roulette wheel111 wrote:
When you ran your 17:47 and came thru the finish did you feel like you could have run another 3-5 mins at that effort? Have heard similar stories about 5k NSM.
That you ran 3:30km pace without touching those in training is wild.
What was your taper like?
I cannot answer directly to the exact question, but my first big breakthrough was also a 5k. Same feeling, I think I underestimated my fitness, or didn't really know. I had been training NSM for a while, but no racing. I had quite a lot in the tank, also despite a big negative split race.
This was the only time this really happened. Because after that, my Subthreshold workouts were a good indicator (as is in the book) of roughly what race shape I was in. So I only really had this issue once. I will try and hone it more, I would guess my pacing could still use some improvement. But I have had nothing like that first race where you are correct, I could have probably ran 6km at least, maybe a little more.
But I think the workouts giving you a clue to your current fitness once you understand it and get in a long term routine, is probably one of the most valuable but widely underrated aspects to all of this.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is somewhat normal. The first breakthrough of NSM almost always seems unexpected. As such, your first big breakthrough race with it is likely a big negative split with still something in the tank.