Today I ran a 10K PR in training. I thought this would happen, because my only 10K has a very soft time, but I was particularly pleased with the result.

My plan prescribes a 10K time trial for today. The background is a usual, lengthy workday, not much sleep, and riding my bike to work and home (10 miles total). Also, my last 3 days I ran 8 miles, 9 miles and 5 miles respectively, the longer ones at sub 8:30 pace. After all this, I drove to the track at around 9pm (kids in bed), I did 4 laps for warm-up, then off I went on my 10000 meter journey. I took splits at every 4 laps, or 1600 meters.

6:58 - I went out conservatively, because I didn't feel that well physically, so I decided to run just below 7 min/mile pace at the beginning.

6:55 - I felt better, the pace felt quite easy.

6:51 - I had the feeling that I could do 7 min/miles forever. My body was relaxed, no pain, so I decided to turn it up a bit.

5000 m - 21:35 - Not bad, some time ago I would have been happy with this time at a 5K.

6:46 - I felt a little tired, but still pretty good. Time to drop the hammer.

6:37 - I felt awesome. I started to hurt a bit, but clearly because I ran faster. I still thought that if I only had to maintain 7 min/mile, I could do it forever.

6:31 - I started to really push in the last laps.

Last 400 m - 1:28 - This is what I had left in the tank. This would trasnlate to 5:52/1600 m pace.

Total time: 42:06. I don't think I can call it a PR, because it wasn't a race, but the university track is surely accurate, so I'm sure the time is right. I'm especially happy that I ran 20:31 in the second half. That is a pretty good 5K time for me in training.