fast (for me!) 6K fartlek

I almost didn't manage to do this workout. I went to the track and it was locked. There were runners there, but they'd climbed over a 10-ft-tall fence to get in, and I was NOT going to do that. I'd probably break something, because I'm clumsy! So I drove to Highland High and their track was locked from the west side. Drove around to the other side only to find out the cheerleaders were (rightfully, it's theirs) monopolizing the track. Ugh!

Gave up on the track and drove to 800E and just did the fartlek there. I did a very short warmup because I knew I was going to be late to work. I know, you should never cheat your warm-up (and I don't think I have until today!) but I figured 1K was going to have to be enough, plus some strides. I was not in a good place mentally by this time but figured I'd just go for it and see what happened.

It turned out very well - record pace for my 5K fartlek, and for 6K as well (though I've only done one other 6K fartlek I think). My speed was somewhat erratic, in part due to inability to focus very well and in part due to the gradual sloping of the street, up in places and down in others. I went out really fast, doing 1K in 5:26 (!!!). I think that may be one of the fastest 1Ks I have ever done, seriously. I haven't ever just gone out and done ONE 1K as fast as I can; I usually do them in sets, so that's why this was record-setting fast. My recovery was really fast too, at 2:59. Oops. That probably explains why the next 500m (fast) was only 2:56, but the next recovery was more on-target at 3:15 (on the splits it has 0:02 and 3:13 because I accidentally hit the lap button twice).

I continued with some slower ones and some faster ones (I'm talking about the fast 500s not the recoveries!, and I felt good, well, as good as you can feel when your lungs are burning. The cool thing was that I reached 5K in 29:30! Well, that's what it said on the watch, I thought. Looking at the splits, it seems that it was probably 29:33, but still - that was awesome! If I hadn't slowed/sped up so much I probably would have been faster, but like I said, some of it is the terrain. Anyway, I'm short on time so for more details just see the splits.

I finished in 35:44. My splits and other data are here.

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Epilogue: after returning home and showering and packing my lunch, I went out to the garage to get Loren's bike to ride to work. The back tire was FLAT :(. I then had to unpack all my stuff and re-pack it into my backpack w/my computer so I could ride MY bike (which doesn't have the bike rack). Ugh! So I was pretty late for work. Grrrrrr. At least the workout went well, even if everything else wasn't so great this morning.