The next big race

Having completed the Weston Creek Half Marathon without injury etc, I have now entered April's Australian Running Festival Half Marathon, in a team of "Metro Runners". My primary goal for this race, given that Andy Matthews will not be running in it, is to beat his time from last year when he dropped me at the turn and finished well ahead. This time, unlike last week, my taper won't include a fast 5k race five days earlier. And hopefully with the four extra weeks of training and a kilogram lighter in weight I can set off at a faster pace than 4:30s. So I hope and expect to run a bit faster than 95 minutes in April. The main difficulty I foresee is how to work out what pace I am on: last Sunday calculating splits using the formula "kms x 4.5" was bad enough!

At Ewen's request, here is a shot of Kym on Sunday wearing the running skirt that she did so well in.

Who will be the first bloke in Canberra to race in a running kilt? Perhaps Ewen, in one of these. It won't be me.

Monday night's training. Numbers were down because of the public holiday. We repeated the previous Monday's 6xhilly 640m on 5 minutes. Training were Abi, Caroline, Colin, Craig, Ewen, me, Jochen & Tim.

Results Customs 5k Friday 11 March
Bronwyn Calver 25.25
Caroline Campbell 28:19
Geoff Barker 37:20

Time Predictor
Assuming you are fit for the longer distance being compared, the following chart enables you to predict an expected time for one distance based on your best recent time for another distance:

3000 5000 10000 1/2Mar Marathon
09.45 16.40 34.30 77.00 2:41.30
10.00 17.05 35.20 78.50 2:45.20
10.15 17.30 36.10 80.40 2:49.10
10.30 17.55 37.00 82.30 2:53.00
10.45 18.20 37.50 84.20 2:56.50
11.00 18.45 38.40 86.10 3:00.40
11.15 19.10 39.30 88.00 3:04.30
11.30 19.35 40.20 89.50 3:08.20
11.45 20.00 41.10 91.40 3:12.10
12.00 20.25 42.00 93.30 3:16.00
12.15 20.50 42.50 95.20 3:19.50
12.30 21.15 43.40 97.10 3:23.40
12.45 21.40 44.30 99.00 3:27.30
13.00 22.05 45.20 1:40.50 3:31.20
13.15 22.30 46.10 1:42.40 3:35.10
13.30 22.55 47.00 1:44.30 3:39.00
13.45 23.20 47.50 1:46.20 3:42.40
14.00 23.45 48.40 1:48.10 3:46.30
14.15 24.10 49.30 1:50.00 3:50.20
14.30 24.35 50.20 1:51.50 3:54.10
14.45 25.00 51.10 1:53.40 3:58.00
15.00 25.25 52.00 1:55.30 4:01.50
15.15 25.50 52.50 1:57.20 4:05.40
15.30 26.15 53.40 1:59.10 4:09.30
15.45 26.40 54.30 2:01.00 4:13.20
16.00 27.05 55.20 2:02.50 4:17.10

Provided you set off at an even pace for the new distance, you will achieve the predicted time.

The chart works even if your performances never compare in a straight line along a row - just draw your normal "curve" across the table, and as one column's time improves, the others will improve correspondingly.