Fair to say that the start to the year has been fairly lackluster. Multi-factorial with comfortable laurels allowing a rest, the god awful reality of marathon training, and a few too many schooners of Little Creatures playing important roles. Denial is a feature. My belief that I am running faster than at this point last year, based on the ropey evidence of a couple of treadmill sessions, has been undermined by some blow-ups in training and actually running some sessions on the same routes at significantly slower paces. The mind has been focused.
One issue has been the lack of definite goals. My idea of trying to better my good friend, Ant Brown's, impressive times of 2014 has been scuppered by his throwing of a hissy fit at his current inability to go under 40 minutes at 10km distance.
So listless I've been, until I spotted some pretty optimistic race times to aim for: those to earn preferred starts in Australian running events. Taking the SMH half-marathon as an example, the times are:
10km in under 38 minutes (03:47 pace)
Half marathon in under 85 minutes (04:04 pace)
City2Surf in under 56 minutes (03:59 pace)
My current PBs stand at 39:57, 89:31, and 58:41 respectively, so a pretty tall ask to drop each by such an amount.
Is it possible?
In terms of last year, I managed to shed more than 15 minutes off my half marathon PB. This was facilitated by a significant increase in training and an, approximate, 10kg drop in weight. I also started running more quality sessions and paid more attention to tapering (less bananas, more loperamide).
All can be improved again. I ran, on average, 40-50km a week last year, but when I increased this to 70km, around Blackmores half marathon, I noticed significant gains. Again I'm currently around the 40-50km mark so getting back to +70km, provided I remain injury free, is an early goal for the year.
The weight is now around the 85kg mark and even at my lightest race weight last year, of 82kg, I could comfortably have lost more. Online calculators reckon this alone would see me go comfortably under 85 minutes. Comparing 75kg to my 89:31 at 82kg PB gives a time of 82:51, all things being equal. Similarly my 10km time could be down to 37:01 by dropping to 75kg.
The third big change towards the second half of the year was ensuring two runs a week were quality. This will continue to be the goal for the whole year and, as my pace in these sessions was continually improving, I feel I am yet to plateau in performance improvements from these training sessions.
It's also worth noting that I was probably quicker than my 2015 PBs suggest. Blackmores half marathon is a decidedly tougher course than Melbourne, where you expect to improve by up to 2 minutes, but I shamefully gained 2 minutes. And worse, lost to Mike Gleeson. I put this down to an afternoon on the beers beforehand and not chasing a blonde bird. Additionally, without going into detail, I believe that running immediately after a set of night-shifts adds around 10 seconds to my kilometre pace. Being better tapered, as such, may have seen my 39:58 (gun) 10km at Homebush, with the Sydney Striders, dip into the 38:XXs. All hypothetical, of course, and as we know, if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen.
So I reckon it is possible, but will necessitate a lot of hard miles on the road, putting down the fork and pushing away from the table, and easing up on the VBs the day before a race. Sounds like a lot of will power to me. I am pretty sure these goals will come back to haunt me, but at least I have a slightly less arbitrary set of numbers to, literally, chase.
Some additional goals:
5km time. McMillan reckons, if I'm hitting the above targets, my time should be around 18:18. Not a round number and this upsets my OCD, but sub-18 might be the toughest ask of the lot. I'll be happy just to tick off a sub-20 at St Peters Parkrun, the world's hardest.
Festival of the Feet. My best position of last year and Mr Third Place will return to defend his crown (plastic trophy) and, depending on how weak the field is again, perhaps better it.
Melbourne Half Marathon. I have recently been reminded of a drunken bet made with Mr Mike Gleeson, that the loser, off scratch, pays for all beers post-race. This goal, in itself, should motivate me for the rest.
Marathon. Desperate to run a sub-3 hour marathon so that I need never run another, but the training is such a pain in the arse and the goal pretty optimistic. If I hit the above goals I may consider this one, but it's very unlikely. My toenail has only just recovered from Blackmores in 2014.
So that's the lot. I'm probably a bit delirious on nights, but I'll give the above a crack. Fut lads.
