That time of the month again. I was sore all over during the warm up but was confident that I had done everything right. I had an early dinner, was in bed before 8.30pm, wore my long skins, had plenty of fluids beforehand. I was pumped.
The warm up and strides didn't feel too good but as soon as we started I was on fire. I was flying along and did 1:45 for the first 500m. Then I realised how silly I was so I slowed down and let the lead pack go. I was quickly overtaken by others and eventually made it to the turnaround at halfway in 5:58min. I was on target for a sub 12 and was feeling really good.
Then the wheels came off. I struggled past Tess and more people overtook me. Just as I reached Tess the 12min pacing group went past me and I groaned aloud I think. I had no excuse I just didn't want it enough.
Going up the hill I almost stopped to walk so I knew mentally I was in trouble.
I struggled home and 400m from the finish I saw Matty coming up, I increased the pace slightly and then when Matt reached me he told me to run hard and think of Canberra. so I did. Simple as that. As usual I sprinted hard and it didn't hurt anymore than the running I had been doing but I was damn fast. I flew past 'Afrikan Will' who had overtaken me 200m back and kept going till the finish. I crossed in 12:14 and was happy with the fast finish. At the 500m I was on target for a 12:20 finish so I had smashed the last few hundred metres. Now I just have to get the desire to do that the whole 3km!!!!!
11 comments:
Hahaha when ever I read your blog I am reminded how tough we are on our selves!! Good on you! I am going to be cheering in Canberra this year, post 6ft! It will be fun to watch you whizz around :-)
These 3KTT are bloody hard I reckon. More than any other distance they freak me out.
Still we will get on top of them eventually and when we next do a 3K PB it will be all the sweeter.
Not saying that your effort wasn't sweet cause it was taken in the larger view.
As Kit, I think you are sometimes a little hard on yourself.
Good on you Clairie for the gutsy finish. But before being hard or congratulatory, isn't the idea of these 3-km time trials meant to be a gauge of where your fitness is at, and then use that result to adjust your upcoming training? In what way do you feed the results of these regular time trials back into your training, if at all, and if not, how could you? Does your coach review the numbers and make suggestions based on them?
One other comment is that I know I can find it hard to get the best out of myself doing hard efforts so early in the morning. Maybe temperature can have a big bearing on that (with cold making it harder to get a time comparable with one you'd run later in the day). But I suppose if you just use it as biofeedback for planning your training, I guess it doesn't matter as long as it is done at the same time.
I think your as tough as nails, doing a good run, with a sore foot and everything!
If you find out where that stuff comes from that makes you put in a super final 500m, please do let all of us know so we can all go get some for when we need it the most :-).
Hmmmm, so you did a pretty good first 1500m, and an even better last 500m. It was just that 1k in between that you lost focus. If you can get that one sorted by February I reckon you will be in the 11:45 range or better.
Sorry we had to yell at everyone to keep on the concrete path, Pat called out to a runner ahead of him to do the same as the path was the measured course. And he gave us strict instructions as to where everyone had to run.
Actually I think that little stretch is your curse. Lets go do some super fast hill reps on it soon so that when we hit it in the TT we will fly up it!
PS Its Afrikan Will (not Matt). Good to see you stir him up :-)
Nice finish Clairie - good time too ;-)
If you ever learn to pace yourself properly Clairie, you will smash the 12 minute barrier. 1:45 for the first 500m is way too fast. A more conservative start will have you capable of a stronger middle section and then you can still blast to the finish. Anyway, 12:14 is nothing to sneeze at.
That is a good time Clairie, and as Matt said you do have a sore foot which wouldn't have helped matters.
14 secs is nothing, about 70m over 3k, I'm sure with a little less enthusiasm at the start you will be under 12 again in Feb.
The early 3:30/km pace was a tad ambitious Clairie.
To add to Stephen and Horrie's thoughts, I think you'd be far better off running these at 'even pace' just to get the feel of even pace for your longer races.
I think 3:54/km (1:57 for the first 500m) would be ideal, giving you a realistic chance to run 11:42.
How many coaches do you have?
Too fast, too slow, even spilt, strong finish ... ahhhhh!
I've got nothing its all been said earlier. Good luck next time Clairie. Just don't go out so quick thats all. A good finishing kick always gets past someone.
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