Tuesday 1 April 2008

5K "it's not a time trial"

The Garscube website is down just now. Nothing technical, just a financial mix-up...apparently. Personally, I think the coaches pulled the plug, so people wouldn't be put off with "timed run". Last time I psyched myself up for a 5K time trial, only to discover that "timed efforts" actually meant a speed session broken up into specific time frames. Like fartlek, but with your watch instead of landmarks. Therefore my rest day, long warm-up, strides and drills were totally unnecessary. Tonight I was caught off guard, as I rolled in to sports centre totally unprepared. After a brief moment of panic, I decided to stick it out. The funny thing is I've been really looking forward to this session, so I can gauge any improvement.

After the announcement of the session and subsequent course, the attendance started to dwindle. You could actually see members back-tracking out the door. Jill kept saying: "it's a timed run, not a time trial. It's not a race". Likely story, O'Neil.

The wind was pretty horrendous and the course is very hilly and decidedly unscenic. A route description that includes "turn left at the dodgy garage, past the incinerator and up on to Maryhill road" isn't going to inspire you.

Anyway I finished the route in 23:15 (average pace 7.30) - which included going back to pick up my cap that blew off in the wind. The last time I ran the course (in October) I finished in 24:28, so I was quite pleased with how it went.

2 comments:

Tim said...

Hi Debs, I don't think the wind last night did anyone any favours. It was our club 5K time trial last night as we had a lot of very slow times (we are by the sea though so it does get *windy*!).

We hold a 5 Km time trial on the first Tuesday of every month in our club and you and Marco would be welcome to come down and join us. If it's not windy, it's a fast and flat course.

Debs M-C said...

Hey Tim,
I feel I've been using the wind excuse for months now. I'm just hoping it's good resistance training ;-)
We'd love to come and join your 5K some time. Thanks for the invite.
Debs