A couple of PB's

Mon - 10k in 50:04 @ 5:00 (149) - Cahill run with IHS & Lachlan.

Wed - corp cup 23:20 and a 10 sec PB. Lost my Garmin at the gym, so no feedback today. Started off with IHS and Lachlan. HS took off in the first 100m and I lost touch. Went through 1k in 3:35 and then he took off again. I feel behind by about 50m. I wasn't too worried though as I was feeling pretty good. Slowly started reeling them back and caught back up at 3k. It was a pretty windy day so it was nice to tuck in behind Lachlan on the way home. Stopped the clock for a 10 sec PB. Noice one!

Thurs - 8k in 39:33 @ 5:20 (142). Very easy recovery run from Spit junction to city. All that was left to do was take it easy and cross my fingers for Sat.

Sat - woke up to an absolutely shocking day. Very disappointing when you try a peak for an event with the aim of getting a PB and the weather is crap. I was on course marking duties and when jumping out of the car to place the 4k marker (top of the course), I was nearly blown over.

I gave up hope of a really good time, but still had hopes for a sub 39 and a PB. After a quick warm up and a very cold wait for the gun, we were off. It took a couple of k's to warm up and the swirling wind never allowed any kind of rhythm. My shoelace came undone early on and the splits weren't looking as good as i had hoped, but I kept telling myself not to give up.

With a 3:38 final k I finished with a time of 39:22 and a 7 sec PB. Not the 38:xx I had hoped for but a PB none the less.

Splits were:

3:54
3:56
4:02
4:05
3:55
3:59
4:03
4:00
3:51
3:38

36k for the week. Two more weeks of this chapter of the blog finishing with Sydney half (and hopefully another PB) then on to something different.

P.S. Thought I would cut and paste a PM I sent to Rod regarding my training in the past 4-5 months...

"I didn't get the 38 today (39:23), but conditions were terrible. I was pretty confident of a sub 39 and i was even hoping for 38:30.

My training this year has been inconsistent at best with pretty low k's (average < 50k per week). I have done more speed work than I have ever done before though. Not heaps, but at least once every fortnight. I have been doing 4 x 1k reps in 3:40-3:45 and/or 5k tempo at 4:00-4:05 pace. All the other runs I do are easy.>

I am really happy with the results, especially considering the low mileage. The other benefit of the speed work is that my easy run speed has also seemed to have dropped below the 5:00 pace. This is encouraging again especially with the low mileage. So I think some speed work is valuable even for ultra guys"