After running a mountain marathon simulation on my trail shoes last week - I picked up my road shoes again and noticed that were overdue as the foam was almost completely gone on 1 side of the heel. I ordered a new pair and decided to use my carbon plates (asics meta speed sky paris) for todays run. While I wasn’t completely sure about the training when I started I just got into my flow very fast. After a few km I realized I would break my 5k pr without any trouble as my heartbeat was still well below threshold.
After km 6 I felt that my goal of breaking sub 40 min 10k would be doable today without having to go all out (remember I am still resting and recovering 😇). Near the end of the run I knew that my other goal of sub 90 half marathon would have been easy if I would continue (as I had a huge buffer from the first 10km) but I decided not to do that today as that would had been too close to last weeks 5.5h run and I also wanted to run it with negative splits instead of just surviving.
The Dutch weather was perfect today 13C, some wind and quite some sun.
Results:
My 5k time today improved with 24 seconds compared to my last attempt. While the difference is quite telling it also cost me way less energy to get there!
My 10k time improved with 4 minutes and 4 seconds. Which sounds crazy but in all honesty I never realy tried for a fast time other than full marathons and an occasional 5k.
What does this tell me:
Mostly my focus on hill work and core strenght last few months has been paying off! Physically I feel stronger than ever and it seems this work also translates to flat road times! Which is exactly what I would hoped as this brings my 2 open time goals for 2026 within reach:
Sub 20 5k = ✅ 19:29
Sub 40 10k = ✅ 39:09
Sub 90 HM
Sub 180 FM
To be continued!
Happy running