Training Log Archive: ColmM

Sunday long run with the club.
Got a message saying a few of the guys in my group weren't showing up, so dropped by the starting point but since there was nobody there I ran on and found another group. Turns out 2 of the boys did show a few mins late, but oh well.
Got a decent group and ran south towards Radley, Kennington and then did the fringes of Bagley. I planned to do a little more but in the end I was flagging after yesterday so just called it a day.

shakeout.

Cuppers 5k - 16'01.1 (PB). Happy with that of course, but keen to sneak sub-16 soon. As James put it - the best of both worlds, no mullet during school-term, but you know it's achievable.

Was keen after the one a few weeks ago to settle in and not use my watch too much. I felt my watch and lap times got to my head a bit much last time, whereas not knowing today let me focus on the running.

I sat back at the start, a la Jamie Parkinson 3 weeks ago, and tried to settle in and come up to my group. People did go off a bit quick, so I moved up through mini packs over the first couple laps and then got into a nice group of 4. I sat in this pack at the back and I knew these were the fellas who had put 16min on the signup sheet. We were going alright so I was happy out, but as time went on, I slowly moved up. Heard them shout 3'22 as we hit 2k, so knew I was on fairly similar pace to last time, but feeling more comfortable to hold it. A gap started to open so I hopped into 3rd with a couple of k to go. I sat on again, but with maybe 4 laps to go I could sense the guy ahead was starting to waver, so I went by. The guy leading our pack had done all the work and as the pace was starting to wane, I took it on with 1300m or so to go, this was more work than I anticipated, and he came back by with 800m to go. I set my eyes on his heels and got on the treadmill. I heard an official shout "14'50" as we came through the bell, which put the pressure on. Jared in front was picking it up slowly, so I stuck on with 100m to go we both opened up into full sprint.
Gave it all really, maybe pulled up a metre or two before the line but we'll never know. Looked at the watch and it said 16'00.4 which was rough but here we are.
Lots of ways to find that time - wet track today, need some new shoes, may even go carbon - though would be a shame not to break 16 first.
Anyway, still a decent PB and the sub-16 is coming.

Estimated times from looking at the gps afterwards:
400m - 38 / 76 / 76 / 77 / 79 / 77 / 78 / 79 / 78 / 78 / 79 / 77 / 69
km splits - 3'10 / 3'14 / 3'15 / 3'16 / 3'05

Easy morning loop with J&L, and a couple strides in harcourt hill. Doing another 5k track race tomorrow and I've tapered more than I intended, but we'll see how it is. Have been trying to make sure I get enough sleep in general, which has been good, but it has impacted morning training (it's been non-existent).

Easy port meadow and Wytham fringe loop with Euan.

Taper session with OUCCC at the track.
3x 1k [2’00], 4x 300m [1’00].
1ks at about 5k pace, 300s at about 1500m pace.
Pretty solid session, expected to be stiff after the football so was wary of how this would be. Had some stiffness warming up but didn’t really impact on the running too much.

3’14, 3’12, 3’14, 50, 50, 50, 50.

Some sprint-o around Brooke’s by south parks. Thought I could use a bit of sprint-o just to get me used to planning ahead and focused on reading the detail well. An easy pace but still good stuff - nice tricky area.
Good fun and think I got out of it mostly what I hoped. Wasn’t finding it easy but kept planned ahead mostly, one poor routechoice and one mistake as well.

7 aside, all good fun but there was no giving up and started getting quite tired toward the end, the muscles towards the outside of my lower back also getting a bit stiff / sore. Don’t think it’s a concern but one to check in on. Expecting a bit of stiffness tomorrow.

Easy lap of port meadow with Toby. Lovely evening for it.