Change of plan pays dividends

                  Thursday,  and it was back to the track for my weekly fix. 
Having completed 1000 reps then 600 reps in the last two sessions, I had  pencilled in  300 metre
reps with 100 interval recovery to hopefully bring the pace down under 7 mins.  But I would see how the 2 mile warm up went today.
  Not unsurprisingly, the 12+1 completed on Sunday, the longest run of the year,  took quite a bit out of me. though I didn't struggle on the day particularly.    Monday  saw me sharing a run with Pat for a change over 4 miles and her pace was more than enough.   Tuesday,  a steady undulating 6 on the road and yesterday
it was back to the reservoirs for a very muddy 7 mile circuit. (But 2 minutes faster than last week)
 Consequently I was hardly fresh after the warm up around the park today, which exceeded 20 minutes.   I just didn't  feel up to  300 reps at what would have to be under 7 mins pace! 
                               So for once a rethink and a change of plan. 


 I decided it would be interesting and meaningful to do another 5K "time trial"  as it was 4 weeks ago that I did the first of the year.   If I had a nice flat "parkrun" handy which started later than 9 a.m.(!) I wouldn't put myself through these alone on the track but there isn't so needs must.
 I recalled that my January time was 25.27.   I was  pretty confident that I could mange a sub 25 so it made the maths easy.  Keep each of the 12 laps at or just below 2 mins, 
sprint the last 200 and "job's a good un" as they say.
The first 10 laps went.............
  1.55  1.58  1.56  1.57  1.56  1.56  1.56  1.54  1.54  1.54
At this point  I was starting to calculate that a sub 24.00 mins time might be possible so pushed on a tad....
finishing with  1.51  1.47 and the half lap in 53  for 23: 53 by the end.  Nice one! 
 I actually started to feel like a runner rather than an aged plodder over that last mile.  So  a very pleasing 1 .34 mins improvement over 4 weeks.   Hopefully it can be maintained ......with care. 
  Last January a similar trial time was 22.42 compared to a race 5K time about 2 minutes faster so today would suggest a race soon would be a reasonable exercise. There is a low key 10K on Sunday within a 2 hour drive.  See how the next 2 days feel!    First task get the ice pads on the legs  for a bit of relief then a well deserved can of Holsten Pils recovery fluid.  (Better than your Budweiser, Danny)