A new 5K (PR?!?)... best estimated effort

July 4th, 2010 I ran my adult 5K PR of 19:18 (6:12 pace). Today, I finally bested that mark.  

I started with a 1.25 mile warmup.  Then some stretching.  I was nervous and excited and did a good job simulating a pre-race warmup/hype up.

My intent today was a fast paced 5K tempo run workout with the goal of breaking 20 minutes.  Of course, once I put the Vaporfly's on, all bets were off.

I gathered up my muster and took off, starting way too fast.  I ran about 1/4 mile at 5:45 pace, caught myself and consciously slowed it down a bit.  I hovered around 6-6:05 pace for the rest of the 1st mile and hit the split at 5:58.  

Mile 2 has the hills.  2 steep climbs that really push the heart rate.  I've been using this course for my time trials because I'm a glutton for punishment and also because I figure I'll be theoretically faster and it will feel easier when I run a fast course and also because a tough 2nd mile in training would set me up well going into the 3rd mile to simulate race conditions.  I hit this split at 6:19, a personal best for this segment.  Strava gave that a Grade Adjusted Pace of 6:01 for what that's worth.

Going into mile 3 I was hurting a bit but not too bad.  I just tried to hold effort while trying to stay relaxed, never really truly hurting.  I started to pick it up around the 2.6 mile point and dropped back below 6:00 pace, averaging 6:07 for the third mile.  

I hit the 3 mile point at 18:24 and then really picked it up for the last .1 miles to try to squeeze under 19:00 for the 5K.  I averaged 5:11 pace for the final .1 and it wasn't even really a full sprint.  

I finished at 19:01 for a GPS measured 3.12 miles.  

Final stats:

3.12 miles

19:01

6:05.7 pace

Wound up with a estimated 5K of 18:56 and a best 2 mile and 1 mile effort to boot.  

I finished with a bit more in the tank although my stomach is hurting a bit now so that tells me it was a high effort... I'd estimate 95%... we'll try it again at the end of next week with increased effort and a taper.  Need to probably start off a bit more under control.

I ran a 2.29 mile cooldown to wrap up the day.

Had some new "achievements" as well.  Finally got the 1K and 1 mile down a bit since Dec 31.  Looks like I can run a 6 minute mile and not totally crash and burn now vs what happened back in December.