To be honest, I think if I tried to do a full 5k at 9:20, I'd fade out too much in the last mile. I think a few things are at play since the fitness assessment:
1) I never actually full-on *raced* any of my 5ks or the one 10k. Too much fear of not finishing because I worked too hard. That's part of the reason I was so mad about missing my goal for the Takoma Park 5k - I kind of treated it as a long run and definitely could have raced faster. For the 10k, it was a big distance jump, so I took it fairly easy (and the course was down hill). So this upcoming one will be the first one where I allow myself to run a little faster than I would otherwise find to be "comfortable." I am slightly concerned about T+D, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
2) A big issue when I first started running was my breathing (asthma). I finally figured out how to effectively manage it, which means I'm working less hard aerobically during runs.
3) Like I said earlier this week, confidence has been big. I KNOW I can run 3, 4, 5, even 6 miles. I've done it. So maybe I'm holding back less?
Whooops. I
was tired after them, for what it's worth! And, my RIs were a little longer than 60 seconds because I wanted to get to clear markers on the track before starting the next interval - that probably helped.
Is that emoji more like this:
Or like this:
Because that
may or may not impact my race strategy (kidding... I think...)
