Faster!

In addition to my personal best 19:52 in the CVS 5K, here's a little more evidence that my speed work leading up to that race has made me faster. The fastest I have run 5 miles (likely the distance I have run most often over the last few years) is 35:19, just about a year ago on September 28, 2007. This week I have backed off my running schedule a bit to give myself a break after the race last Sunday, so today when I set out to run 5 miles I had no time or pace goal in mind. But after a couple of miles of simply running at a comfortable pace I noticed that my time was pretty quick, so I picked up the pace a little, then finished with a hard final mile. The result? 35:48. Only a few times have I run a faster 5 miles, and I am certain that I set out on those runs intent on going fast. Today it just happened, and I now have little doubt that I will be able to go under 35:00 for 5 miles when I try.