Monday - Speed Workout, 9.5 miles total

I was well rested up for this morning's workout. I ran a 3 mile warmup and did drills and strides before the speedwork. The workout was a 5k run with each mile being faster than the previous. We didn't need to hammer the first couple of miles, but I wanted to run fast the last mile. We started on the Memorial side of the bayou near the Waugh bat bridge, ran down the trail to Sabine and then back up the Allen Parkway side to just before Waugh. I ran relatively easy the first mile and hit 0.5 miles in 3:10 and finished the first mile in 6:09. I picked up the pace some for the second mile and finished the second mile in 5:49. My plan was to hammer the 3rd mile and get as close to 5:00 as possible. I checked my watch at the 1st qtr and went through right on track at 75 seconds. I was right at 2:30 - 2:31 halfway through. I dropped off just a little bit on the 3rd qtr and was at 3:47. The last qtr had a steep little hill in it, but I ran as hard as I could the last qtr and finished the 3rd mile in 5:05. If the last mile had been flat, I think I could have hit 5:00 for it. I could see Sean and Luis standing at a corner and they were yelling for me to sprint it in and I went all out thinking they were at the 5k finish. I get to them ready to stop and Sean tells me the 5k finish is around the corner a little further. I only had another 7 or 8 seconds to go at that point, but it sure felt like an eternity. I did about a 3.5 mile cooldown afterwards and had about 9.5 miles on the day. I was happy with the workout and being able to hit that last mile at my goal 5k pace.

Unfortunately I discovered that they changed the course this year for the Astros 5k that I'm planning on running at the end of this month and it will be really tough to go for 16:00 between the new course and the typical end of May weather. Instead of the course heading out east of Downtown, it now goes out the North side over the Elysian viaduct so there will be a couple of serious hills in the race. It will be a challenging course, but probably not one that I'm expecting to PR on. I'll have to go for it the next week at the Heights 5k though last year it was 80 degrees out for that race.