North East Running

The month started well with a 5k PB of 17:21. This had filled me with confidence that I could have a real go at a 10k PB at a very flat Kempton Park event at the end of the month. 36:34 was the time to beat, but I'd have been happy with anything under 37:00 just to be in the right ball park. So the plan was to do the first 5k at a 3:42/km pace and then hopefully clock up negative splits to attack the PB. I trained hard through May, then gave myself 72hrs break before the run. The weather was perfect also. Kempton Park - the perfect location for a 10k? ...*however*, by km 3 and 4 of the run it became apparent that I couldn't get anywhere near that 3:42/km pace. Worse still, for the mid-part of the race I was struggling to get the pace below 3:50/km. Even the last two km which should have been the pick up to the end where nowhere near what I had been hoping for. The week before I'd done the same pace as a training race on a route with +125m elevation. The result was a disappo

Around seven months ago I ran 5k in 17:36 (3:31/km pace) which was my personal best and set me up for a new 17:30 target. But then for the rest of the year, even though I got 3-4 sub-18 minute efforts, I never got close to the 17:30 target. Then from December with the cold weather and icy conditions coming in I seemed to lose that bit of pace and dropped away even further. This was really frustrating as I was putting the training effort in, still doing the same mileage and trying just as hard. Examples of loss of pace below. Entire set of club handicap runs not breaking below 3:38/km pace over 4k :( Saturday morning flat 5k fast effort - disappointingly dropping out to 3:55/km for 4th km Saturday morning flat 5k fast effort - disappointingly dropping out to 3:57/km for 3rd km But with good weather through March and April and a chance to train properly and even race, the form came back. Training : Coming out of lockdown and with warmer weather it meant training as a group again. Interva