It's hard to believe it's May with the weather we've had the last few days. It was about 40 degrees out when I started my run this morning. I actually put on a long sleeve shirt. I thought those days were over until October or November.
I decided on a run in the part this morning. It's always beautiful there. I like to run beside the water and enjoy the company of the ducks, geese, and squirrels. I wanted to do 4 miles this morning but didn't have any specific goals in mind. I've significantly shortened my warm up walk the last few runs with seemingly no ill effects. I may start out a little slower to let everything get loosened up, but I've lost the patience necessary to walk for 5 minutes. When I'm pressed for time already, it's hard to throw in those extra minutes. I started out after a very brief walk this morning and ran the uphill stretch into the ball park pretty slowly, but sped up as I reached the top and continued to accelerate from there. I finished the first mile in 9:30 but was at a mid 8s pace by the end of that mile. I leveled my speed out at that point and tried to hold in the mid 8s for the remainder of the 2nd mile, finishing mile 2 in 8:49. I pushed my pace up for the third and fourth miles finishing in 8:32 and 8:36. I really expected mile 4 to be significantly slower than mile 3. I felt like I had slowed down quite a bit after I reached the 3 mile mark.
As you can see I pushed myself this morning, running some of the fastest miles I've ever run. There are a couple of local 5Ks and one 10K in June that I might run in. I'd really like to get another race scheduled so I can have something to shoot for. My pace this morning would have easily beat my most recent 5K and I'm pretty sure I could have pushed myself quite a bit harder, especially if I were only doing 3.1 instead of 4.
The Stats: I did 4.01 miles in 35:32 for an average pace of 8:52/mile. My next goal is an 8 minute mile, and then to string 3 of those together for a sub 25 minute 5K. That could be a little further down the road as I've definitely noticed progress is slowing as I get faster. I've abandoned interval training over the last month but hope to get back to it next week, or maybe even Friday.
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