I DID NOT expect to bash this kind of time out this morning, but I will absolutely take it!
I had to mark such a momentous occasion in its own dedicated post on the chain, to spread the brag a bit more widely. I'll probably get more comments on here that I will on Strava!
The Prelude
It was a perfect morning for running today. We've had quite a few of these recently, and today was just that - about 8-9 degrees this morning, dry and sunny, no wind, perfect.
I headed out to the local park at about 8.30, did a 2 KM warm up consisting of mostly running, building it up to my 'race pace', but some walking and some silly heel kicks etc.
I've found that I need a warm up of at least 10 mins, sometimes I do twenty, before hitting things at pace.
I don't know why I opted for doing 5Ks around the park rather than my usual '2 bridge' circuit finishing in the park - I think I just wanted something different, and it was such a nice day, and empty because it was quite early.
The laps of the lower loop on the park measure almost 500 metres, if you stick to the very edges (it's quite a wide path in places), so 10 laps and a bit gives you 5KM.
The Run
Anyway, I picked my starting point the actual 5K and head off, intent on running just a 'decent time' of 20 minutes something. I set my Garmin to show clock time so I couldn't see my pace.
I was a bit surprised when my first KM came up as a 4.09 pace (it flashes up every KM), but I felt fine so I just carried on, speeding up a tad, then was even more surprised when I saw 3.56 as the pace for KM 2. Only 10 days ago I was in that very same park doing 400-500 metre intervals not much faster, I remember bailing on an attempted sub 4.00 KM towards the end of that session.
Amazing what a difference 10 days can make!
3rd KM came back at 3.58, fine, but I was feeling it now. I kept saying to myself 'not a negative split', but I couldn't ignore the fact that by now I was very likely to get my 10 year 5K record, all I had to do was hold on for a couple of 4.10 KMs.
KM no 4 felt slow, and my stomach started to feel dicky, I felt a little bit sick, my breathing was all in the upper lungs, I felt like one of those people I usually overtake on lap 2 of the Park Run must feel. I'd actually settled for a time of anything under 20.30 by this point, and was even more surprised when lap 4 paced in at 4.02.
By now I had 2 laps of the park left, and I was feeling pretty minging, so I did what felt like almost jogging to the end, knowing I'd easily get under 20.30, but of course I had to do the last lap/ 300 metre sprint, though it wasn't really a sprint, just more like knees up and go slightly faster.
The final KM paced at 3.56 again. I couldn't believe. it!
Post Run Results and Cool Down
I immediately uploaded the Garmin data, checked on my phone and it looked like I'd got a pace of 4.01, but when I got back home Strava told me a better story - 3.59 pace ! I'll take the later narrative, thank you!
My 5K time was 19.53 - had that been the Park Run with the shorter circuit of 4.9KM (by my Garmin) that time may have been even faster, under today's condition, although I'm not sure because the Park Run circuit has an uphill and a downhill, so maybe that would bring by pace down slightly because it's not as even.
Whatever, it still would have been under 20 minutes.
I had a look back over my Garmin data from several years ago, I think this is my best 5K time ever, but I do seem to remember doing some 5K tread sessions at 19.30, but the treadmills a bit of a different beast, so not entirely comparable!
I did another lap to cool down, had a nice chat with a couple of people en route, everyone just generally enjoying a beautiful morning, happy days!
Here's a picture I took - you can see the nice back drop, the slope leads up to the 'upper loop', which is what I assume is the old Castle Walls' - the park is called 'Castle Green' so I'm basically running around a green where a castle used to be - river on one side, then walls on the other.
Is this increase in pace due to circuit training?
Honestly, I haven't been running that hard of late - consistently, but more like keeping things ticking over. My interval training especially has been a bit shit.
I've been building up my long runs at the wknd, but it makes no intuitive sense that these would help with my 5K time.
So that leaves me with circuit training and leg strengthening as the reason why my pace has improved so much... I've been doing 2-3 sessions, mostly 3 sessions a week for the last 5 weeks in lock down, and gradually increasing leg strengthening work - and my legs do feel stronger, it MUST be that?!?
Anyway, happy day, few lockdown beers laters for sure!
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