-up then changed into my spikes ready for the 5km.

The instructions were to run 16 anything at even pace. Well there is a big difference between 16 flat and 16:59 so decided that 16:30 would be a fair target. That's 79 second laps. I wasn't to run it flat out, just comfortably hard. I decided not to run with a watch as we had a lap counter. I say "we" as Mark was also doing this and his aim was to try and break 15 minutes. Yep, that's a different gravy. So I thought that if I could avoid being lapped I'd be doing well.

I did some run throughs and headed over to the start. And we were ready to go. Mark quickly opened up a gap on me but decided to run to my plan. I went through the first km in 3:14 and that felt good. From then on I was trying to keep the lap times 79 seconds or under and I seemed to be doing that by a second or two. With 2km to go I was still running strong, trying to maintain my pace. Then a final push and with a strong last lap (72 secs) I crossed the line in 16:05 (3:13/km). And I didn't get lapped!

A lot surprised by the time as I hadn't intended going that quick and although I was running hard, it wasn't an eyeballs out type affair. It leaves me wondering what I could do if I raced this distance properly. The good news is that's a PB! Not many of them to boost about recently. I'll take it. Could I be peaking at the right time? Oh I do hope so. For the record Mark ran 15:10 and was a little disappointed.

So that's another session to tick off the schedule. The last biggie is the 10km race on Saturday. If today is anything to go by then I should be in sub 34 shape. That would be a nice confidence booster.

Lots of people at track commented on how strong I looked tonight. Watch out Geoff Capes. I'll need every ounce of that strength in 12 sleeps time...

With a 2km warm-down I ran 13.1km all up. Massage in the morning...