Thursday, November 30, 2006

You were right, I was wrong

That was a silly mistake to run the time trial last night. I pulled up fairly sore in the lower left leg between the calf and the ankle. I think I may be lucky and will get away with it as it isn't sore this morning, but it certainly shows my legs were not ready for that kind of running just yet. I should have just done another steady 8 to 10k. So do as I say, not as I do. Don't run hard in the first week or two after a marathon, no matter how recovered you think you are!!

Anyway, foolishness aside, it went alright. I decided to target 90 second laps for an 18:45 finish. The first one, predictably, was a bit fast at 85 seconds, but after that I fell into almost spot on 90 seconds every lap. One or two were a little better and one or two slipped off by a second or two and I finished in 18:39. Aerobically I felt fine. There was just that slight sense of fragility in the legs which was enough to make me not try to red-line it too early. I'm sure I had at least another 15 to 20 seconds in reserve if I'd been able to go all out. I'd really like to run an 85-second/lap 5k by the end of the winter.

4 comments:

Tesso said...

Ha ha .... "I think I may be lucky and will get away with it" ... Reminds me of a certain Fawlty Towers episode ;-)

Let's hope you come out the other end in better shape than Basil.

MilesandMiles said...

that was probably risky to run so hard less than a week after a marathon! Everything i have read and heard points to a "reverse taper" with 1-2 runs the 1st week and no resumption of solid training for 3-4 weeks.

MilesandMiles said...

Funny i was also thinking yesterday that i might set myself a goal to run a faster 5 and 10k next year (maybe sub18 and 37:30ish).

Ingo said...

I hear you Steve! I was a second behind you on Wednesday and I ran a Marathon only 3 days before the trial. The bottom line is, if you want to take it easy, you shouldn't go to the track. Somehow it triggers some competitiveness no matter how much you want to hold back... keep me posted on your 85-sec project please. I want to crack the 18min for the first time early next year.