Sprint with the Spirit 5K and Week 8 Wrap Up

I had a good week of training last week. I ran with my group again on Thursday and we ran our 6th mile at 8:06, then I ran 2 more on my own and my pace dropped again. I worked all weekend but decided to squeeze in a 5K on Saturday morning. I hadn't raced since July 4th and hadn't done any speed work otherwise, but since I seemed to be able to do OK on these group runs, I wanted to see if I was getting any faster when I ran on my own.

So this is what happened...

Mile 1 - 7:38
Mile 2 - 7:56
Mile 3 - 7:48
last 0.1 - 0:46

Official time - 24:08
Average mile pace - 7:46

Pretty happy with that. I finished 6th overall in the women's race and 2nd in the 40-49 age group. The woman that won my age group was 2nd overall and ran 22:45. I was going to try and stay with her but I realized she was running 7:20 pace at a little past the half mile mark so I backed off. I then started pacing off another woman who is in the 35-39 age group that usually finishes ahead of me. I then realized she was running slower than usual and I passed her. I think I would've run a faster second mile if I hadn't paced off of her for as long as I did. Gotta learn to run my own race! I ran my fastest time of the year so far. Hopefully I can break 24:00 next time around.

I have a race prediction chart that shows a table of equivalent performances at different distances. According to this chart, a 24:10 5K equals a 3:55:10 marathon. A 24:00 5K equals a 3:53:33 marathon. I feel like I am this close to being in shape. I just have to get my head into it and not fall apart during my longer runs.

So this is how last week went...

Sunday- 8 miles
Monday - 17 miles
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday- rest (blew off  cross-training again)
Thursday - 8 miles (8:43 pace with my group)
Friday - 4 miles
Saturday - 4 miles

41 miles total

I have a lower mileage week this week but the training schedule also says I'm suppose to run a half-marathon. I am working all weekend and since there aren't any half-marathon races in the middle of the week, I guess I'll be timing and racing myself.