Wednesday, April 16, 2008 [10M]

5M decreasing pace @ Sawyer Camp. 6:05, 5:45, 5:33, 5:17, 5:08. I left work at 5:45PM and drove out to Sawyer Camp for another 5-miler. It took me about half an hour to get there because of the traffic but didn't waste much time starting my warm-up once I was there. I got into the workout right away at the 2 mile mark, shooting to hit 6:00 for the first mile. The plan was to drop 20 seconds per mile but I thought of that more like a general guideline for the workout since I was more concerned with the effort rather than times. I came through the first half in 3:02 and more or less maintained the pace for the rest of the first mile. I picked it up to a 2:51 to start the second mile but was a bit slower for the next half, still more or less on pace. The transition to 5:45 wasn't as smooth as I would have liked and got me worried a bit that I'd have a hard time getting down to faster times. The 3rd mile is always slower since it's a bit hilly so I wasn't too surprised to see 2:48 at the half, even though I was putting in more effort. I was already working relatively hard on the 3rd mile so picking up the pace for the 4th mile wasn't easy. I managed to get out in 2:35 for the first half but kind of lost focus and didn't stay aggressive enough to hold on to that pace for the other half. I had to dig in to bring the pace down some more for the 5th mile and did a decent job, getting out in 2:34 and holding on to that pace until the end. My legs were pretty spent at the end of the 5th mile but after jogging for a mile I was feeling somewhat recovered. I added another 2 miles for cool-down and finished with some strides and stretching. Pretty good workout, even though it wasn't spectacularly fast it was a solid effort. My main focus right now is to get back to the right mindset so I can push myself in workouts and I'm sure that everything else will follow naturally.