Following up from some recent posts on vo2 testing and my
aim for a sub-20 5k, I followed the advice of doing a 10k
check race to see whether my goal was too lofty. My 25
April half-marathon time was 1:42, but I estimated that I
was really a 1:39'er at the moment. My aim for the 10k was
to aim for around 44 minutes, to see if I was in any hope
for the 5k.
Venue was the British Airways Concorde club Concorde 10K at
Cranford park (near Heathrow). Unfortunately the weather
forecast was for 24 degrees C, cloudy with sunny spells. The
day started out sunny with some mid-level clouds looking to
stop the day becoming too warm. At race-time, 10:30am, I
estimated that the temperature was 20-22 degrees and decided
to carry a water bottle with me.
The course was pretty flat, with just a short incline from
km 4 to 5 (IIRC), however the km markers didn't seem to be
very accurate; there's absolutely no way I went from a 5:03
8km to a 3:46 9km.
On the first 6 km I aimed to keep at a low effort level, in
order to leave something for the end. At 9km I gave it
everything and passed 4 people in the last km. At the 200m
from the end marker, there were 2 people in front of me, but
I went into a sprint and probably cleared both of them by
something like 20s in those last 200 metres. I felt on fire.
My heart rate on crossing the line was 187, a new max.
Splits:
km time HR %MHR 1 4:33 152 75% 2 3:55 168 86% 3 4:26 168 86%
4 4:28 168 86% 5 4:43 168 86% 6 3:46 170 88% 7 4:36 173 90%
8 5:03 173 90% 9 3:46 174 91% 10 3:59 181 96%
Finishing time 43:18. Av HR 169.
According to the Oregon race predictor, I've now got about
30s to cut off my predicted 5k time to beat 20m.
Paul