More discipline


There was a huge thunderstorm at five this morning, lightning painting the inside of our bedroom bright white while the rain crashed down outside. Our daughter was very happy that morning had come so early and celebrated by crawling all over my face, but I wasn’t so happy; I was meant to be going for my long run at 7.

In retrospect, I know I shouldn’t have turned my 6:30 alarm off and stayed in bed. The storm was well over by the time I was meant to be running, and all I’d done was allow a passing distraction to disrupt my training. That is not the behaviour of a winner.

And so this evening, having read the first seven pages of Under The Frog to our child, I changed into my running kit and headed out to the track to put in 5k. My plan is to do it in 22:30; that should be attainable, as I can do a sub-45 minute 10k. In 2012. It will be something of a reliability test to see if I can run 12 and a half laps at 1:48 pace every time. Will I burn out? Will I idiotically nail the first lap in 1:30 and live to regret it? Or will I deserve my post-run bottle of ginger beer?

I drank the ginger beer anyway, whether I deserved it or not. Lap times: (rounded down)
1:35
1:41
1:43
1:45
1:46
1:48
1:48
1:47
1:49
1:47
1:47
1:43
0:49
Total time: 21:53

I started a bit too fast, and had to keep forcing myself to take it easy. The first bend was always a bit quick and then the back straight likewise, so I’d then try to hang on the second bend and put a steady 27 seconds into the run down the start straight.

The first lap was much too quick. So were the next two; I only really hit the "correct" pace on the sixth lap. I was paranoid until I’d put at least nine laps in that a strong start could lead to an abysmal finish, so I proceeded with caution. Then, as I reached the end of the tenth lap and it was clear that I was close, I tried to step my pace up: lap 12 was my third fastest full lap of the session.

That’s why I don’t feel I fully deserved my ginger beer. Running on average three seconds faster every lap than I had planned feels suspiciously like I’d planned too cautiously, rather than that I’d overcome some barriers to put in an incredible time. Of course, I had succeeded in driving myself round the track without any company (other runners are a huge motivation to keeping going) and I avoided blowing up. I still started at an unsustainable pace though.

So, I now have a 5k record for this year to try to beat. For ease of calculation, I’d like to run the whole thing in 1:44 laps next time (otherwise I’d have to sum fractions in my head with every hundred yards, and mental arithmetic is hard when there’s sweat pouring out your ears).

All that’s left to achieve tonight is getting home without fainting, and getting to bed early enough to recover for tomorrow. There is a motorcycle race in Argentina that starts at 10pm, so that might be a struggle…


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