Notes
Swimsuit Classic 5k today, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I went in assuming that 18:30 was going to be the best case scenario, and that given how I've been running an 18:45 was more likely, so I started around 6:00 pace. I came through mile 1 in 5:54 and it felt all right, so I was optimistic. Mile 2 was 6:00, and at this point I was definitely starting to fade a bit and was worried about the massive drop in pace I generally experience. I was very pleasantly surprised to close the last mile in 5:45, with the last bit of the race in ~5:20 pace. It was a much different feeling being the one passing people at the end instead of having everyone go by me.
This was a very encouraging race, because it shows that I'm definitely making my way back into shape, even if it is happening slowly. I'm hoping that if I focus on getting in some 5k effort fartleks and decent tempos every week, I can dip under 18:00 in a couple months, and maybe be back to my old self by the spring.