All by myself

My training partner was a no show today and no one else in the group felt like going hard so I was forced to fend for myself.  This freed me up to run a bit less consistent and push the pace early in an attempt at a tempo/lactic threshold type run.

I went out relatively hard for the first mile 7:13, and then went real hard for the next 2 miles at 6:35 and 6:38.  Let up a bit for a 7:05 4th mile.  7:23 for the uphill 5th mile.  Then back down to 6:50 for the 6th mile.  Pushed through an extra .2+ for the 10K and hit a new Garmin record of 43:12 (6:57 average pace).

Slowed down to 8 minute pace after that to finish out at a total of 8.51 miles.

Summary:
8.51 Miles
1:01:41
7:15 Pace

Some more notes...

My HR was in the 160-167 range for 20 minutes of the workout.  It peaked at 172 at the end of a few hills but was only over 167 for 24 seconds total.  It is getting difficult for me to get my heart rate up past 170 during training (although I haven't really done any VO2 max workouts yet).

Not sure how much more short term and long term gains I have in me.  I hope a lot, although I'd suspect a plateau at some point based on recent gains.  Low 7 pace is starting to feel pretty natural and the push it takes to go sub 7 is still under control.

Still haven't broke 20 in the 5K but probably could do that in a time trial if I really wanted.  Sub 19 minute 5K is a goal but Sub 6 minute pace 5K would be really nice!  That would be 18:38.