Ran in the gym tonight. Wore the Asics. Forgot to bring the nano, dammit, so I was musicless.
The session was a repeat of last week’s speed work.
One mile warmup (around a 9:50 pace), then four repeating sets of 4:00 fast, and 2:00 recovery, then one mile cooldown.
This week I wanted to push my speed up faster than last week, so I set the pace for the fast sections at 8:40, which felt plenty fast to me. I tried not to let my recovery pace go slower than 10:00 during the first two, but by the third one I had to slow to a walking pace for about 30-45 seconds, and, sadly, that was enough to counter any distance gain I may have had over last week, because by the end of the 24 minutes of speed work, I had gone the exact same distance, 2.55 miles. Bummer.
But on the bright side, I impressed myself during the fast sections. 4 x 4:00 at 8:41 pace equals 1.8 miles. I think, on a good day, I could do 2 miles now at that pace, without the recovery breaks. Or, at least, that I’m close to being able to do that. And that means, with more training, I might be able to do a 5K at that pace… it’s foreseeable, at least. Wow, a 27:00 (or less) 5K time? On my short little legs?
So far my best 5K time has been a 9:27 pace… That would be so cool to break a 9:00 pace, on an officially-timed race, after my 41st birthday.
It’s something to look forward to.