I went out for a 5k steady state run after class today. After some satisfying speedwork over the weekend, I wanted to make sure I kept working at my stamina and my 5k time. The run was great, and it was a slight (but clear) improvement over past runs.

The first mile I took out far faster than I have in the past. I pulled up at the stop light (the one mile split) at about 6:55. Woot! A mile in under 7 minutes. Not incredibly fast, but I think that’s the first time I’ve run a mile that fast since high school… and I could still happily breath and keep running afterwards.

I did, however, end up slowing down a bit. I tried to push it over the next mile, but the hills and/or the fatigue from the first mile kept me from going too fast. I hit the 2 mile split around 15:05 and I hit the 3 mile split around 23:05. Although those last two miles were a bit slower than I’d like (I was aiming for 7:30-7:45 for each mile), the overall time is clearly better than my previous runs.

I finished the entire 5200m loop in 24:45 – the first time I’ve run the loop under 25 minutes. At the pace I was going, I’d estimate the actual 5k time to be somewhere around 23:45, which is getting closer towards my goal (21-22 minutes in December).

One thing I was disappointed with was the kick at the end. I sped up over the last 400m (which is uphill). I don’t know that I gave it quite all that I had, but I pushed pretty hard. I covered the last quarter in about 1:40.  It’s definitely faster than the pace I posted for the last 2 miles (~2:00/quarter), but I want to finish a little faster than that – at least around 90 seconds for the quarter.  Oh well, something to work on for the future.