Fastest 5K to Date

I've never really kept track of my 5K times, but I do know one thing, I'm more likely to bonk in a 5k than in any other race.  It's so much shorter than my preferred distance that I generally start off really fast (for me) at about 6:40ish mile pace, then somewhere in the second mile my lungs give out and I start to slow down.  By the time I reach the finish, I'm stumbling through the finish line gasping for air, generally around 23-24ish minutes.

For the Lynn Spittle Memorial 5k (May 12), I decided to try something different... train for it!  So these last 6 weeks, I've been working on my speed.  Turns out that if you want to go faster, you have to train to go faster.  So, I used my Tuesday runs to be speed work outs and Thursday to be tempo runs.

For those who don't know the lingo- Speed workouts - you run hard for short distances to develop lung strength and quick snap muscles in the legs; Tempo runs - you run for a set distance at race pace in order to train your body to run at that pace.

For my speed workouts, I build up to 10 x 400 meter sprints with a 400 meter recovery.  This means I ran hard for roughly a 1/4 mile then jogged for 1/4 mile.  I repeated this sequence 10 times.  For tempo runs, I started by running 1 mile repeats trying to keep relatively close to the fastest I can go that distance.  I did 1 mile x 3 for a couple weeks, then 2 miles x 2 for a couple weeks then there was today when I ran a 3 mile x 1 repeat on the 5K course.  I called this my race simulation day.  It's also about 10 days from the race, which gives my muscles and lungs both time to absorb the workout and to recover from it.  This was my most intense week.

Well, it turns out that training to go faster works.  Because on a humid, sunny day, in non-ideal running conditions, I ran the 5k course in 22:13 minutes, which is good for a PR... of course, now I got myself thinking that I might be able to break 22 next Saturday.  Wish me luck!