Everything went pretty well for 2021 when I was 50. I ended up doing lots of fast times on the tready (which calibrated with the Runn sensor is accurate for distance) but when I switched to the track and started trying spikes I blew out my Achilles so that was that for the year. :(
In the end I did;
Happy enough with those times but now to do them outside ... at 51! ...
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The last 150m was embarrassingly bad but I'll take that, a veteran's PB and 5s inside the breaking50 target!
Delayed the attempt by a day because my right hammie was a bit sore and the weather was sh*t. And today was the only half decent day for the next week it looked like. Still, a massive headwind on the back straight though! Started out fine and hit 100m in 17 something so as always out too fast. 200m in 35 something. Sheesh. I consciously tried to slow down but 300m in 50 something (probably 54?) and then hit the lap button in 71 something. Either I was on for something special ... or ... uh oh! By 600m I could feel my legs going to jelly. That friggin headwind! By 650m I wasn't actually sure I would be able to run and finish at all?! I tried to relax and told myself I had a lot of time in the bank. One leg after the other. The last 100m wasn't pretty. My legs felt like lead and I had lost all form entirely. I started to think I was going to lose 5s in the last 100m alone. Hit the line and stopped the watch. Almost couldn't bear to look because I honestly expected to see 2:35 or something. :( But no, 2:26. I almost couldn't believe it. I knew that meant I held a 75s last lap which is crazy with such bad form. Allowed myself a little fist pump because well, it was 3-4s faster than I ever imagined. Imagine what I could do if I went out in 73s and there wasn't a massive headwind on the back straight ... I'd say sub 2:25 ... but hey. And with that, that's it. Done. I'm not going to do the 400m so breaking50 is achieved. Now, to go get those middle distance PBs and longer distance times outside rather than on the tready ... After Friday's successful but disappointing effort I figured I might as well just knock off the 1K target too because it was pretty much the goal pace for the 1500 anyway. And I figured even at the 95% that I am following this cold and with tired legs it'd still be 'easy'. Problem was weather was due to crap out Tuesday for quite a few days ... sooo ... rather than wait for Friday it was time to give up Monday rest day!
Having said that, it was still really windy down the back straight, but thankfully a 1K TT only requires 2 passes of the back straight and 3 of the home straight! :) I warmed up without the chest strap because I didn't want any negative thoughts if my HR was too high and after some strides down the back straight I just basically went for it. I consciously held back this time because I knew I only needed 39.5s 200s and every time I go out too fast. Yep, 18s for the first 200 ... sigh ... pulled it back a lot and went through 200 in 37s. Kept it under control and 400 was in 77s, so I was holding 20s 200s which was ok cause I had 3s in the bank. The 2nd 400s felt pretty controlled and I went through 800 in 2:35 so a 77-78s lap. Fine. I knew I had 42s for the last 200 so unless the wheels fell off it'd be fine. Held it steady around the bend and then just went for it in the last 100m. My form was going a bit and I figured I was probably going to do 40s for the last 200 and hit 3:15 but stopped the clock at 3:13.65 so the last 200 was 38s or so. Not bad. Certainly the easiest of the breaking50 goals IMO. Now, for the 800 and 2:31 ... eep! A couple of weeks ago I did 8 x 400 in 77s average with a 90s rest between intervals so I was feeling confident on hitting a sub-5 1500 and 5:20 mile this block. That of course was until I got knocked around by a pretty bad head cold for a week ... and counting. I still tried to hit the times (that is 20s 100s) on Tuesday as planned but after 409m in 1:17 I could barely breathe and my legs were jelly. ABORT. Feeling slightly better today / Friday I figured I'd at least have a crack at the breaking50 target times of 'just' 5:09 and 5:34. Easy-peasy right. WRONG!
I basically needed to hit 82s laps (i.e. 5s slower than what that 8x400 workout suggests was possible) and I started out at what felt like a relaxed pace but I still hit 209m in 41-42s so that was sub-5 pace still. Eep! By 409m it was 1:20 so still going too fast. At least through 600m I wasn't completely wasted this time but I was still consciously trying to hold back and breathe. I hit 809 in about 2:40-2:41 but I was really starting to wish I had been slower by like 5s by that stage :( Kept telling myself I really should finish the mile at least even if it meant I missed the time. But gawd, it was hurting by 1K which I hit in around 3:25 so I knew I was slowing badly ... but not totally jelly legged yet. I tried my best to hold form and keep breathing and hit 1209m in 4:06-4:07. I figured I had to do 62s for the next 300m to make 5:09 and felt a bit daunted by that but thankfully then I realised it was only 291m to 1500 so I might still make it. I really started trying hard down the back straight, not daring to look at the watch at the 200m to go mark. I just kept going for it to the 400m hurdle mark (which I'd measured was roughly 9m before the 100m start line so effectively 1,500m from the mile start). Lapped the watch at the marker and it said 5:08 something so I knew I was GOOD but still had 109m to go. For some reason in that moment I thought the target was 5:31 so I thought I had 22s and it'd be close! I kept pumping the arms and trying not to fall over. Hit the line and stopped the watch at 5:31:04 and for a minute I was really fretting that I'd missed the mile target cause I still thought it was 5:31 something but figured I'd be ok with being just .04 into the 5:31s. It wasn't until I looked the time up on my phone and saw it was 5:34 something that I breathed a sigh of relief. So there it was anyway, 5:08 something for the 1500 and 5:31:04 for the mile. Slower than I did a couple of years ago but with the head cold I'll take it. I'm basically as disappointed as I'm fit! I just know I have 10s faster in my legs if I wasn't all coldy. The 2:40 / 2:50 800m splits is pathetic. Anyway, onwards to 800/1K but I've got unfinished business here ... Had a 2 x 3k @ threshold followed by 1k @ 3:35-3:40 session planned but I warmed up really well with my HR hovering around just 115. The only issue I had was my left knee was a bit sore from possibly yesterday's Vaporfly 2 trial or maybe just too much garden work? In any case it didn't get any worse during warm up and disappeared mostly. Also, the muscle soreness in my calves from the 25 x 200m @ 39s on Tuesday at the track was mostly gone and I knew from that that I had the speed in the legs (that's 3:15 pace).
All things considered it felt like 3:40s (i.e. the 11:00 #breaking50 target) would be too conservative given I was doing 3:45s for 5k and I'm fitter now than then IMO so I figured I'd start out around 17 kph pace (i.e. 3:32s). The first K went pretty fast and my HR was only 165 by the end of the first K which I did in 3:32 (according to Zwift anyway). Definitely started getting hard in the 2nd K and I was counting down to half way / 1500m (which I didn't even bother looking at the time) but I saw my pace was now sub 3:30 (i.e. the treadmill was speeding up). Decided to knock off 0.2 kph from the speed to be sure I didn't blow and pace dropped out again to 3:35 or so. Held that treadmill speed to the end but the measured speed crept back up to 3:30s by the end. Thought about bumping speed up with 400m to go but I knew I was going to easily hit the 3k goal and also the 2k goal of 7:07 so decided not to overdo it. HR was well over 170 now and I was working hard for sure. Maxxed out at 177 bpm. Blimey. Anyway, did the 3k in 10:34-10:35 and the 2k in 7:02-7:03. Zwift had the Ks at 3:32, 3:31, 3:30 but it truncates and Strava et al have them at 3:33, 3:32 and 3:31. Onto the mile and 1500m now! Life got in the way of the TT attempt last Friday when I hadn't recovered at all from various late nights with some G&Ts involved :) Then on a bit of a whim I did 10k in sub-50 minutes at sub-140 HR out in Minyip while quite hungover so I knew my fitness was there. Just, could I recover? A couple of decent nights sleep and no G&Ts and it was worth a shot before another 10 days of family, friends and fun started ...
Warmed up fine and did some strides and 200m at HMP and all felt good. Reset Zwift, had a pee etc and was good to go. Set tready to the goal pace and eased into it. HR was mid 150s for the first few K and legs felt so much better than last Friday. Got through 5k in 20:42 and I knew I was 7s down but the treadmill naturally speeds up as the belt heats up even though I don't change the speed. Soon enough it was ticking off 4:07 Ks and a few 4:06s. I went through 10k still about 7s down and I knew if I maintained that delta I could finish fast and make it up. So I didn't get greedy and speed up tready at all. Kept alternating between counting off the Ks and counting off 5 minute intervals. Got through a 2nd episode of Restoration Australia. Was hard to stay motivated. 50 minutes. 55 minutes. 1 hour and 14.55k which I knew was close but a little under. Noticed that the measured speed (from Runn sensor) had dropped a bit to 4:08s even though I hadn't touched the tready. Still, legs felt good so I knew I'd be alright. Told myself I'd pick it up with 5k to go ... got to 16.1k ... decided against it. It was starting to hurt. Got to 20 minutes to go and I kind of knew I would make it. My HR was sitting at around 162 so I knew I had a lot of HR left. Right hammie was starting to tighten, left calf and foot arch too. Changed my gait and foot strike a bit to ease that away. With 2k to go I knew I should speed it up a bit to make up those 7s. +0.1 kph. Saw the speed drop to under 4:05s. Another +0.1 kph. Soon enough it was 1k to go and I knew I had it. Quite enjoyed the last K actually. Cranked speed right up to under 4 min/K and almost forgot to stop the tready at 21.1k. Could have kept going for sure. Interestingly the speeds I had the tready at were actually less than what I did that "88:06" HM at back in October so now I'm quite sure that was even faster. I didn't have the Runn sensor back then and hadn't calibrated the belt anywhere near as accurately as I have now. I'd say that one was close to 86 flat but hey I wasn't 50 so it doesn't count ... this one does!!! :). Last Friday I was feeling ok and the plan was to have a crack at the 10k time of 39:26 and I warmed up and started out ok but 500m in the Runn Sensor went flat! Thank heavens it wasn't 9,500m in!!!
Impatiently I tried again Saturday but by then my HR was high and it was the start of some virus. 18k LSR Sunday with Max which was glorious and it was still high. Total rest Monday. Then see how the week goes ... Tuesday I warmed up and my HR was ok, a bit high but ok. I figured rather than the maintenance session that I had planned I'd start out at 3:55s ish and just see what my HR said. If it was high I'd just do max of 5k as a good threshold session. Anyway, it was ok after the first K and the 2nd K too. So I started getting hopeful. By 3K I was feeling pretty light headed and I'd vague out occasionally to then snap back into lucidity and check HR. Still under 165 so that was ok. Made sure I kept drinking. By 5K I was struggling to work out from my splits how much I needed to speed up (which anyone who knows me shows how vague I was) by I knew I had too. I also couldn't quite remember what my target time was but I was pretty sure it was around 39:20. I think I worked out by 5k I was 15s up on 4k/min pace so 19:45 and I figured if I could do a couple more Ks at 3:57s or so (as I had done) then I would need to do the last 3k faster. Was feeling pretty woozy at times. By 6K I was really wanting to jump off and call it a day but my HR was still under 170 at 167 or so I think so I knew my body could do it if just my head didn't black out :) By 7K I knew I had to speed up so I cranked it up a notch on the tready. By 8K I really, really wanted to quit. I just tried to focus on the 400m lap graphic on the tready and watch the metres tick by. I kept telling myself how proud I'd be if I stuck in there but I was 'dying a bit' for sure. HR was 170+ now and I knew if I could just get to 1 mile to go I would be ok ... but it would hurt. With 1 mile to go I cranked tready up again. I did a 3:53 K so I knew that bought me 7s but for the life of me I didn't know if that was enough! My legs were pretty wobbly by now and everything was a bit hazy. With 500m to go I cranked it up again. And with 200m to go again. I was watching the 'best 10k' time on Zwift come down and down to under 40 and then to 39:33 and finally 39:20 and I kept going till it hit 13k in distance, because I had started the tready before 3k to make sure it was at 15.1kph when I started. So that was it 39:20. I'll take it, especially at the tail end of a virus. 10k track/tready #breaking50 - DONE! Was umming and ahhhing about whether to even try today but I'm glad I did! Warm up wasnt great with my HR spiking up to 128 @ 10 kph when it normally sits below 120. But decided I'd give it a go anyway.
Started out at 3:50 pace (which is 15.5 on tready) just like I planned and hit the first K bang on. Clicked tready up 0.1 to 15.6. Then through 1 mile the HR was 164 which was 4 higher than I hoped but decided to keep going and try to relax. Next K in 3:49. Clicked it up another 0.1 to 15.7. HR was now getting up to 167-168 and through half way I felt ok but HR was higher than I'd hoped. Through 3rd K in 3:47 so I knew I needed to get a move on! Cranked tready up another 0.1 to 15.8. HR was 170 now I knew I could hold that so through 4th K in 3:44 I knew another K at that pace and I'd have 18:55. After 100m of the 5th K or so cranked it up 0.2 to 16 kph and knew 3:40s would be ok. HR started getting up there but I was in home stretch and I knew barring any accident I was going to do it. Cranked it to 16.2 for last 250m or so. Watched the Zwift fastest 5K come down and down first under 20 then it flashed 18:55 and 18:52 and I stopped. Strava and TP say 18:53 so it must be 18:52.5 - 18:52.99 and Zwift just truncates. Certainly within the 50% of Bekele legit 5k WR and even Cheptegei's dodgy one so that's good. Ok, after having slept (poorly) on it and in the spirit of an "old man shouting at a cloud" I've decided to not recognize any of the WRs including and since the breaking2 sham on 12th October 2019 for several reasons, namely;
So as much as I'd like to bring 'data to this values fight', it boils down to this ... all the WRs for <5000m are >5 years old (with most actually 10-20 years old) and using pre-breaking2 tech, yet all the ones >=5000m were >10 years old until they all got broken this year by dudes wearing new / secret shoe tech and without any out of competition drug testing. How much it is the shoes or doping we'll never know but because I have access to neither, and because I have to draw a line somewhere lest condoning the erosion of what was a once beautiful and symmetrical 'breaking50' goal, I will consider all the times including and since 12th October 2019 to have an asterisk (*) next to them and I am ignoring them. There, I've said it. Damn you clouds!!! I just knew it was going to happen! I had a 4 day window from my bday to run a sub-87 HM before the WR was inevitably reduced. Yes, 2020 has seen the 5k, 10k and now HM world record's broken. 2020, the year of no testing and Vaporfly v Adizero shoe tech, no, nothing funny going on :( ...
Anyway, the HM WR is now 57:32 so that means 86:18 for me now which is 4:05 Ks or 14.7 kph ... I got to find 2 minutes off my PB somehow ... it really isn't fair IMO. |
AuthorHi, I'm trying to get within 50% of the men's WR for all running distances 400m to HM. Sounds easy doesn't it ... Archives
June 2021
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