Sub 35 here we come

[TheEd]

yes marco, and if you feel good after the first 4 then look to increase the pace by 5 seconds a per km for the last 2 .. looking forward to the feedback

TheEd

[marco]

Hi theEd,

I did the 5x2km session today on the local track in blustery conditions, felt good through most of it and for the last lap of the last interval really pushed it out. Even though the times are faster than what you recommended I felt I was working but still had more to give and pretty much recovered by the end of the recovery interval. I forgot my heart rate monitor this morning so didn't have it when I headed out at lunchtime today.

Anyway here are the times with 400m laptimes as well

1st
01:26.3
01:30.9
01:28.7
01:31.7
01:27.4 Total: 7:25

2nd
01:27.9
01:30.7
01:30.3
01:28.4
01:29.0 total: 7:26.3

3rd
01:28.8
01:30.3
01:28.7
01:28.8
01:28.0 total 7:24.6

4th
01:30.5
01:28.4
01:28.1
01:28.4
01:26.0 total 07:21.4

5th
01:26.8
01:30.8
01:28.3
01:29.1
01:23.8 total 07:18.8

Marco

[TheEd]

marco, this quite a fine session .. consistent and speeding up over the last 2 shows there are good things to come

looks like your 6 x 1k session is going to be most enjoyable

a most pleasing read

TheEd

[marco]

Hi TheEd,

Haven't had time to post in a few days so here's a quick recap of the last few days.

At the weekend I did just over 2hrs of an easy run and managed to get in 24km, the longest I've gone in a while and felt good throughout, although did feel pretty tired later on in the day and the day after.

That was followed up by the easy run's which were needed as legs were still a bit tired.

Today I did the 6x1km at 3:35mins/km.

The intervals went as follows: 3:26,3:34.1,3:34.7,3:35.7,3:33,3:30.8

I went out way too fast for the first one and this shows in the following intervals but still managed to keep it consistent and then tried to push it out for the last two.

I still find this session tougher than the 2km intervals but it wasn't as tough as the last time I did it so it seems I'm somehow adapting to the training which is good.

10km race on Sunday so will follow the plan till Thursday and maybe do the fartlek session on Friday and rest Saturday.

Marco

[TheEd]

the 1k session is normally easier and if you get the pace judgement right on the first 1k then things will no doubt be more enjoyable

for Thursday you can do a 30 minutes with the last 10 minutes slightly quicker, finishing off feeling good

enjoy

TheEd

[marco]

I'd agree if I didn't go out so hard on the first I probably would have found the 1km intervals easier alright.
However I've noticed since I've started this specific 10km training I'm finding the shorter intervals with shorter recovery times harder than the longer intervals with slightly longer recover periods.

I'm putting this down also to the type of training I did over the last year which was mainly tempo and threshold runs, so it will take a little bit of time to adjust and adapt to these faster efforts.

[TheEd]

we can reassess training speeds after the next race or trial

you seem to be moving in the right direction though

enjoy

TheEd

[marco]

No problem, overall I'm happy with my progress and as you said I'm moving in the right direction and body is holding up too which is important.

Will get back to you with feedback after the 10km on Sunday

Marco

[marco]

Hi theEd,

Well today I did the first 10km of the season and actually the first in a long time that wasn't part of a triathlon. Based on how well training has been going for me I went in to the race with and two goals in mind:

1st main goal: beat 37:30 which would at least match my 2km interval sessions

2nd (harder!) goal: aim for sub 37

Unfortunately I didn't get to go sub 37 but at least I did beat 37:30 and went around in a time of 37:18

It was an anti-clockwise course and the first 3 to 4km was into a nasty headwind with strong gusts at times, my idea was to maybe see if I could maintain 3:45min/km until the course turned and we had the wind on our backs. Unfortunately that wasn't the case and at the 3rd/4th km I was running much slower and would be very hard to make that time up. It was a good hard run and conditions were'nt on my side but there will be a next time! Also had a good last km and absolutely buried myself for it

Anyway here are the splits:

1 03:44.7
2 03:47.6
3 03:57.3
4 03:58.5
5 03:46.4
6 03:37.3
7 03:40.4
8 03:41.1
9 03:40.6
10 03:23.1
total 37:18.0

1st 5km: 19:14.5
2nd 5km: 18:03

Wow didn't realise my 2nd 5km was that much faster!

Anyway will spend the next 2-3 days doing recovery runs to get the race out of the legs. After that what do you reckon should I aim to start another round of the plan on Thursday?

Looking forward to the feedback as always

Marco

[TheEd]

nice going marco, it looks as though the conditions were quite difficult

give yourself a few days recovery and let's chat after Tuesday's run which is normally Day 1 on the program

over to you

TheEd