A crack at sub 20 5K

Illusions of greatness

Recently it has been in my head that I might be able to have a crack at a sub 20 5K or at least that was the plan. At the start of training for Seville the club ran a surprise timed 5K run one night on the infamous Mile loop. I clocked 21:15 off no training, so for Seville I did all of my intervals @ 20:30 5K pace on a flat track. With the exception of the last one 3*1600 (6:30/6:45/6:55 horrible session) all where completed at that pace. On Thursday I plan racing the 3rd Clare Athletics 5K Summer Series, so to find out what kind of shape I am in I did the 3*1600 session again on Monday evening. The session was tough and really opened my eyes to the torture I may have to endure to nail it on Thursday. Times 6:23/6:26/6:30, not ideal but the first 1600 was relatively okay and I felt very confident about finish out the session like this. During the second 1600 the wheels came off, badly, the harder I tried to maintain the pace the slower I got. I decided that I would pace the last one @ 6:30 pace which was probably my correct pace for the session. Now this will land me between 20:15 and 20:30.

So there are a couple of points to note about this session both positive and negative:

• It was solo which makes it harder especially when running into the breeze so this pace may not be as hard in a race
• Ran today on a track, race is on an undulating course net uphill for the first 3K down hill flat to 4.5 with a bitch of a hill at the gate of lees road in the last 500m.

Race Plan

I have thought back to the day I covered the watch and ran 14 miles MP from feel. Was completely surprised at the pace been 15 seconds per mile quicker then what I was expecting. So Thursday night the plan is no watch to hold me back or worry about. If this results in me going out too quick and burning up then so be it but it could also result in me going out too quick and holding on till the finish and dipping under 20. Only time will tell.