Tuesday, August 01, 2023

2 x 5K

Danny Boy has completed his initial 5K track workout with moderate success. Said workout is made up of ten 400-meter repeats, with 100-meter recoveries. Add that up, and it makes 5,000 meters, AKA 5K. The idea is that you run the repeats at about 5K pace, but of course, slower for the recoveries. Although you can track the 400 times, they're not all-out. You also consider the overall time for the 5K. This would probably be slower than a road 5K, where there are no recoveries, but perhaps not all that far off.

'Moderate Success,' in this case, means that Danny Boy averaged around 1:54 for his 400s, and that his overall time was 26:40. 

Danny Boy is keen on talking about how he used to do a version of this workout that entailed twenty 400s, rather than ten, That added up to 10,000 meters, a 10K workout. Not that his running partners care all that much, but Danny Boy no longer feels up to this much speedwork. 

Or does he? Now that his friends have wisely finished for the day, he starts back up again. A short ten minutes ago, he wasn't so sure he'd be able to run anymore at all, much less another intensive set of ten 400s. The mid-workout coffee may have helped him get (re)started.

The first 400 is well North of two minutes, and the next couple are only slightly better. But then something funny happens. Danny Boy picks up the pace to nearly that of those first ten. Perhaps the coffee kicked in even more. He winds up with an average 400 time of 1:58, and 27:41 for the 5K. That's a minute slower than the first set, but still not bad.

Although his running was by no means outstanding, Danny Boy is feeling pretty good about himself right now. He had better watch out for that reality hammer about to club him on the head.

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