Sasha recommended that I run a 5000 meter time trial to gauge fitness. I was planning on doing a 2 mile tempo today at the end of 10 miles, and I decided that today was as good a day as any to run the time trial. I warmed up by running to the indoor track (a little over 1.5 miles) after I arrived at the track I ran one lap to finish my warm-up and to find the 5000 meter start line. The track is 300 meters, so it is pretty fast despite being indoors. My plan was to start off more slowly and to speed up over time, finishing the last 200 meters all out. Goal splits were broken up into 4 lap segments with the plan to run 63 seconds per lap for the first 1400 meters (4 laps plus the 200 to the finish line), followed by 62's, 61's, and 60's for the last 12 laps (The last lap would obviously not be a 60, but I still grouped it that way). This would give me a total time of 17:06 if I did not speed up the last 200. Splits were as follows: 0:41 - first 200 m, 1 second faster than planned. 1:06 - having a hard time judging effort, slowed down a lot. 1:03 - finally on goal pace. Feels a lot harder than I though 5:37-38 pace should feel. 1:02 - effort about the same. 1:01 - effort still about the same. Trying to decide if I should try and hit the pace goals anymore or if I should just stay at the effort I am already at. 1:02 - I backed off just a tiny bit to try and stay on goal pace. 1:01 - running just a tiny bit faster just feels more natural. 1:01 - relaxing into the pace more. 1:01 - hit the 2400 meter mark in 8:17. 1:00 - didn't plan on speeding up, but it happened so I didn't worry about it. 1:00 - worrying that I may struggle the last few laps. Breathing is fairly hard. 0:59 - didn't want to go sub 5:20 pace quite yet. 1:01 - relaxed a little partly to make up for the previous lap and partly because I zoned out and lost concentration. 0:59 - feeling like I am working harder now. 1:00 - effort about the same. Not sure if I actually slowed down or if splits were both 59.xx for the last two laps. 0:59 - feeling like I am struggling just a little. My struggles feel mostly aerobic. 0:52 - I made it to 4800 meters in 16:15 (7:58 for the last 2400). Last 200 meters in 0:33. Total time: 16:48 I was happy with the last 200 as I was not running all out until the last 75 meters or so. I imagine that I could have closed in 0:32 if I was trying harder. The bad part of this whole deal is that I did not feel like I could run much faster than 59-60 seconds per lap, which would still only give me a 16:31 if I averaged that pace throughout. I felt like aerobically I was lacking and it was preventing me from taking advantage of my potential. I guess that is a good thing because it is a problem that is easily fixed by simply running more. I could also feel my form breaking down just a little during the last couple laps. This also felt aerobic, but could have been the result of muscle fatigue as well. I plan on running a bit more later in the morning as I am going to run some errands (literally) with Kimia and the kids. I ended up running about 3.5 miles more (30 minutes) as I ran with Kimia and the kids to the store to pick up some small things for Shayon's birthday, followed by running home using a slightly longer route so that I could end up with 10 miles total for the day.
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