Sunday, March 08, 2009

Another step closer to a sub-18 5K

Ran a 5K race in 18:38 this weekend. That's a new PR. Old one was 18:59, set exactly a month ago. No idea about mile splits; didn't see any mile markers. It was an out-and-back course and the splits were 9:29 and 9:09. I've been running a pretty consistent 30-35 mpw and a couple of tempo runs a week. I had been planning to start speedwork after last month's PR, but a friend in an online newsgroup suggested that mitochondria generation in response to increased mileage can last up to six weeks. (Which reminds me I still need to read up more on that.) So, I postponed the launch into the world of speed then. It got me 21 seconds. At this point, I think I'm sufficiently overconfident to make a sub-18 5K my next goal. I do plan to sit down and craft a good long-term plan, however, I'm leaning towards starting fartlek and/or hill workouts now.