New 5-K Personal Best


Hal Higdon’s eight-week Advanced 10-K training program has been very intense. Last week (Week 4), the program had a cut-back week with a 5 km (3.1 mi) simulation run at the end of the week. It was nice to ease off the mileage this week for some additional recovery ahead of the time trial.

The simulation was a success. For the past three years, I have used the same route in my neighborhood for 5-K time trails. To make sure that Strava counts it as a 5-K, I now run 3.13 miles. I finished in 25:25, and Strava calculated my 5-K time to be 25:13. My previous best was 25:49, and I am now halfway to my goal of a sub-25 minute 5-K.

I still need to work on pacing. I have successfully been running 400 m (.25 mi) intervals at 7:20/mi (4:33/km) and 800 m (.5 mi) intervals at 8:00/mi (4:58/km). However, when running the 5-K time trial, I could only maintain an 8:00/mi for the first mile.

How has your running week been? I would love to hear about it in the comments below.

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