5K fartlek under 30 min :)

There's nothing like a fast 5K to start your morning!

The NWS website said it was 40F (4C) with a slight breeze. They were wrong. My car thermometer said 35F and my house thermometer said 33. Still, it was a warm morning for here. It wasn't that windy either. I went to the track because after yesterday's warm weather in Salt Lake, it was free of snow :). It did have one small icy patch (about 2 strides long) but that wasn't bad.

I warmed up for 1600m in 10:29. Slooooowwwish for a warm-up, so I got a bit worried. I did a few dynamic flexibility drills, and my right hamstring was a little tight so I did some extra on that side. Otherwise, feeling decent. I figured I might be able to do this under 30:00 if I had a good day, but wasn't sure I was having a good day.

Then I started off. First km I felt I was working hard but it was only a 5:44. I just kept going. My recovery 500m was a 3:08, so then I figured maybe this workout would be OK after all. I pulled off a 2:50 for the next 500m and was encouraged. Then a 3:10 and 2:53 and I made it to 3K in 17:47 (a few seconds slower than last week's 3K fartlek). I thought I might just be able to do under 30 min for the 5K. I pushed pretty hard to get the last 2K fast - my legs started to get a bit tired. I still need to work on endurance, but it will come. Anyway, I managed 3:10 recovery, 2:53 fast, 3:12 recovery, and finally pulled off a 2:52 (working very hard!) to get my 29:58 total! Yay! I finished under 30 min! (My watch rounds down so the split totals don't equal the time total).

29:58, ave HR 165, 6:00/km. Garmin connect data here.