Test 5K in 21:51 (7:01/mile)

Today's workout was a test 5K race to be run at my 10K pace. I plan to run the Armed Forces Week 5K in 4 weeks at a sub-21 minute goal time, which is a 6:45/mile pace. Most predictors think you lose 15 seconds off of your pace when going from 5K to 10K, so the goal pace today was 7:00/mile.

I decided to do this run on the treadmill and set the pace to 8.5 mph (7:03/mile). I ran a slow 1 mile warm-up and then started in. I actually thought of quitting on the run several times starting around 1200m. I was glad that I was on the treadmill because I had the visual stimuli to keep telling myself I just need to hold on for one more mile, or you can do another lap, or even you can manage any pain for 800m. The bottomline is that I made it and feel like I am on pace to get the time I was looking for. I let the last 0.1 mile go at 9.5 mph with plenty of kick left in my legs.

Good luck to everyone tomorrow running Boston. Hopefully I can join the qualifiers by 2012.