Ready for my debut

This Sunday will be my first running race, a 5k that is part of a duathlon called Blazing Saddles. It will be a pretty small race, and even smaller because the duathlon is the main event. I'm hoping to break 24 minutes (7:44 per mile), and I think that is very realistic based on today's workout. Today a 35 minute tempo run was on the schedule: 10 minute warm up, 15 minutes pace, 10 minutes cooldown. My goal today was to do my tempo miles at or below race pace.

I did my ten minute warm up at a 9:35 pace. Then I turned up the speed and did the next almost two miles at 7:35 and 7:40 paces. Then I did my ten minute cool down at a 9:33 pace.

That's the fastest I've ever run for any length of time, and it felt good. Considering that those miles were in the middle of training, in the middle of my training cycle with no taper, I feel pretty good about Sunday. I'm taking off Friday and Saturday so I'll be rested and fresh. I'll post my results here Sunday.