Whoo-hoo!

I joined the 5k time trial last night and managed to PB. I am tempted to say it was rather easy...

There's a park close to the track where I usually warm up and I did very easy 8-9k there with occasional stretching breaks. The legs didn't feel 100% fresh but the stretching really helped and a couple of strides before the trial woke them finally up.

It was a little disappointing that the fast guys from the club didn't show up and I knew I had to do most of the work myself. Only Adam was there who tends to start too fast and then fades in the 2nd half.

My first goal was to break 18 min and my second to zoom in on 17:45. I wanted to run 1:25's but I can only set up full seconds on my watch timer and I wanted it to beep every 200m. I decided against 42s for 200m (1:24/lap, 17:30) and went for 43s (1:26/lap) which would return a 17:55. I prefer being slightly ahead of the pace maker rather than behind. As long as the timer beeps after the mark I know at least I am on track to break the 18 min.

Here are the splits:

1 - 1:21.3
2 - 1:26.5
3 - 1:26.2
4 - 1:26.2
5 - 1:26.2
6 - 1:26.9
7 - 1:25.2
8 - 1:26.0
9 - 1:26.3
10- 1:26.3
11- 1:25.3
12- 1:23.8
13- 0:37.0

Finishing time was 17:43.2 - hurray! I think in the future I'll run all 5k's like that. Even pace between laps 2-11 and a quicker 1st and last lap.

Until lap 6 I was behind Adam but I gradually gained on him. I passed him and wanted him to grab my tail (it was his last workout with the club before going back to London and a PB for him would have been a nice one) but he had not much left and finished around 18:20. Too many sayonara parties I guess but we better have an eye on him. Next stop is London Marathon where he'll be in the news for sure! Stay tuned.

Let's see if I can hit today's 4:12/k (6:45/Mi) paced workout. I may have to save some energy for tomorrow's 4:00/k (6:26/Mi).

Week 1, Day 3: 5k evaluation @ 3:32/k (3.1 Mi @ 5:42/Mi); easy 8-9k warm-up