Single Digits Part One

9 weeks till worlds,1 week till my next race.
Up just after 8am and on my way to Temple by 9.35am conditions were sunny and warm,low 60s,a far cry from conditions at Lower Merion on Feb 19th on my last 12x400m repeat.
Another factor going into today's simulated 5,000m,12x400m w/ 800m recovery jog was the fact that this was my 8th repeat in 4 weeks and that consistency has started to show signs of paying off.

#1 400m 69.7.Any thoughts of trying to keep things sub 74-75 seconds went out the window w/ this.
In fairness there was no point comparing either conditions or levels of fitness from my last 12x400m,the bigger question was could I keep this level of pace for the remaining 11 repeats?
#2 400m 69.1.Obviously #1 wasn't a fluke,these splits were more in keeping w/ December's 10x400s
#3 400m 69.9.I always say repeats should read like a heart monitor w/ slight jumps,not like an EKG chart and up and down like Tower Bridge....but there was trouble ahead....a Buffalo sighting!!!
#4 400m 67.0.When I feared the shufflin buffalo's may effect my split I wasn't expecting them to make it faster!
In fairness to them they were only doing 300m time trials beginning 20 meters down the home straight and finishing 20 meters from the end of the back straight so I only had to switch from lane 1 to lane 3 and back again for 60 meters along the back straight.
#5 400m 71.7.Bugger! the minus 2 seconds I picked up on #4 I now gave back as plus 2 seconds on #5....devil's advocate I could've been looking at 5x69 across the board.
#6 400m 70.1.To be halfway through and still clocking these splits told me I'm not only starting to run consistent splits I have been for a few weeks now,the trick is to keep doing it.
#7 400m 71.7.Identical to #5 and still feeling in control.
#8 400m 69.0.I went out hard on this one as I feared a jogger was going to force me wide as she showed no sign of yielding lane 1 to me as I returned to the track after #7,thankfully she left me enough room on the inside and I took it.
#9 400m 71.3.Payback for going out hard on the prior repeat,if I felt #8 was going to be fast down the back straight then I knew #9 wouldn't be,even though I wasn't doing much differently.
#10 400m 71.6.The key to being able to run even splits on any repeat is the ability to be consistent,I had passed that test today w/ flying colours.
#11 400m 69.8.My case in point!!!now for the grand finale,I'd take a 65 second split to finish things off......
#12 400m 63.8.BOO to the frickin YAH!!!! It remains to be seen if I could drop a 63 second final lap at the end of a 5,000m race....over the coming weeks we'll find out I hope!

Since this was a simulated 5,000m following my 800m recovery jog I jogged the turn and built up speed down the back straight b4 launching into a final 200m,I'd have been ok w/ 34 seconds....I was more than ok w/ a 31.9. which could've been faster had I not had to swing wide to lane 2 coming out of the turn to accommodate some jogger who was fixing his earbuds...who then proceeded to jog in lane 2.....thanks wanker!!!!
All in all this was a great workout,it remains to be seen how it translates next Saturday in an actual 5,000m race but it's all starting to feel like it's coming together over the last few weeks,the trick will be to keep things improving as the weeks tick down to Worlds{9} and Nationals{12}.