I’m racing a 3000m this week at PISE — the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence here in Victoria — and I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure what my fitness actually is right now.
For the last six weeks I’ve been following Marius Bakken’s Norwegian training method. Controlled sub-threshold work, three sessions a week, heart rate capped, no long runs. I built up to about 75 minutes of threshold volume a week and then deliberately held there rather than continuing to add more — flat periodization, essentially. Find a volume the body can repeat without breaking down, and repeat it for a good long while instead of constantly chasing more.
What I haven’t done, other than a bit of fast 200m work a couple weeks ago, is anything resembling actual race pace. Almost no time spent at the speed I’ll need to hold on Wednesday. That feels strange heading into a race. My whole running life, race prep has meant some race-pace-specific work in the weeks before. This time it’s been six weeks of staying under threshold and trusting that the aerobic base would be enough.
So there’s a real tension right now. On one hand, I feel genuinely good about the training. The sessions have been consistent and repeatable in a way training hasn’t been for me in years. I ran the same 800m repeat session two weeks apart and hit nearly identical splits at a noticeably lower heart rate the second time. My fixed warmup probe has gotten 25 seconds per mile faster at the same effort. That’s real signal, not wishful thinking.
On the other hand, I genuinely don’t know how my legs will respond to holding actual 3k pace for ten minutes straight. The engine feels strong. Whether it’s been rehearsed for this specific gear is a different question, and I won’t know the answer until I’m out there Wednesday.
Still, I’ll call my shot. I haven’t run a 3000m over ten minutes since I was about fourteen years old. The last time I raced this distance was 2008, indoors, no super shoes, and I ran 8:41. I’m a long way from that version of myself, but I’m going under ten minutes on Wednesday.
Whatever the time on the clock says, I think the six weeks themselves have already been a win. I’m training more consistently, more safely, and with a lot less volume than I used to think I needed. The race is useful information. It’s not the verdict on whether any of this worked.
