The indicators for a strong interval workout last night were very weak given that I started the day a bit worse for wear after a work party the night before to welcome a new starter. At lunch time I even had a short kip on the floor of the meeting room. By 4:00 I was feeling like there would be no problem running, but wouldn't be doing anything remarkable. It turned out that wasn't exactly true. After a 5k warm-up in Yoyogi in cool drizzle, Gareth, Colin, Mika, and I hit the track just in time for the pre-workout spiel. The workout had been ordained to be 6 by 1000 m. Satohi will run her marathon in Hokkaido this Sunday, so I ended up spending the first repeat running with her at 4:20 pace deciding what she was going to do for the evening. I prescribed that thereafter she should run several 1-k repeats attempting to hit her target marathon pace. I then resolved to do the next five reps at my interval pace and left Satohi to manage her own workout. (She ended up running them all a bit fast, so let's hope that helps her understand how important and difficult it is to start the marathon at the right pace!)
Over the next fve repeats I ended up running the fastest, or very close to it, set of 1-k reps I have ever done. Compared to last Wednesday morning when I could only manage five reps of around 3:43, last night I pulled out the following: 3:35, 3:33, 3:30, 3:33, 3:26 The last one was very hard but satisfying. Juergen, who is at least 20 seconds faster than me over 5 k and nearly always leads me around the intervals, drafted me the whole way and then tried to pull out and overtake me down the last 100 m, only to discover that I still had a finishing kick left. Hee hee...it was good.
So, I don't know where that came from or what it means with respect to a potential 5-k time, but I'll take it and hope that it puts a little bit more juice in the tank.
Total distance: 12 km
Distance for week: 28 km
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About Me
- Stephen Lacey
- Born in 1963 under a camphor laurel tree beside Bilambil Creek, I now live in Tokyo with my Japanese wife and three sons. I started running in 2002 and my addictive personality soon clasped this foolish pastime to its bosom. I am also an enthusiastic amateur brewer and have won a few competitive home brewing awards in my time. Diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2015, today I can no longer run, and my blog posts are more likely to concern the waxing and waning of my condition.
5 comments:
Woooo, big improvement from last time. You need that Juergen character stirring you up more often.
Probably the result of that liquid carb loading...
Everytime I read your blog you have had a bit of a tipple! Good training regime though, I'm sure it must increase stamina and endurance in trying circumstances;)
Wow that is some impressive splits there Mr. Australian-living-in-Japan.
I would love to be able to run 1km at those times let alone string 5 together.
Looks like a 5km pb is on the horizon and certainly well deserved with the effort you (Juergen) have put into training.
Great to know you have a finishing kick. Doesn't that just hurt the most but is THE single most satisfying part of a race - IMHO.
That indicates a good 5k time Steve. Sitting on 3:30s will be hard although, with your endurance, who knows.
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