Sat 1 Oct, first track race for the season

19km today and 84km for the week so far

What a beautiful day, blue skys and only a little wind. A couple of hours at a Little A's working bee, sweeping...then off to Aberfeldie for the first round of the AV T&F Shield Competition. My intent for the day was to run a 1500, go for a 40+ min run and maybe do a 400.

Arrived 50 minutes prior to the start of Div 1 1500s, I dropped my bag and took of for an easy 15 min run, followed by a few fast strides on the bend and then 15 minutes of stretching and a handful of strides on the gravel track, all felt good. I was fairly sure today I would break my PB of 5:02 and also break the 5 min barrier. I was alloted into the 4:50-5:10 group, a race of 16, I was on the start line, but on the far right hand side, the race started quite quickly, the first 50m would have been my 800 pace. I settled on the inside rail directly behind 2 known runners, using them to protect me fro the head wind up the front straight, first lap Burkie calls "72, too fast", this was my pace for a 800 last season, but I continued on, I wanted to remain directly behind the 2 runners and again be protected from the wind in the front straight, the second lap was 77/78 and the third was 82ish, but I held on to run 58 for the final 300 and run a very nice PB of 4:54.20. Burkie believes with another few races and getting my early pace right a sub 4:50 should happen.

For my cool down I went for a 40 minute run with Adam, who was on his way home. I squeezed in a couple other 10-12 minute runs throughout the arvo and did the necessary warm ups for a 400 (62.40 PB). Followed by a 15 minute cool down and some stretching.