Life after sub 40

I always laugh when sportsmen are interviewed after performances when they say, "It hasn't really sunk in yet". It strikes me as a very odd thing to say.

Whilst I was certainly glad to break 40min, the achievement really sunk in the few days afterwards. It has been a goal that has consumed more of my subconsious than I thought. After my very first 10k race in 2005 (46:xx), my goal was always to break 40. It was definitely harder than I thought and took much longer to achieve than I imagined. Narrowly missing this goal twice over a period of time made this goal seem unattainable and to finally do it was great - really satisfying. I celebrated by cancelling Sunday's long run and having beer and pizza instead!
The start of the week wasn't much better training wise. I had a two day training course and didn't get to run on either of those days. I was doing corporate performance training at NIDA (a la Mel Gibson). The course was predominantly around presentation skills and it really got me out of my comfort zone. Being filmed presenting in front of a group of people and being critiqued is tough. It definitely showed me why I needed the training - lots of um's and arhh's. The two days left me drained with no energy to run.

Friday saw a good interval session - Gate to Gate - 4 x 1k with 2 min recoveries.

Intervals were done in:

• 3:44 (172)
• 3:50 (177)
• 3:43 (179) and
• 3:47 (180)

The HR was up compared to a couple of weeks ago, but the reps felt quite comfortable.

This morning was meant to be a long ride, however time constraints meant I could only get out for an hour. 24k in 59 mins. 3 laps of North Head in 11:06 (148), 10:40 (148) and 10:19 (150). The lack of riding was evident as the legs felt quite sore this afternoon.