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Dang it feels good to be a cross country runner

September 19, 2019 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Decided to run a 5k on the MIT track this morning at 6-minute pace of a little faster. And that's exactly what I did. Here are my laps.

1 - 91.3
2 - 89.6
3 - 88.1
4 - 89.8
5 - 90.1
6 - 88.9
7 - 88.8
8 - 89.7
9 - 89.2
10 - 87.3 (14.52)
11 - 87 ?
12 - 85 ?
12.5 - 35 ?

I managed to hit the stop instead of the lap button my watch at the start of lap 12, so I don't know the last 2 and a half laps exactly, but extrapolating from the pace I was going in lap 10 before I consciously tried to pick it up, I think these are good guesses. My aim was to convince myself that I could run 6-minute mile relaxed and finish the workout without it feeling like a race. It felt hard, but not painful. I think really it was the anticipation that it might start to hurt or the fact that it was simply challenging to keep up a fast pace was what I found daunting, but as the laps ticked by my confidence that I could finish it at the same pace steadily grew. I set my sights on getting to 6 laps, then on getting to the two mile mark. Once I hit two miles, I felt very confident. My breathing got a bit more ragged on the last few laps but I realize now that's because I was speeding up, not because I was reaching my aerobic limits. Kicked in the last 200m like it was a race, but otherwise, I felt controlled the whole time.

After a lap recovery, decided to run one more lap at that same pace just to convince myself I hadn't been running all out. I ran another 90-second 400 and it felt neither hard nor easy. Really glad I chose to do this workout!