Run fast for the f of it

My training has been going very well for the last year.  I have been steadily progressing, building endurance, building mileage, building strength, and haven't gotten myself hurt yet while doing it.

The one element that has been lacking is any real speed work.  My hard efforts have been 8-9 mile runs at steady state/tempo pace.  Rarely have I approached anything close to my threshold besides a few fast finishes.

That changed on Tuesday, when I spontaneously decided to pick up the effort and test my fitness is a 4 mile time trial.

I started off with a basic 1 mile warm up with some surges.  Then stopped to change into my brand new Alphafly's… time to take those baby's for a test drive.

Then I was off...   The Alphafly's felt really weird.  Not at all like the Vaporfly's… The vaporfly's feel fast... the alphafly's stack height and cushioning is really noticeable.  Not a bad thing but just not like other running shoes.

First mile was fast but controlled.  I hit it in 6:15 and my HR was at 161 by the end (153 average).  Mile 2 had the 2 large steep hills.  Alphafly's were almost out of control fast down the hills.  They were not so good at going up the hills.  Mile 2 was my slowest mile at 6:24 and the hills were the factor.  My heart rate was about 170 at this point.  I consciously made a decision to reduce intensity slightly to keep the heart rate in the upper 160s as I continued on to the 3rd mile.  3rd mile was the fastest at 6:08 pace as I picked up after 2.5 and approached the 5K mark. 

Hit the 5K in 19:24... a new Masters PR for me.  First time under 20 for a 5K in over 10 years (July 4th, 2010 was the last time)…  and I wasn't done yet.

I ran my last mile at 6:12.8 with a slight surge at the end.  HR averaged 170 for the last 2 miles and peaked at 176 with the final surge.

Final stats:

4.01
25:03 (24:59.8 at the 4 mile mark)
6:14.8 pace

Very happy with the effort and first time under 6:30 pace for a run.  Monday was my rest day but I was coming off a 15 mile run on Sunday and a record mileage week so I was far from tapered.  My HR never really took off and I would say I was probably running at 95% effort?  In a race I probably could have maintained the pace for 10K.

On the hand, while aerobically it wasn't much of a push, my legs definitely felt the lactic acid building.  Just not something I'm used to since I haven't been pushing my pace.  4-6 weeks of real LT/VO2 work might take me to the next level?...

Oh well, everything is speculation.  All I can really do is continue to train consistently and smartly to build strength while avoiding injury and see where it all shakes out when racing resumes.