5 Mile Tempo Run – 40:36 – Season’s Best!
Posted on Mar 25, 2010 under 5 miles, Milestones, Season's Best, Tempo Runs | No CommentToday’s effort was a 5 mile tempo run. Ran the first kilometre in 5:27 as a warmup, and then increased the pace, intending to run around 5 mins/k or better pace, remembering that in my intervals the other day, I had “slowed” to 4:30/k and felt it was reasonably sustainable. Powered up the hill near Sainsbury’s and the 2nd k clocked in 4:59 – so I just decided to see how long I could hold that pace, and apart from a couple of k’s where I slowed a little, I managed to hold it all the way, over 5 miles.
Kilometre Splits:
5:27
4:59
4:55
4:53
5:05
4:56
5:13
4:50
Was interesting that the last k was the fastest, I did push, but felt I was barely moving as by that point I was keeping going by sheer will power and really hurting! But the split shows I managed to keep up the pace until the bitter end! The slower penultimate k had a big uphill over the motorway bridge which slowed me a bit – if not for that and the warm up k, I may have gone sub 40.
Still, a season’s best by over 2 minutes – and gives me confidence I can hold that kind of pace in a 10k race, despite not having done any big long runs as of yet. In fact it’s made me rethink my strategy, as my injuries have always seemed to coincide with long runs – and so far, I seem to be doing fine without them, though need a few 8 milers to improve 10k stamina. Will see how Salford 10k goes, just over a week to go, eek 