RHR 45 raced a 2.46 800m and 22.29 5000m

Thursday;
Ran 800m in 2min 46 (3.27 per K pace)
200m splits; 33/39/48/46
then 25 min later (jogged lots for active reovery)
5000m 22min 29 secs HR 192 at end. (4.29 per K pace)
1km splits;
4.13/4.34/4.48/4.17/4.37

In the 800m got a great start, was surreal running in lanes for first 100m, expected to struggle but found myself in front at 100m as we moved into inside lanes.
Was feeling good, and new I could run under 3 minutes, so kept the pedal to the metal til 300m mark, was a bit surprised to hit 200m in 33 secs, as I expected about 35to 37 secs.
Coming down the home straight still in front I could feel VIS athlete and Davbid Cane getting closer but tried to stay strong, without going all out, set myself goal of getting to 400m still in the lead, which I did in 72 secs. didnt feel all that spent, although I could feel the lactic starting to build a bit from about 350m onwards...decided to switch off at 400m a little and the entire field bar one bloke had all passed me by about 500m-550m...Didnt check my 500m split but my 600m split of 2.00 suggests I hit 500m in about 1.36...Just tried to keep a solid pace from there to the finish and bring it home a touch in the last 200m, tried to avoid the gap between me and the 5th place guy growing too much...Basically the first 5 were well ahead of me with 600m to go. feel like maybe I should have pushed harder in the 2nd 400m, but if I had tried to stay in front, figure I would have blown up bigtime by 550m or so, and probably would have struggled to stay under 3 minutes at my current fitness level. Pretty happy with a great run, especially to get under 2.50 barrier. best 800m in a long time. Not that far off my 2.16? high school PB and my 2003/2004 PB of 2.23.
Felt pretty lactical afterwards. But the jogging for 25 minutes seemed to do the trick and I was confident of a good run in the 5000m.

In the 5000m I decided to make a strong effort to avoid starting too fast, but still found myself shadowing David Cane for the first 200m (he ran about the high 16minute range again in the end), so throttled back and let Bjorn, Kim and 1 or 2 other Masters legends go past...
Felt very easy, and I was a bit surprised to get to 1k in 4.13, felt like 4.25-4.35...
Decided to persist with the "work myself into it not out of it" strategy (as my old racewalking coach used to like to say), and concentrate on trying to stay around 1.45-1.55 mark for my 400m laps, with the aim of trying to bring it home a bit with 2k to go...

That seemed to work well, so I wasn't too concerned when I got to 2k in 8.47 which is pretty slow by my recent standards(e.g. I went through first 2k of Bridges 10k in 8.36 when i ran 48.39 on 28th March this year. )...and was a 1k split of 4.34...Got a bit tough in the next 1k, and I think I got passed by 2 more blokes. David Cane started to lap me, but I was lapping some of the slower runners like Jane, and the racewalkers. 2k to 3k was a bit messy and I was just trying to hang in there without going over 2min per 400m. 1k split of 4.48 was my slowest of the race, but I got to 3k in 13.35, which is pretty solid without being fantastic or anything. At this stage I was thinking well its going to be tough to come in much better than about 23.10 at best, and I knew I had floated my way into it, and it was time to try and attack a bit, instead of just hanging in there. Started throwing in some laps in the 1.40's again, and not entirely sure of the 1k split but I think it was 4.17 or maybe in the 4.20's...
Then it started to get a bit hard, but I tried to stay around the 1.50 mark, and when i finally got the bell I was feeling very good, and I figured I could go well under 23 minutes for one of my fastest 5k races in the last few years. Figured the 22.35 from November 2008 was probably a little out of reach but steeled myself to make sure I kicked for home in the last lap. Was surprised that Masters president and legend Bob Schickert had not yet caught me. He ended up doing about 22.57... Tried to give it my all in the last 150m to 250m and wound it up as much as I could, I think my last lap was about 1.40 or quicker...Pushed hard to the line as i could see the clock counting up through the 22.20's, and was ecstatic to dip under 22.30 and go sub 4.30 per K for the race, which to me is a major milestone in a 5k race at the moment, and was equally stoked to knock off the 22.35 from November 2008 which makes it my 2nd fastest 5000m race ever, 40 seconds behind my track PB a 21.49 I did in the state 5000m at McGillvray in about 2003/2004. My road PB is 21.04 from 2002? although I splitted 19.32 in the first half of my 41.01 10k road PB in the 1998 Bridges.

So two very encouraging results, which along with the 5.34 1500m in the Australian Masters a few weeks ago confirms to me that I am approaching PB form, something I havent really done much since 2005, with the possible exception of the melbourne Marathon mess in october last year, and also in the Perth and Melbourne Marathons in 2008.

Really enjoyed the nights racing and so glad I made the last minute maniacal drive to the track to have a race. Then quick drive back home to be with heavily pregnant wife and toddler.
Was great catching up with a few people there too. No sign of Stan though...maybe next time...

However money and work seems to be getting messier by the week, and my wife is up to 36 weeks on April 26th, so not confident I can sustain the improvement...might have to try and hang in there like I did in the 3rd KM of the 5000m, and wind up for home in July or August, hope for the big PB's in September/October/November.

Tossing up all week whether to run 32km race on Monday 26th. leaning towards giving it a miss, but I might still go have a bash.

Very disappointed I failed to get a long run or other sessions done this week. meter reading seems to be helping me maintain my fitness a fair bit, just as Mona suggested it would.
will try to do better in coming weeks, but its not high on the priorities, and if things slide so be it, but will try to avoid it.

Injury front; no problems while racing at all. However have had a lot of severe knee pain lately, especially in right knee which gave me a lot of trouble in last weekends long run.
Every time I step on uneven ground or changes in elevation (e.g. front door step) my right knee is giving way not holding my leg in position and I am getting severe stabs of pain. That is a scary sign for me, because it suggests maybe I have opened up the tear on my meniscus a few notches or done something else. I cant afford the time and money to get medical assessment at the moment, so just have to live with it, so afr surviving ok at work, and it hasnt stopped me running yet, but eventually will have to get it checked out, as time and money become available. Also my left hip/thigh area has been bad again. Again ZERO problems while racing on Thursday, but its a concern...

So particularly with the right knee I wonder if I should stop running, but for now I plan to ignore it, but see if that works or not...

very pleased about David Kennedys 223km Coburg 24hour result last weekend. Awesome to hear about Epi doing 3.01! and Clown 3.02! well done to them.

Western derby in footy next weekend, and if we win that should cement our grip on a top 4 spot for now, especially as FREOOOO accounted for the tiggers . If we lose, we drop to 5th-9th, but my poor wife would be a whole lot happier if the Eagles could finally win a derby...