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I Ran 5 km In Under 27 Minutes! June 26, 2006

This morning the front light wasn’t on at A’s house (our signal to each other when one of us is not running this morning), so I ran alone.

This was not a bad thing, as I had a few podcasts I wanted to listen to (Tips From The Top Floor (photography), Up To The Top Floor (digital media business), and Part II of a great interview by Yaro Starak with an Australian eBook writer named Daryl Grant).

Maybe it’s because I was distracted by the great podcasts, or maybe it was because I’d had a couple of days of no running and was rested up, but I felt great running this morning and broke my old personal best for 5 km (3 miles) by about a minute! I ran it in 26:45, which is an average pace of around 5:21 per km. I had a lot of energy left towards the end, and was able to really push hard for the last few hundred metres, shaving valuable seconds off my time.

I need to start increasing my distance a bit now, especially if I’m going to run in the 14 km Sydney City To Surf race in mid-August. I don’t expect to be able to run the whole thing non-stop, but I figure if I approach it in stages of 2 to 3 km each, with a walking rest in between each stage, I should be able to put in a respectable time.

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Comments»

1. holly - June 30, 2006

Wow! Great run! Faster than me. :)

I had resigned myself to being a slow runner before I started hanging out with a competitive runner I work with. She has convinced me that if I’m willing to do the training I can get to be much much faster than I am now.

Remains to be seen just how much of that training I want to do, but already I’ve shaved a minute per mile off my 5km pace. :)

2. admin - June 30, 2006

Two days later I did the same run in 26:22!

Do you have any links to good resources on proper running technique and training to improve your times, Holly? I’m interested in learning more, as I really want to do well in the local 5 km (3 mile) fun run next year. The guy that won it this year did the run in under 15 minutes, which seems a ridiculous pace to me at this stage!

3. holly - July 8, 2006

Mixing up your running workouts seems to be key. Do some speed work days, some fast but steady days, and one long slow run a week.

For me at least it’s the speed work that doesn’t come naturally. Here’s a good article to get your started: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-51-54-0-7634,00.html