Benckmarking

With any semblance of a training plan long abandoned (pre Barcelona in March) and without any real gauge as to my form I headed down to the Marina on Tuesday evening for the John Buckley 5k, over what is advertised as a fast flat course, the one where PB's are made. To be honest I didn't know what to expect - I had an idea that I should come in somewhere between my PB (18:39 - 6:00 pace) and 19 minutes (6:07 pace) - but apart from the 90% effort at the Ballyandreen 5 miler 3 weeks ago I haven't tested myself over any distance in a long time (and McMillan won't accept my 5:29 Ultra).

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I placed myself up near the front to give myself a good start which I got with a 5:48 opening mile and while I was running hard I was able to maintain the effort. However maintaining effort is not the same as maintaining pace which was evident by my 6:07 second mile. I was now on the shoulder of Pat Murphy and John Dunphy from the club, both running very consistently. With about half a mile to go I pulled slightly ahead of the group I was in, but my new found energy was short lived and I was sucked back in. Christ I hate this stage of a 5k when all you want is for the pain to be over and it's all you can do to maintain pace.

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With 100 yards to go Pat went flying past me (well he did get in a few more weeks of 400's at the track than me) sprinting for the line and all I could do was hang tough until the line came, with the clock coming into view through my myopic vision - ticking 18:35....push......36.............pant......37.............gasp............38................groan...............39...........who gives a F#*k......... stopped the garmin at 18:40 - 1 second outside my PB (nearly 2 years old at this stage).

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Happy enough given my recent training and form - at least now I have something to benchmark off and set my training paces for the next few months. Daniels gives me an Easy Pace of 8:01, Marathon Pace of 6:49, Tempo Pace of 6:26 and Interval pace of 87 second laps - happy days. I'm looking back with nostalgia at the sub 6 minute miles I churned out on the track in January - I should have run a 5k back then.

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I have another 5k tomorrow but to get to the start line I have to swim 750m and cycle 20k so I don't think i'll improve on Tuesdays time.

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