New Personal Best! Brag About That New Pb!

[Jbrown1215]

It's been a fairly big week mileage-wise so far but the excitement has returned and I've felt a bit fresher mentally now that the 2k is done and dusted. I've been looking forward to getting back to some of the longer distances for some time now. Out of my season's bests, my half marathon was the "softest" and was ripe for another attempt, the last one having been in July. I was going back and forth on whether to do 4x2k/5:00r this afternoon or the HM, and decided during my drive home from work to give the HM a go as I had a bit of extra time this afternoon.

Code: Select all

Time	Meters	Pace	Watts	Cal/Hr	S/M
1:14:23.4	21,097m	1:45.7	296	1317	27
14:05.4	4,000m	1:45.6	297	1320	27
14:08.5	8,000m	1:46.0	293	1309	27
14:09.6	12,000m	1:46.2	292	1305	27
14:10.0	16,000m	1:46.2	292	1304	27
14:06.9	20,000m	1:45.8	295	1315	27
3:43.0	21,097m	1:41.6	333	1447	30

If I've learned anything from the last year or so of training, it's that I tend to do best at any sort of "test" or time trial when I decide to do it rather spur-of-the-moment. Critically, I have less time to think about it, giving less of an opportunity for my "pre-race" anxiety to take hold, and I usually leave myself *just* enough time to down my pre-workout drink, warm up for a bit, before getting right to it.

Today's HM was no exception. It's a daunting distance, and I can honestly only really "get up" for a max-effort HM a couple times a year as it truly empties the well both mentally and physically. Although I thankfully didn't come close to blowing at any point today, I was pressing close to the red line, and had to go deep into my bag of mind games to stay focused and on-pace through the middle 10-12k.

Very pleased with the execution, and this result places me 1st in the C2 HM rankings for the 40-49 age group this season (3rd across all age groups). I can safely say there will not be another attempt for some time .

I look forward to tackling the 1402 CTC tomorrow in honor of Carole McNally but otherwise it'll be a Zone 2 day at most. My glutes are killing me...