Gordon

I seem to have become a right little regular at the Wednesday night track sessions of late. I do enjoy interval workouts, both for the running and the opportunity to do a bit of socializing. My efforts last night were nothing remarkable. It was 6 by 1000 on a 6:30 cycle, and I did something like 3:43, 3:41, 3:40, 3:34 (oops), 3:40, and 3:37. Maybe a tad on the slow and cruisy side, but still fast enough to have the desired effect I should hope.

A young South Australian, who has come to Japan via a stint in London, joined last night for the first time. He introduced himself by saying, "Hi, I'm Gordon, I have been running for three months and have only done a couple of races. Two months ago I ran the Yokota 5k in 18:01". Running three months? 18:01 5k??  Chatting to him later he also revealed that he ran the London marathon without any training in 3:31. Has this lad got potential or what? Turns out he is really a cyclist and has just come to running because after moving to Japan discovered that there is nowhere to ride (not strictly true, I think the triathletes will sort him out). So that puts a slightly different slant on it. He already has an aerobic base. So it will be interesting to see how much he does improve. Will he go sub 16:00 one day? I think probably yes. I'd say sub 17:00 this coming winter and sub 16:00 the following year. And, if he wants to train up for it, a sub 3-hour marathon on his next outing. Its kind of exciting seeing all that potential right there in front of you.