A.M. Did a mile time trial with Benjamin. The plan was to bridge the gap between his current track PR of 5:17 and the 5:00 barrier. To a great extent this was a psychological barrier. He had run 3:45 for 1200 already. But it is one thing to run 75s when you get to 600, you start to hurt, but you know you have only a lap and a half left, and to get to 600, hurt the same, and know that you have two laps and a half left. For Benjamin this is still a big deal mentally as he is only 13 years old. So I paced him through the first lap 76. Sensing a weakness, I eased off to 77. On the third lap he was supposed to take over. This was a trick to get him to focus better - the pain should feel less in the second lap when you are thinking about taking over in the third, and then in the third you feel responsible for the pace. But for some reason he did not take over. I assumed it was because he was struggling, and eased off to 80. I must admit I did not mind easing off to 80, as the earlier 76, 77 did not feel that comfortable. In the last lap Benjamin had a surprise for me. He took over and hit a 200 in 38. That was good. But then he kicked and ran the last 200 in 35. I could barely keep up. In fact, I tried to pass him in the home stretch but could not, and ended up a notch behind. So we ended up with 5:08.8, which is his new track PR. This was the full mile, not just 1600, so our lap splits do not add up. His last 1500 was 4:47. We ran some more miles, including 2 with Joseph. Jacob did 1, Julia and Jenny 2. Benjamin ended up with 6. I did a total of 12.3. P.M. 0.5 with William.
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