Fizzled out at "The Sizzler"

Last Thursday, I ventured out to take part in the much lauded Sale Sizzler. There was a very good standard of field out, on what is generally accepted as one of the fastest 5k courses in the region. However, for whatever reason, it just didn't happen for me.

I didn't exactly have a disastrous run by any means, but having felt in good nick - combined with having ran 15:26 when setting my own pace at Catforth a couple of weeks ago - I quite fancied myself for a crack at certainly a low 15:20, if not a little bit quicker.

No such joy this time I'm afraid. In all honesty, it was a night where things just never felt right or ever looked like coming together. I felt slightly leggy during the warm up, but nothing too concerning. The pace through the first mile was pretty much perfect for where I intended on being (4:54) and I was tucked in at the back of a strong group (behind Dave Rigby and Dave Norman, and a couple of others).

From then on, it all came apart quite quickly. The pack moved away from me and I found myself running in no-mans land. Only, looking back on my watch, the pack probably didn't move away all that much...it was my pace that dropped, a lot. In mile 2, I went from a 4:54 mile down to a 5:09 mile.

Mile 3 I sort of got my act back together, more through the pressure of not wanting to lose to coach Rob Affleck, and ran 5:02 for the final mile, with a sprint finish bringing me within touching distance of catching 6th place by the end.

I finished up in 7th and 15:29, which admittedly is still pretty much par for the course when you look through my times so far in 2015, but considering the level of competition I had just expected something more from myself.

I have another crack at the distance this Saturday, when I will hopefully be competing in the latest Podium 5k, where I set my PB back in March (15:24).

I don't know what went wrong in mile two last week, and don't intend on over-evaluating things too much, but perhaps the increased mileage of the last few weeks had sapped some energy. If so, that shows the catch 22 situation between wanting to increase mileage for endurance and long-term benefits, against the short term results in races right now. Hopefully, by persevering with the new workload, it will get easier in time and my body will be able to get more used to it.

Anyway, you can't win them all, or perform every single time you run. It's all about the next one now.