Olympic Park 5k

Agggghhhhh, nicely sums up my feelings on that one!  Had the chance to put out a decent target for the boys racing tomorrow and it literally went pop !

Set up for the race was great. Felt brilliant and once we warmed up I felt great. Zero complaints.

On to the race, lined up behind the fast guys (sub 16) and agreed to pace Jacob to the first mile. We are off, start on grass (not ideal in Adios) and onto the pavement after 10 secs or so. Settle down and try to relax. Doesn't feel amazing but the pace and effort is roughly right.

Dead turn after ~400m and back, then up incline over the bridge and into the wind into the sharp turn. Down a gradual incline all the way to another dead turn and down to the river. First mile in around 5.21. Feels bleugh but manageable.

Nicely blocked from the wind by the river until we hit the rise. 2km up in 6.30. On pace but pushing. Garmin reading is very slow (it was way out anyway) push on. Very sharp climb back up and then down the finish straight. 8.24 at half way. 

Jacob pushes on from here and I'm on my own. Second lap, dead turn. Miss the mile on Garmin but 3k in 10 mins exactly. 16.40 pace. Slow over the bridge, working hard but legs are very flat today. Repeat everything but ocntenpate dropping out. Fuck it, less than a km to go just take your medicine. Run as hard as I can but very aware getting caught and not able to lift the pace.

Finish is on grass, slipping all over the place trying to stay upright. Cross the line and stop the watch on 17.09 (official).

Jacob smashed it, finishing in a new club u15 record of 16.33 (6th in UK).

Gutted. In all honesty it was probably only the 2nd run this year I've felt that flat. It wasn't like a blow up, it just felt much harder than the pace was. Lap splits (Garmin was short) 3.15, 3.21, 3.34, 3.30, 3.28.  HR says I was under threshold the whole way but I'll take that with pinch of salt.

Stryd has me at 333w. KM splits of 339, 330, 338, 330, 330 actually shows the effort was fairly consistent but way down on my 345w target.

Possibly not 100%, possibly tired from a long year, possibly my time of the month !! Reality is it doesn't matter. I'm in pretty good shape for December and I'll be ready to go again in January. Frustrating yes but to be gutted at (nearly 46) with 17.09 - I have to take that.

Nothing changes, still going to ease in to the new year without doing sessions. I'm happy enough with that and pretty confident once I start building again in January I will be all good !