Another weird week

Four weeks to go to Berlin and this week was supposed to be another heavy intensity week.

With only three runs on the books however, it did not quite turn out that way, at least I feel I left one planned interval session out. Whilst I hate doing intervals (because they are hard and unpleasant and I'm a softie), I feel they have been crucial in the improvements I have been able to make over the past eight months.

Today was the C2S Halfmarathon. I had planned to make it a marathon pace run, but then decided I would go for it and just do my best which I thought would be 1:35 or a 4:30 pace. And I did. New PB at 1:34:43, nearly two minutes better than my last PB.

I ran into town to be there within 10 minutes of the start, so that gave me a warmup of just under 5ks. Very pleasant, a little easterly, overcast, ideal running weather.
There were not too many people doing the half, or at least I did not notice as coming from the Kings Park end I crammed into the bunch at the front.
I felt quite sluggish running in and had it not been for the downhill part into the city, I don't think I would have managed to get the legs to turn over at all.
I set the 405 (aka bumblebee) to a 4:30 pace and off we went.
The first hill was not as bad as I thought it would be and I was able to keep the pace nice and steady. By the time I got out of Kings Park again, I was spot on pace even though the hill back out again lowered the pace to just over 5mins/k.
At that stage I had got chatting with a lady who was aiming for 1:40 but was happy to try 1:35. We had been running alongside each other for a while and kept pushing and pulling each other (figuratively speaking) which at the back of Kings Park I really needed as my legs were not quite awake yet. So, Kristie, thanks for helping me out.
That was all ok until we got into Subi and she suggested I head off as she was struggling. I stayed with her for a while, but was feeling excellent and just wanted to have a go. I figured that at the pace we were doing then, if she could maintain it, we would get in at between 1:38 and 1:39 and that did not sound very exciting to me.
So we agreed to meet up at the finish and I took off pushing myself not too hard but just hard enough.
So, according to bumblebee the distance was 21.2, not too different (also pretty much spot on with the k markers on the course) and the time 1:34:43. I got really annoyed with the fact that the organiser had not even managed to put up a clock and did not hit the stop button right, so had to reconstruct my time after putting it through GTC, but it should be pretty ok.
Although I did not take a split at half course I worked out that I did a negative split, which does not surprise me given how I felt after about 10ks. The first 11ks I did 49:24 (1-11) and the last 11ks (11-21 - leaving out the last few hundred meters where bumblebee added a hundred)in 48:23. I do think that I could have done a bit better by pushing myself more in the first 10ks.
But I am very happy as it is. Using Kaufmann's calculator, I will be able to do 3:25, but I think I can do 3:20. Knees, heels and all sort of other bits permitting, that is what I'll be aiming for.
Who knows, I might even qualify for Boston!? (Ha,ha, just joking guys)
I did not stick around at City Beach, but met up very briefly with Kristie (who came in at 1:38 and a bit) and then headed home, cooldown for another just under 8ks at level 2.

Otherwise, here's the week:
Monday: Mount Street x 7 - no PBs today;
Tuesday: planned a brick session with a bit of speed work, but had too much to do at work and it was non-essential so dropped it;
Wednesday: which is when the interval session was due, but again, had too much on at work;
Thursday: LSD with some longer fartleks in between, total 22ks;
Friday: Rest - well it was planned, but I was too busy at work anyway;
Saturday: Rest - see Friday;
Sunday: total 33.81ks as above.

Now I'm just waiting for the Berlin documents to arrive. They are due any day. And on 19 September I'm off.