Week 3 was a solid week of training with an exciting end to the week with a race in the Wangaratta Fun Run 5km. This year I have scored PB times in the 3000m and the 10km so I felt like I was due for a 5km PB and should be capable of it!

Wangaratta wrap

We drove up to Wangaratta on Saturday afternoon. It was a pretty uneventful drive apart from nearly being wiped out by a truck, lucky for Dan’s quick reaction time we arrived in one piece and in good timing for dinner! A nice walk down to the Pinsent Hotel was good to loosen up the legs after the long drive, and a plate of pasta and a couple pots of beer good fuel for tomorrow’s run.

Lucky for me the 5km was a later starting run at 8:30am. While Bree and Brigitte were up early for the half marathon at 6:45am and Dan and Adam with the 10km at 7am… I got to have a sleep in and take my time having breakfast and getting ready. I jogged the 2km down to the showgrounds just in time to see Dan finish in a very nice 38:38 and Adam who hasn’t been running much still ran a very respectable, and faster than me, 44 minutes!

Not long after Bree finished the half marathon in a very fast 1:24:28. She easily won the race with the next female a few minutes behind her. Brigitte came through a little disappointed saying she had dropped back to her marathon pacing, however I think she should be proud running a very decent 1:37:41 in the peak of her marathon training, that’s a faster time than what I can do.

Wangaratta 5km

After seeing Brigitte finish I had 7 minutes to do a couple short strides and get to the start line for the 5km. My goal for the race was 21:15 or 4:15 per km which would be a 16 second PB but definitely seemed achievable.

The start of the course was flat and fast and I found I was through the first km a bit quicker than target pace in 4:11. Second km I continued on with another 4:11 split and was passing a lot of people (ok mainly kids who always go out too fast) and was feeling positive. On to the third km the course starts to get a bit slower with a couple small rises and a swinging suspension bridge which I would have to cross twice. The bridge saps a bit of energy from your stride and can also feel a bit sickening as it swings side to side! The third km I was through in 4:17.

On to the fourth km, which was the slowest of my splits, this km had a few more little rises and a few tight turns and the second crossing of the bridge. I was struggling now and just trying to hang on and went through in a worrying 4:25. With 1km to go I pushed on, it was still a harder section of the course with a steep little hill near the end which slowed me a lot, but then picked up the pace averaging 3:45 pace for the 200m and 4:12 for the last km.

Finish time on the watch 21:14.9 and official time 21:13 – an 18 second PB! And my previous PB was done on the track so very happy to be able to improve this much on a fun run course!

This week

Period: 20 Feb 2017 – 26 Feb 2017

For this week my training was essentially kept the same but a bit of a shuffle to accommodate the 5km. My longer run for the week was done on Wednesday instead of Sunday, my usual Wednesday run was done on Saturday, and my Saturday threshold was replaced by the 5km.

Reps this week felt really good. I seem to be adapting to the new workouts and pacing. It was the best I’ve felt doing the 2km reps running them in a rather consistent 8:43, 8:43 and… yep 8:43. And the 800 session my reps also all felt good and faster than target pace.

So a good training week with a nice reward of a 5km PB!

Running

1%-ers

Summary