Today Cody, Dan, and I did a 2-mile time trial on part of the Landfill Loop. The purpose of this was to give me an idea of my current fitness and an estimate of an appropriate 5k pace for the upcoming Striders 5k in 9 days. The time trial course is very flat, and the weather was very nice with no snow or wind, and not too cold either. Other than an isolated splot of ice and slush on the first mile, road conditions were good. Did a 2-mile warmup with 4x100m strides. I was hoping to run 10:00, but ended up at 10:27. First mile was around 5:04, so the second was 5:23, very lopsided. This was measured with my Timex GPS, so give or take a couple seconds. I had forgotten how much it hurt to fun that fast, so this was good to do before the 5k race. I think with proper pacing, competition, pushing myself harder, and some "raceday magic" (adrenaline), I can probably hold 5:15 pace for a 5k (16:20). The Ogden course will be slower due due a sizeable hill, so I think I will be happy with under 16:40 for that race. Regardless, I did learn today that I shouldn't go out in 5:00, which will be key. I cooled down with Cody and Dan and then turned off on 1400 N, and did 4x100m strides, which felt good. In all, my recovery from the time trial was pretty fast, a good sign. Tried to keep the pace under 7:00/mile the last two miles of the run. ****** I have added a new (original) entry to my personal blog regarding the upcoming Striders Series. | 