Day 82 - Thursday 2nd September: Fast Five

Run: 5.0 miles

Time: 37m49s

Today's plan called for a fast 50 minute run, but I decided to up the pace to make it really fast, but lower the distance to make it about 40 minutes instead. A friend who used to work at RM, who encouraged me when I started running, once told me he did the Sutton Courtenay loop in under 40 minutes. At the time I thought I could never aspire to run 5 whole miles in under 8 minutes each. I could run one that fast, yes. I could run five miles in under 50 minutes yes. Knocking a couple of minutes off each mile over "such a long distance" seemed unlikely.

Yet here I am a couple of years later, and I know that actually I can achieve that pace now. I've run 7.6 miles in an hour, and 8.4 miles in 65 minutes. But they were mile laps of the village, running past my front door where I know I can stop at any time and be home quickly. I never do stop, but it's a kind of "safety net" to running that fast. If it proves too difficult, I can just stop a lap or two early.

Running out on the road on a single five mile loop is more of a challenge, because I have to cover the same distance, regardless of how fast I can keep it up. Does that make any sense? Sort of!
Will I have the same self determination to keep running as fast as I can for the whole route? We'll see...

So I set off at a steady pace, to warm up. Gradually upping the intensity until I'm about an 8-minute mile. This is good, I think I can keep this up. Uh-oh, Mile 1 and it's only 7m50s. That's a bit faster than planned, but since it still feels so good, I think I'll be fine. I glance down on mile two and notice my average has dropped to 7m45s, so it looks like Mile 2 will be faster. Yikes, can I really keep this up?

Mile 3 and I push it a bit, I'm feeling really good now, and keep telling myself I'm over half way, not too far to get back now. Hey at this pace I'll easily beat 40 minutes. Mile 4 and I keep it steady, I don't want to burn out too soon now, I'm doing so well, I'll just cruise along at the same pace - 7½ minute miles! Not in my wildest dreams when I started out running could I think about running this fast, certainly not for miles at a time.

Mile 5, home stretch now, and I'm tiring. It's hard work now to keep up the pace, or rather to keep up the even faster pace I've set myself now to get back to work. I slacken off slightly and then speed up again. Then I round the corner and the office is in sight. So what did I do? I break into a real sprint for the last hundred yards, easing off just slightly to bring up the distance to the full five miles. 7 minutes 10 seconds for the last mile.

Another negative split run, with each mile faster than the last, and the last at a pace that would see a marathon done in under 3½ hours (knocking an hour off my PB!). Just a shame this is only a threshold run of five miles, and I can't really keep this speed up over that kind of distance... but then I never thought I could run five miles in under 40 minutes. You never know, maybe one day? Perhaps I have a sub 3h30m marathon in me somewhere? For now, sub 4h30m will suit me just fine!