Break through workout

I had great success from my last fartlek speed workout 2 weeks ago so I decided to repeat the workout again as my final super hard workout before my 5K.  

The plan:  1 Mile Warmup... .25 Hard... .25 Recovery... .50 Hard... .50 Recovery... 1 Mile Hard… .50 Recovery... .50 Hard... .25 Recovery... .25 Hard

Here's the results:

                                                                            2 Weeks Ago                              Diff

Mile 1:  7:56 pace                                               8:04 pace                                    -8 sec 

.25 Hard:   96sec (6:24 pace)                             98sec (6:32 pace)                       -2 sec

.25 Easy: 114 sec (7:36 pace)                             123 sec (8:12 pace)                    -9 sec                          

.50 Hard: 3:30 (7:00 pace)                                  3:26  (6:52 pace)                       +4 sec  

.50 Easy: 4:01 (8:02 pace)                                   4:02 (8:04 pace)                         -1 sec

1 mile HARD:  6:26 pace                                   7:04 pace                                    -38 sec

    .50 Easy: 4:07 (8:14 pace)                                  4:13 (8:26 pace)                         -6 sec                          

.50 Hard: 3:10 (6:20 pace)                                 3:20 (6:40 pace)                         -10 sec

.25 Easy:  120 sec (8:00 pace)                            131 sec (8:44 pace)                     -11 sec                    

.25 Hard: 84 sec (5:36 pace)                                98 sec (6:32 pace)                      -14 sec

Overall:

5.01 miles in 36:15

7:14 Average Pace

2.51 miles easy at 8:11 pace

2.5 miles hard at 6:26 pace

Pretty much dominated this workout!  This is after running 28.6 miles last week (new high) with a 10 mile long run on Sunday (new high).  

Some other notes:

• Wore my "racing shoes" today just to try them out... definitely using them for the race!
• 2nd mile split was 6:57 which is the tough mile of the course with 2 steep hills and one gradual one.
• Happened to cross paths with a biker going the same direction as me climbing the 2nd hill on the 2nd mile.  She was walking her bike up the hill and we were pretty much lined up as I crested the hill and started my 1st .50 hard.  I was basically running the same speed she was biking and this was distracting because I didn't really want to be racing a woman on a bike.  I figured she would think I was racing her and it was making me self conscious.  Not sure if this attributed to my slower .50 split relative to the rest of the workout although it is a slight uphill .50 and also my .25 recovery before was taken a bit too hard.
• During this workout I set some new achievements with fastest 1K, fastest 1mile, and fastest 5K... 6 seconds off my 1K... 15 seconds off my mile, 2 seconds off my 5K.... All without really meaning too!
• Still not sure how Nike Run Club achievements are calculated… I had my mile times at 6:26 between the 2.5 and 3.5 mark of my run... maybe since it didn't start at a mile split it doesn't count?  Doesn't really matter, its all for fun so I'll just take them as they come