Short fast run

I have wanted to push my speed lately. After months of just working on distance without much emphasis on speed, building back up my endurance and aerobic conditioning, I'd like to get back to where I was last year, sooner rather than later. I've been doing some interval training for the last month or so, and a while back I tried a short burst of speed (around a mile at 8:30 pace is fast for me)... but basically my routine has been a long run every other weekend, an interval run every other weekend, and 3-4 miles at slow-ish 10:00-11:00 pace a couple of times during the week. It's all I've had energy or inclination for.

But I was inspired by my 10:00 pace 5-miler last Wednesday, so this morning I wanted to push. I planned on doing 3 miles - warmup for a half-mile, then 2 solid miles at a 9:00 pace, then cooldown for the last half-mile. I thought it would be hard, but achievable.

And it was, it actually was. I had my watch on, to keep track of time and pace, but because my cheap running watch only keeps track of total time and the current split time, I'm not sure exactly how fast my fast section was. I remember a couple of half-mile segments being in the 4:24-4:43 timeframe, and the final cooldown was 5:59 (I had to walk a bit), and the total time for all 3 miles was 30:16. I think I achieved my goal, though. Felt good.

Basically it was a short tempo run, run at 5K pace.

Sunday I'll do a long interval run. Looking forward to it!