Back to Nature Park

I am up much too late, but I figure I should post before heading to bed. Haven't felt like pushing myself too hard this week, which is inconvenient because I don't plan on decreasing my mileage until the first week of October. Hopefully the wheels don't fall off my training plan.

I had a speed session planned today, so I headed to the Nature Park and hoped to bang out a 5.5k tempo run. I finished the distance in 23:46 the last time I tried it, but didn't expect to hit that target because I was flying solo and didn't have anyone chasing me. My goal was to run as hard as possible for as long as possible, without completely falling apart.

I passed through the first kilometer around 4:00, and hit 2k at 8:10. At this point I was slightly ahead of my pace from last weeks run, so I buckled down and really focused on keeping it together. The next two kilometers were a little slower, but ahead of pace, so I pushed hard for the final 1500 meters with the hopes of establishing and new speed record for the course. My final time for the 5.5k was 23:08, almost 40 seconds faster that last week's time. I guess I underestimated my ability to push myself.

I plan on taking tomorrow off (I will be paddling in the Dragon Boat races, so my day isn't completely lazy), but I hope to run at least three hours on Sunday. I have nothing planned yet, so I am open to suggestions. Anyone want to invite me along for a long run?