Tuesday, 5 August 2008

We had a 5 km time trial tonight at the track and I was not looking forward to it. Especially as I only had about five hours sleep, having had to be at work at 7:15 am

I lined up nervously on the start line and thought a good time would be sub 17:30. Wasn't sure of my form and hadn't done much speed stuff on the track recently. Liam helpfully suggested that I try to slot in behind him, as the time I was looking for was about his goal time too

We started off at a steady pace and through the first kilometre we recorded 3:29. It felt very comfortable, which was probably why the second km was 3:23 and we had 6:52 after two kilometres. For these five laps I was kinda testing the waters running up alongside Liam every now and then to see if I felt good enough to take over

With six laps to go, I felt the time was right to push a bit and help Liam out by taking the front position. It felt good to get out there and begin really pushing and I went through the third kilometre in 3:18, with 10:10 on the clock. Liam was trying hard and was only a few seconds behind

I was really striding out now and the laps were just peeling off so easily. I was a bit surprised at being able to maintain this kind of pace. Not sure what the fourth kilometres was but crossed the finish line in 16:55 with Liam a further 22 seconds back. A big surprise for one thing, that time being only about 20 seconds off the PB. Still can't believe how comfortable that first 2.4 kilometres felt and still do that kind of time

So in the end, 6:45 for the last two kilometres which is a touch surprising given that it felt like I was working a bit harder than that

However Liam's 17:17 was very good and our middle distance squad this summer is going to be very interesting. Liam did that off virtually no work so I reckon he will have the mantle of best middle distance Harrier within eight to twelve months. Will be good to chase someone for a change

TOTAL DISTANCE : about 6.5 kilometres including warm down