Remember the phrase - it is a marathon, not a race. For me as a frequent marathon runner, that helps me dose my energy during a marathon, but on shorter distances it hinders me to really give my all and not keep some energy left for the long run. While in theory I should be able to run a much faster 5k, in reality I kept struggling on breaking sub 20 minute 5k.
Despite running my beach marathon last saterday, and cycling 19km earlier today. Garmin suggested a threshold workout. Sure, let’s go!
The 10 min warmup went as expected, my performance indicator signalled -3 after 5 min. (Which is to be expected in recovery week). Because you run a threshold workout on a specific heartrate zone I suspected that I could do the workout, but my pace would be a little slower compared to normal.
My watch display only showed my heartrate and time left, so it was a surprice when the auto-lap at 1km showed I was below 4:00/km despite head wind. Km 2 and 3 would be side wind so I decided that if km 2 would be below 4:00 / km I should be able to make sub 20 min today! Km 2 was 3:55! I decided to try and make a small buffer to allow (if needed) to slow down in the last 500m.
At 18 min, I knew I would make it, but it also became heavier to maintain my pace. Rather than giving an all out sprint on the last 400m (next time!) I just focussed on reaching this milestone!
That was fun! Injury wise - not the smartest timing to do in a recovery week but with a small holiday coming up, it is a perfect closure for this trainingscamp!
Starting my new mountain specific camp on the 23th!
Happy running