Notes
Last workout before Ottawa. Felt pretty fresh warming up but legs just didn't feel too springs during the workout. Goal was to average around 5:52 (3:40 pace) with the possibility of dropping it in the last rep. I did go out a little fast and by the time the last rep came I just had nothing. Conditions were pretty good with a bit of wind from the south east. The 2nd rep definitely felt more relaxed than the first but I could feel myself tiring too. Wasn't looking forward to the last rep. And despite the longer rests I felt I wasn't recovering as quickly as I should have. For the last rep I turned around at 800m and also had to run through the 2 big puddles an extra 2 times so this definitely affected my time a bit. I did feel the rests were a little quicker than they would be if they were only 2 minutes.
Compared to my previous best 1600 workout, the pace was 7 seconds/km faster. That workout was a 4x1600 w/2 minutes rest in October 2015, 10 days before my half marathon of 1:25:08. I figure I was in about 18:45 shape at the time. The splits were more even going 6:03, 6:01, 6:05, 6:00 compared to today 5:47, 5:49, 5:57. Rests were pretty slow and there was some wind, maybe more than today. I don't think I could have done another rep today as my breathing did accelerate in the last 400m of the last rep and even though I did drop the pace it wasn't a substantial drop.
My hip seemed to hold up ok but will need to see how it recovers tonight and tomorrow.
Average 5:51 (3:39.4 pace)