I have been training Dan for some time now, it has been both an exciting and testing road with many ups and downs. Recently during the heat wave, we had a tough patch. Dan was struggling to keep his heart down to where I wanted it and his pace return from heart rate was frustrating him. I told him to keep the faith and keep believing in what we are doing, training is not always easy! Sometimes it is important that we keep the bigger picture in mind and not just one particular session on one particular day. All athletes have bad days or even bad weeks, even professionals!
In recent weeks Daniels form has really picked up, so much so that he pestered me to let him have free reign at a 5k race. Very often I help athletes with a particular mile pace to run at but Daniel felt that my paces were holding him back a little too much. After some thought I agreed to let him go for it as I knew it would be very interesting and it was clear he was running really well.
Daniel traveled to the Rickmansworth Park Run on the 18th of Sept 2021. It was a perfect day, not too hot and not too cold. Daniel started the race a little too fast but not by much and by the end of mile 2 he was well inside his pb pace. In true Daniel fashion he ran the final mile at 191 average heart rate, (this is around only 10 beats short of his max) very few runners could tolerate the intensity, hideous! By the end of the race Daniel finished in an outstanding 21 minutes and 51 seconds, a full 41 seconds inside his old pb! It was also the same course from where he ran his previous pb so we knew for sure he had smashed it.This is a massive improvement and whilst I expected him to run well I did not expect him to run quite this fast! I am really pleased I listened to my athlete and allowed him to go for it on feel, it certainly paid off.
Keep watching as we continue to build for the Amsterdam Half Marathon in October.
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