After a really good winter of base training, the time has finally come around to get more specific, so this week, we have started to hit the track for some specific workouts.

My track season officially kicks off in three weeks time with a 1500m, although my main aim is to lay down a decent 5000m time.  I'll have two opportunities to do this hopefully, the first one being at Stanford Invitational in four weeks and then a further three weeks after that at Mount Sac relays - conditional of course on my pleading emails resulting in successful entries to both of these meets.  

I may then follow these up with one or two races over the shorter distances when I return to the UK if I feel it will be worthwhile, but whatever happens we've planned my season will finish at the absolute latest by the end of May.

So it kind of looks like we're hitting the specific track work quite late in the day considering we only got going with it this week and I will be finished in less than three months.  However, this has always been the carefully thought out plan.  The base training and 10k paced work I have done over the winter has got me into really good shape and has suited me, as shown by my 3000m PB in Seattle (off no track work).  At the same time, maintaining an element of speed work throughout the winter with the Saturday afternoon sessions seem to have been really beneficial as I am as speedy as ever (although perhaps the word 'speedy' is not an entirely accurate description). Therefore, we feel it is important to never stray too far from what has been key to getting me into the good shape.

We noticed over the last couple of weeks that my endurance is good, my speed is good however what I am lacking at the moment is the 5K specific fitness.  Hopefully, this will come quickly as we rattle off a few specific sessions over the next few weeks.  We are not believers in flogging the track work for months and months on end, these specific sessions are really just putting the finishing touches to the winter work, the fine tuning so to speak. The longer I spend doing track sessions, the longer I am away from the type of training that got me into good shape in the first place.  

Anyway...enough theory!  So this week we have done a couple of track sessions more geared towards the 5k.  It's a nerve wracking time of year for me and I can't deny that I don't get the 'session dread' more than ever when there's a track workout to be done.  It's so much more intense than winter training and if it goes badly, it tends to be really bad.  But  then as you know, when it goes well you get some pretty awesome highs too so I suppose you win some and lose some!  The first track session was a bit of a shock to the system, but the second was unrecognisably better so I'm feeling pretty good at the moment.  I say pretty good, but actually the legs feel battered!  We will be backing off the mileage a little over the next month or so, just to ensure that I am recovering sufficiently for the workouts, which will also feel a little strange...I've grown quite attached to my 1hr50 Sunday runs!

So all is good in Eugene, Oregon.  Time is passing by quickly and I am sure I will be home and back to work before I know it.  I will of course be sad to see the trip end, but in a way, I feel like I'm just getting going, so the future is looking quite exciting!