So I managed 18.32 in favorable conditions with the vapor fly. Not a million miles off where I’d like to be. Target sub 18 in a months time? Is that feasible? I might have maybe 1kg I could shift but no easy weight gains to be had sadly.
YKK 10k this am was 
…
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Ha, yes, thanks for the mention twhat…
NZ National Masters road champs.
3rd run in the Alpha’s, a friend had found an article suggesting they needed breaking in a bit, the first race I was perhaps expecting a bit more, then the marathon last weekend I didn’t push hard enough given where the HR was and thus allowed me to run well on Saturday, with the Alpha’s broken in.
Basically the front pack for some reason held at a steady pace of 3:20’s for the first while so I was able to tuck in feeling quite good. Then I got dropped, but still holding low 3:20’s. I was then overtaken by the front 2 of the M50’s race and hung on for dear life. It was quite windy, but I found I was quicker than them into the wind, but kept getting dropped with the wind behind me. Basically I have no speed!
Anyways, the winning 50’s guy kicked at 1500 (ex track runner who ran a 9:12 3k recently) to go and disappeared, by then, we had caught and passed another 40 year old, but he and the other 50yr old kicked about about 600 hundred out and left me for dead (have I mentioned I have no speed?). The course for some reason is purposefully long, which is very frustrating from an official pb point of view. But my GPS says I went through 5k in 16:45, which is the relevant part to this thread. So very happy with that given I ran a marathon 6 days earlier!
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Or maybe the 50year olds know to tuck in and have a rest and let the foolish one do all the work into the wind!
Great run.
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Holy shit!
What do they make them from over there???
Couldn’t find the sub 18 thread…
Just managed 17:59 or 17:47 (Strava GAP) after about 3 weeks of purely easy running and no targeted sessions as I’d been nursing a twisted rib, which meant heavy breathing activities were out, or at least hurt quite a bit. Been meaning to give it a go for a while but had been struggling to find a suitable route. It was the lungs that were complaining not the legs.
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Farrrk! I like Ben’s channel.
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So I ran 16:45 on Tuesday at the beer 5k in my brand new pair of NEXT.
Now the timing is never exact, but I have now run 45.1, 45.3 & 45.4… and the lines through some of corners change depending on who I am chasing, but one would say I have plateaued…
I am carrying massive fatigue in my legs (over 1300k in the last 8 weeks 
) as I probably was the other times mentioned above, though not 1300k worth, so in theory I should be able to run faster when I am more focused with lower mileage, but that never seems to be the case 
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I guess you’re always going to plateau at some point. There’s no doubt you could push that plateau with pure, focussed training for that exact distance though.
That’s excellent running off that fatigue!
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Of course rather than focus, I could just wear a new pair of shoes… Last week NEXT2, this week, I got the Alpha’s out. 8 second gain, coming in at 16:37. Very happy with that…
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Bloody quick! Chapeau
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Yeah - I find that they’re quicker than the Next%, too.
I reckon my easy 1:27 HM the other week is about a mile to the Alpha’s. Totally unscientific, but that’s what I feel 
What was good for a control, was the guy that beat me last week by 4 seconds or so, I beat by 4 seconds or so. He ran the same time, same shoes. So it has to be just the Alpha’s right 
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Local 5k race last night on a circuit with slight elevation gain 40m. Wind and rain lashing down. Same course 2 years ago, I recorded a 17:57 (Zoom Fly) but chip time was 18:01. Yesterday chip time and record time 17:55 in Vaporfly 4%. First official time under 18 but feel a little like the 4%s edged it for me! Looking back at my HR, my HR drops during the downhill sections (just a few beats) so I think I need to push on when I’m going downhill. Mentally I remember thinking - cruise in the down, work going up, but feel I should try to balance my HR more. My max HR in the race was 5 off my measured max so I clearly didn’t push myself enough either! Loved the race though!
I have a few more races on the same circuit, so target is 17:30 by the end of the year. Any key interval sessions that I should look at to help? I tend to mix it up between 12x400s and mile repeats.
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Great going, and 40m is pretty lumpy for a 5km course. Any dead turns, or is a flowy lap?
I like these two sessions for building that strength/speed endurance (from an 8 week track program i wrote for our club a while back):
Week 5 – Lactate Burner
1 x (3200m), 3 min R
2 x (1600m, 2 min r), 3 min R
4 x (800m, 90 secs r)
Week 6 – Tired Tempo
3 x (800m, 2r), 3 min R
3 x (400m, 90 secs r), 5 min R
Tempo 10 mins, 5 mins R
4 x (200m, 60 secs r)
Both challeneg your ability to clear lactate. Trying to run those last 800s on knackered legs is great race simulation for the final push, the same as the second one with the 200s to add strength to your final kick.
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Oh and if you wanted THE worst ever session i built (build it and they will come), try this one. It’s brutal:
Week 8 – THE CORNFIELD!!!
400m (60 r), 800m (90 r), 1200m (120 r), 1600m (150r), 2000m (180 r), 2400m
Final 400m of each rep to be the quickest.
It’s flippin vile!
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Thanks @gingerbongo they look great! What pace/zone should I aim for in the intervals - all out?
No dead turns on the course. Garmin has recorded it as 5.1km (this is the same for a few people) so Strava is giving me a 17:33 5K PB
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For week 5 - I’d say 10k pace for the 3200, 5km pace for the 1600s and whatever is left for the 800s.
For Week 6 - 800s hard, but consistent, 400s all out, tempo at about half mara pace, 200s until you spew.
Week 8 - hard to say,. We probs went a bit too hard when we did it. So maybe 5-10% slower than max pace for the first two intervals, 5km pace for the enxt two and 10km pace for the last two. Roughly.
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ouch!
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Have to ask, week 7 please…
FWIW I would never hit any of those on my own in training.
EDIT, sorry FP, didnt mean to reply to you just to the thread, or in fact GB!
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I think it was just km reps. So a pretty standard/boring one.
The week 6 one was from an old workout of the week session on strava by Lauren Flashmen (ex US middle distance runner and also married to Jesse Thomas ex ironman pro). I they had some quite cool workouts that I’ve often gone back to over the years.
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