New Workout of the Year

After being rained out on Tuesday and reduced overall weekly mileage, I came into Thursday with fresh legs.  I had a decent night sleep (as good as could be for a 3:30 am wake up) and was generally in good shape physically... mentally I wasn't sure how prepared I was for 15K of hard running...  I wasn't feeling like I was raring to go but I thought that a good performance should be at least possible. The weather was perfect; 45 degrees and minimal wind.

2 weeks ago exactly I ran a breakthrough workout.  I called it the workout of the year... today I improved on it by 5 seconds a mile.  

Splits:

Miles 1: 7:15 -On fresh legs, I set the initial pace for the training group today and got us off faster then usual… I can normally start off fast without too much issue, sometimes too fast, but this time it was under control... this would be the only mile run above 7:00 pace.

Mile 2: 6:58 - mile 2 is net downhill and always fast... I never feel like I'm running any harder on this mile and am always pleased when I see the split

Mile 3: 6:58 - mile 3 has rolling hills but they didn't slow us down today, having hit our rhythm...  I pushed up the hills today with minimal struggle, my legs feeling great with the extra rest.

Mile 4: 6:56  Mile 4 starts at a turn around that beings a 4.25 mile straight away... I still cruising at this point and I was still setting the pace.

Mile 5: 7:00 Mile 5 and 7 are always the slowest due to hills... I had been feeling particularly fatigued on the hills lately, but I was hammering hills today on fresh legs.  

Mile 6: 6:43  Mile 6 is downhill...  it's always fast but today it was especially fast.

Mile 7: 6:48  I was not looking forward to mile 7... last Thursday I died on mile 7 and ran it at 7:57 pace (averaged 7:09 for the run).  Today I took 25 seconds off my previous fastest mile 7 ever... I was killing the hills today!  The last hill hurt but I knew if I could hit it hard I could recover a bit on the straight away and then catch some downhill momentum on mile 8.

Mile 8: 6:35  We hit the final turnaround at 7.25 miles and my training partner says "okay, lets try to push the pace under 6:30 for the last 2 miles"... I'm already pretty gassed at this point but he was just getting going.  I just had to laugh at that point... He pulls ahead and I'm just trying to hang on.

Mile 9: 6:30 pace  It's Mile 9, and he wants to run even faster...  I hang on but am trailing by a few steps

Last .34:  6:31  pace  We hit the 9 mile mark and I'm huffing and puffing... I let up a bit and he pulls away... I sprint near the end and it evens the pace... 

Final Stats:         May   7                          April 23
                              9.34 miles                      9.33 miles
                              1:03:59                            1:04:48
                             6:51 pace                          6:56 pace

So, this is now the workout of the year.  

Plenty of Strava PRs to be had... this only takes into account my Garmin data from the last 2 months but the 15K is a lifetime PR and the 10K is probably the fastest 10K I ran since high school… the 5K is only 9 seconds off my fastest 5K from last year as well.