Weather looked spot on this morning, 14C, 2 mph wind. So booked in the FiL to pace me on his bike and drove over to a quiet loop a few miles away. Perfect roads, and only 40ft of climbing across the 5k (1.4 of a loop). Managed to gently psyche myself up quite a lot over the last couple of days. Used some of the Calm meditations that focus on performance, and only ran 3M yesterday.
Woke up feeling average but very keen. Driving there helped with a race like feeling. Mile warm up, donning old 4% VFs, albeit with 250M on the clock.
I asked Ade for 10.3mph on his bike Garmin - the speed for an 18 minute 5k. I was conscious this was slow but also exceedingly precise on a bike. So as we started, it took half a mile or so to get used to each other. After this, we managed to follow much closer (suitably so...). If it all went quiet he looked around and slowed up, if he heard my breathing, he knew it was right or to pull ahead a little. He shouted out 10.1, 10.3 etc. This was ok, although a little demoralising when below the required average.
Felt the effort increase in an appropriate way - I could offer a few words in the first mile, to heavy breathing in the final mile. To confirm that I am British, I think I must have audibly thanked him five times in the first two miles. Ridiculous.
Mile splits were 5:47, 5:48, 5:43 and 5:40 pace for the last bit. Finished at 17:56 on my watch, which to 3s and the same mileage tallied with Ade’s bike computer. I left my phone in the car to avoid the world’s worst gps. Proper hands on knees, absolutely buggered, thank god it has finished. But genuinely delighted to have gone sub 18 in a training run. I’ve only run sub 18 on the track (once), at the LFotM in Hyde park surrounded by others, and at Worcester Pitchcroft parkrun - which used to be somewhat generous. I think not having had any races enabled more adrenaline, and it really added something having a pacer. Overall, bloody loved it, and really pleased to be at that fitness level for a 5k. Genuinely been on a high all day. The three week block clearly helped.
Split Summary
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1) 1m - 5:51(5:51/m) 87/87bpm
2) 1m - 5:54(5:54/m) 103/199bpm
3) 1m - 5:47(5:47/m) 198/199bpm
4) 0.07m - 25(5:51/m) 197/198bpm