5K fartlek - new PR! Under 28 min!

This was to be tomorrow's workout, but seeing as how this is the weather forecast, "This Afternoon: Snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 46. Breezy, with a northwest wind 7 to 10 mph increasing to between 19 and 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Tonight: A 50 percent chance of snow before 11pm. Cloudy, with a low around 28. Blustery, with a northeast wind 15 to 18 mph increasing to between 25 and 28 mph. Winds could gust as high as 41 mph. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible." I decided to do the workout today rather than tomorrow in the snow and 41 mph (65 kph) wind gusts. It was actually fairly nice this morning, at 32F (0C) with no wind and partly cloudy.

I warmed up well, doing 1600m in 9:45 or so, and I felt good. My IT band (which niggled me the tiniest bit yesterday) felt completely fine today (and still does! Yay!), and my legs weren't really sore at all. I felt ready to go. I stretched a bit and then started the 5K fartlek. I decided to push pretty hard, because after all I was only to do 5K. I confess I wanted to see what would happen! The first km came in 5:24.4, nice and fast (for me!). My medium 500s were all fast today, and I pushed it hard to the end on the fast 500s. I saw on the last one that if I was fast enough I'd make it under 28 minutes. I had to go all-out for the last few hundred meters to make it happen, but I got it! Here are my times: 2:53.6, 2:42.9, 2:55.0, 2:44.5, 2:55.9, 2:46.1, 2:54.9, 2:41.1 (!). Total time: 27:58.6, ave HR 163, max 175 (!). It was hard to get that 2:41! Average pace 5:36/km or 9:00/mile.

This is only the 3rd time I've gone under 28 minutes for 5K, ever (that I can recall). Once was this summer at the Art Attack 5K race (27:45), and once was last summer (2010) on a downhill course for a 5K club race (27:57). Another comparison - my time at WMA this summer (in the heat, admittedly) for the 5K track race was 28:04, so this was even faster than that. I figure this puts me possibly in the 26-minute range for a 5K race under perfect conditions. Not too shabby. I'm super happy with this! Now I just have to stay healthy and train hard for a little bit longer until the 50K.

In other exciting news, my friend Dave Talcott was named USATF athlete of the week for qualifying for the men's 50K Olympic Trials at age 51. Check it out!