Agreed, for me it was about seeing where I am at the moment and having a target to aim for, pretty certain I won’t be racing anyone for a while so might as well race myself
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Speed doesn’t matter. Effort does.
As long as you’re trying your hardest, the time is no less worthy than someone banging out a 15 minuter. Just make sure you’re crippled over, air spewing at at the end! 
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Certainly felt like death by the end of it there, and happy to be racing against myself this year in my training as well or at least for the time being.
Thanks for the encouragement!
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and when you don’t think you can get any faster get over to the Nike Zoom Fly/Vaporfly 4 and NEXT% - The Thread and that will get at least another minute off your time 
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Thought I’d have a cheeky attempt today as the wind was favourable.
However I stupidly did @Mungo2 ’s circuit on Thursday which involved 240 sit ups and 360 squats, so when I was struggling to sit up in bed and walk down the stairs, I thought it might not be the best idea
Undeterred I went out.
Last time mile splits were 6:07/ 5:51 / 5:52
Today I went out a “little” quicker in 5:54
Stupid idea
Legs were letting me know this wasn’t going to be any fun.
Second mile dropped to 5:58, but still thought I could hang on
“Luckily” a van decided it wanted to block the road, so had to stop for 10-15 seconds
Managed to drag out a 6:02 final mile
Total time 18:35 for 5.02km according to Strava
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#faster!
#slowerthanlasttime
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My bad… read it wrong
With the “ killer” circuit it was virtually a long brick session…?!
#fasternexttime.
That’s a great time but what really interests me is the small difference in pace between this and your aerobic 10km efforts. So this was 37 mins 10km pace approx, at what sounds like a proper hard effort. But didn’t you also recently run a 39 minute 10km keeping a low lid on HR?
Both are great times but for me the 39 minute aerobic 10km stands out as really special - is this the result of all the volume you do around that pace/effort/HR?
I think I could get close to your 5km time, but be at least 5 minutes slower than your aerobic 10km time
Interested because I’d like some of that!
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The only bit of this that made sense was the last line.
Metric, it’s a thing now. 
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Plugging the numbers into a calculator from the last two 5kms gives around a 39 minute 10km.
The one is did for Poet was a 39:45 and yes that was trying to keep the HR below 140bpm
I’m no expert, but I would suggest that the lack of any top end training means I’m unable to go fast or access my pain cave (bear in mind my 5km PB is 17:58) but can cruise along quite comfortably - Christmas Day I did a 1:32 HM with an average of 131HR - due to all the milage at the lower zones.
It does again beg the question that for my aim, a 'fast" Ironman, which is a better thing to work on?
A 3:15 marathon is 7:27 mile / 4:37km pace which currently I can knock out which little effort, so does trying to pull up my pace by doing lots of intensity work seem worth it?
Same with FTP
@FatPom I’m Vader and a Storm/Snow Trooper…we’re all Imperial
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The sodding weather is killing my ability to contribute.
Woke up to 2 inches of snow which, with -3 weather overnight, will freeze the roads until mid-week.
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My run was icy AF this morning. I’d rather run on snow but still wouldn’t push it.
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That’s the thing…
I have no problem with the temperature, but question if it’s worth it if I fall…
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Plenty of days left in the year
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@funkster can I ask about your diet? Is it low carb? Do you run your morning runs fasted?
I am wondering if your aerobic prowess is partly due to upregulation of fat burning enzymes and raising of VO2fatmax. So that you can do more at a lower metabolic cost, and for a longer duration.
Think I’ve done most of the nutrition approaches
Did the periodised nutrition
I did the low carb thing a few years back.
Then I did the carb back loading (low carb during the day and then carbs with dinner)
Now I’m eating more carbs during the day as a lot of interviews I’ve listened to have said the low carb approach doesn’t seem to have any performance benefit
All my morning workouts are fasted as in I haven’t eaten since the night before
I did have a metabolic efficiency test many years ago, which if memory serves had my crossover point at about 270w for cycling.
So it could well be that
Again, all very interesting
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I saw the wind direction has changed from a northerly to an easterly.
Ruins the course I’ve planned for a 10km all out.
(Tailwind slight up hill out, downhill slight headwind back)
It’ll now just be blowing straight across farm land and into the bypass, so will be awful.
My benchmark and only run this year was a 5K cruise last week in 25:00, hopefully the only way is down from here. Might get a run this month, might not.
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