Training Plans & Runs | Winter 5K | Online Running Coach

Good luck (that was tough to say). I know recent times have been a little devoid of speed work but not reason you shouldn’t be around that 19 minute mark again.

Coach Simon

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RPE

PACE

An ‘OK’ result I suppose, but I wasn’t as quick as I had hoped to be for the such favourable conditions (pretty much perfect!). I started off pretty sensibly and let the group ahead (Jake, Adam, someone Firth) shoot off – kept them in my sights and dug in to a reasonable steady sub-3:50 pace. At half-way I was on track, exactly 5s quicker than the Spring 5k, but started losing speed in that horrible 3rd and 4th kms. Managed to hold it in the last km but didn’t have anything left for a quick finish. I was trying to catch Adam at least as he looked like he was struggling but just didn’t have anything in me to push harder. Kieran was ~10s behind me so no real pressure from the rear (kept checking of course!). Nick said I looked too relaxed when we passed each other, that I lacked drive. Might be right! I pushed myself fairly hard during Efforts on the Tuesday and had very sore quads, foolishly I went and did the 60min easy run on the Wednesday and my quads were aching until Sat (so missed 2nd S&C session, strides and 2nd easy run that week) – it was tough enough walking the dog. Gig Saturday meant it was a long tiring day, didn’t sleep that well either (didn’t want to get out of bed) so I think I just didn’t have the drive in me on race day. I’m really happy to see so many PBs, especially Jake totally smashing his record (I was going to try catching him but he kept getting quicker as was racing the Firth guy head-to-head!) but feel like I did let myself down somewhat. I definitely hadn’t trained for speed so that’s a consideration, but I did think I was fitter than in Spring. I must admit, I felt fine after, whereas those who pushed hard were suffering a little… that’s a good sign that I could have pushed harder I guess. Got an extra 5 championship points (I think) so the gap is smaller now…

Sam Davies

I think it’s about 12 weeks now since the Barry Richards when we last focused on speed in the training. Ultimately the result here was determined by the last 3 months of training where we haven’t done loads of speedwork and have been a little in maintenance mode with so many races taking place. I think overall you are in a better place, stronger and with better endurance than in the Spring, but the speed in the legs probably isn’t quite there. So I wouldn’t be hard on yourself. Had this been a goal race, then every reason to be disappointed with that time. But sounds like the recovery wasn’t ideal and that could have added a few seconds. I think you could be an 18:30 5k runner, perhaps even match Mr.Lambert but that would require a different approach, more sessions and knowing you as I do now, that’s probably just not worth the effort. Your best gains are going to come over the longer distances, half marathon and above. Well done on the extra 5 Club Championship points. See you at Snape Wood 😏