Faster 5K: Week 3, Day 1

Today's run was awesome!  It was very cold and there was a fairly strong north wind blowing right in my face to start off.  My face was so cold that I actually had brain freeze for a few minutes until I rounded a bend and stopped running directly into the wind. 

My plan for this morning was to do 4.5 reps of 1:30 at a 10 minute pace then 1:30 at a 12 minute pace followed by 3:00 at a 10 minute pace then 3:00 at a 12 minute pace ending on the 5th rep of 1:30 runs.  I programmed my watch wrong for only 3.5 reps instead of 4.5.  I realized it too late to do anything about it so resolved to just restart the timer and try to maintain a fairly steady pace around 11:00/mile when the workout was complete until I had gone 3.5 miles.  I was able to do better than I had hoped. 

I started out a little slow but didn't push myself to go faster.  I've found that I usually start out slow and then progress to a faster pace as my body warms up.  The first couple of reps were pretty easy.  I was definitely pushing myself, but I never felt like I needed to slow down.  I just let my body fall into a natural rhythm and went with it.  After I was good and warm, I was surprised several times when I glanced at my watch and found that I was running much faster that I thought.  My "resting" pace settled somewhere around 11:00/mile and my fast pace was right at the 10 minute mark for much of the run.  Then something happened and my body started going faster.  I was running in the mid-9's for a good portion of the last half of my run this morning and it felt good.  I pushed myself really hard for the final half mile and was completely winded by the time I reached the 3.5 mile mark and arrived back at the car.   

Today's Stats:  I ran 3.51 miles in 36:27 this morning for a pace of 10:23/mile!  This is my best pace ever.  I feel very good going into my final week of 5k preparation.  I did the final 2/3 of a mile at a sub 10:00/mile pace.  I'm fairly certain I ran the last mile in under 10 minutes but I haven't had time to fully review my splits.

Next up:  I'm planning on doing the same routine Saturday and Monday.  I anticipate Saturday's run will be a little harder.  I believe part of the reason today's run went so well was the two days off.  I'm planning to take two days off before the 5k, also.