Excellent Training Session

I wanted to get out yesterday and run because they were calling for inclement weather for the remainder of this week.  I decided to do a track workout because I was not prepared for a grueling road run. I decided to do a tempo run for five kilometers.

I set up a quick workout on my Garmin Forerunner watch by entering in a distance of five kilometers and an overall goal time of twenty three minutes and thirty seconds (23:30).  This equates to a pace of  7:34 per mile - a brisk pace for myself. I enabled the virtual partner function on the watch.  This function yields a display which gives you instantaneous feedback of your actual pace versus your goal pace during your run.

As always, I started my run too quickly.  I was able to adjust my pace because the watch display indicated I was running much faster than necessary to reach my time goal.  I ran the first 1/4 mile (one lap) at a 6:45 per mile pace. I then slowed  to a 7:27 per mile pace for the second quarter mile.  The second lap turned out to be the slowest split of this session.

I believe the five consecutive long distance 'Test Your Manhood' eight mile runs I have completed have been very instrumental in building my endurance and conditioning in general.   I finished the last four laps of this 3.1 mile run at  minute per mile paces of  7:20, 7:08, 7:01 and 6:50.  I finished this run very strong.

I pushed myself at about 85-90% of my max effort and finished this 5K training run with a time of 22:25 - a full minute faster than I had expected to run.  This averages to a 7:13 minute per mile pace.

I imagine I could have slowed during my run to hit the 23:30 goal pace - but I was not laboring much more at the speed I was running.