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Flexin' on 'em

April 5, 2018 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I've been having a lot of dreams and visions lately about this NIRCA Nats 5k, and today was the final intense workout to get a good race simulation in. So I pretty much loaded up on every advantage I could get and made the most of them for this workout of 6x1000 w/ 400 jog.

Colin Riley's club record in the 5k is 15:22.41, a time he set 3 years ago at NIRCA Nats that placed him 4th as a grad student. So for today's workout I told myself I gotta be hitting 3:04 or better - pace for a 15:20 5k.

As I mentioned, there were a number of advantages that made this workout my best yet, maybe ever? So i know i can't necessarily compare it perfectly to other workouts I have done, but I mean I still had to move my legs...
-Easy workout on Monday, and today's workout was on Thursday
-Didn't swim today like I usually do before workouts
-Spiked up because I wanted a race feel
-Did nothing all afternoon except sleep and watch The Master's
-We only did 6 of them instead of the usual 8. However, it was only 400m recovery jog.

Like I said, I visualized this workout as if I were at NIRCA Nats. The temperature was about 10 degrees colder than what it is going to be in Shelbyville, but the wind was strong just like it is going to be. So that was actually good. I took the first rep out fast - coming through the 800 in 2:23 - which is probably going to be exactly what happens at Nats. Anyway, here were the splits:

3:01.8
3:03.5
3:02.7
3:02.3
3:02.9
2:52.6

(avg. 3:00.96 - pace for a 15:04.8 5k)

I was talking to coach Diener about how to take the last couple ones. He told me to keep things smooth on the 5th one which I did - I was coming through the 800m on reps 2, 3, and 4 in 2:25, so I did the same on the 5th. Then I was talking about easy this all felt and that I was gonna go full send on the last one. He told me to keep things controlled for the first 400, accelerate from 400-600, and then go full send from 600-1000. I came through the 400 in 1:10, the 800 in 2:19, and then split a :33 last 200. And lemme tell ya, I was actually for real not in my full gear. I could've hit 2:50 no doubt.

This workout has given me so much hope. Again, I know that I took every advantage there, but to feel this good at this intensity is awesome. I know that just doing 6 reps isn't a great race predictor, but I have no doubt in my mind I could have still hit 3:05's if I did another 2.

I'm ready to go. BRING ON THESE THOTS AT LOU HA'S BABAYYYYYY