When I set myself the goal of racing 5k in 22:45 or faster at the
beginning of 2017 I thought I'd be closing the year by writing about the
successful achievement of this goal. Unfortunately not! My fastest 5k
remains the 23:32 achieved at the Tuggeranong Parkrun in March. Recent
racing and form has me feeling optimistic about running a 22:45 5k in
2018. Conditions will need to be good though — cool and calm.
Recently it's been very warm in the mornings and as a big sweater, I
don't do well in warm conditions. For the CJs' 5k lunch runs in spring
it was inevitably blowing a gale.
Last weekend I had a good 'double' of races — Tuggeranong
Parkrun 5k on Saturday in 24:06 (very warm at 22C) and on Sunday, the
'Tour de Ridges' 10.6k trail race in 57:09 which equalled my PB from
2014. The other run that gives me confidence was an interval session the
previous Tuesday — 3 x 1k in 4:33, 4:22 and 4:33 with 1k jog
recoveries. That's my 5k race goal pace, run on a warm (26C) day. Bring
on some cool mornings!
One thing I've struggled to get right on a 'traditional' training plan
(as opposed to Verheul training), is the correct effort/pace for easy
days. I've always tended to run too fast. I've never had enough
separation of effort between hard days and easy days. Former Australian
10,000m record holder Shaun Creighton talked about this in a recent
podcast. You can listen to the interview here, starting at 63 minutes.
Shaun has recently broken the Australian M50 5000m record, running 15:34.71.
He said that he's always run the easy days very easy, the reason being
that in order to improve, the body is stressed on hard days and allowed
to recover (and supercompensate) on easy days. This is something I want
to improve on in 2018 — run very easily and relaxed on easy
days.
Celebrating after the Tour de Ridges on Sunday
