Victorian Masters 10000

It's been a long time since I put in a decent race, so it was great to get a win in the Victorian Masters 10000 metre track race last week. The time was 34:32, which was only 10 seconds off my PB.

The majority of my running last week was either on grass or trails. After being crook for the 2 weeks prior, it was especially nice to get all planned sessions in.

Brief summary is as follows:

Monday (16/5)

8 km's jogging - 40 mins

Tuesday (17/5)

Vic Masters Race - The race started quicker than I expected. I sat in 5th place through the first lap in 78 seconds. My plan was to aim for even 81's and try and hold on. Whilst I would've liked to go a little easier I wanted to stay in touch as the race was interstate and I didn't know any of the other runners. 3 of the runners dropped off early in the second lap and I went into the lead despite deliberately slowing my pace. I went through the first 2000 in 6:46 and I could hear another guy close behind. This was encouraging because I was hoping for support. Unfortunately he didn't hold the pace for much longer and it was a solo time trial after that. My lack of fitness showed with each 2000 split progressively slowing a little. The last 2000 was a very ordinary 7:04. I gave my all but just couldn't lift. Given the minimal training in recent weeks, I was very happy with the run.

All up 17 km's including warm up and warm down.

Wednesday (18/3)

My legs were still very lactic 24 hours later. I ended up running a very pedestrian 22 km's or so in 1:47. Enjoyable run though around Melbourne's Botannical Gardens.

Thursday (19/3)

My legs were still pretty zapped but turned up for the session with the squad. Session consisted of 5 x 800 hill loop , short recovery and a 3.7 km tempo. All up a little over 12 km's with the warm up and warm down. Interval splits 2:52/2:42/2:38/2:37/2:40. Relaxed tempo at 3:43 pace.

Friday (20/3)

Easy jog of just over 11 km's on grass.

Saturday (21/3)

8 km tempo in 28:39. Relaxed marathon pace start and progressively picked up the pace each km, finishing with a 3:21. All up 18 km's.

Sunday (22/3)

Relaxed 2 hour trail run with a few challenging hills.

All up 112 km's for the week. Plan is to build on this a little next week and ease back the following week for the NSW 10k Road Championships race. After that a few hard weeks leading up to the Gold Coast 1/2 marathon. Will then get back into marathon training mode for the Chicago Marathon.