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!!! :).
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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! |
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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