Evening 5k Tempo run

Yesterday I took the day off.

Today I had planned my Tempo run, which was 5k at 25 mins or less, last week was 24:56, so this week I wanted something close to that. Today I had the pleasure of doing the workout with my brother. I did not do a tempo run with him since September, at that time He crushed me. This time I was in much better shape, but so He was.

We met at 6 p.m. in the meeting point, and then started the warmed up, which was 15 mins easy, including 5 x 50-60m strides after the 10 mins, He did longer strides, but I have found that strides of 50-60m is enough. By the end of the 15 mins We were ready to go and We were off.

I checked the 1st 200m to see if We were on pace, I dont want to go too fast for these tempo runs, the watch read 57 seconds, definetely, too fast, I tried to slow down, but the 400m were in 1:55, I then eased up a bit, I was leading at that point, crossed the 500m in 2:25 (4:50 per km), I thought that We were going too fast, so I slowed, then My brother took the lead and We crossed the 1st km in 4:55, I felt good. I thought that He was going to fade, but He never did, haha. He is in much better than I thought!

2nd km was in 10:00 (5:05 for that km), it was too slow as I did not want to go over 25 mins,then I took the lead till the halfway point in 12:31, turned around as quickly as I could, because you easily lose a couple of seconds when you make the turn. At was leading at that point, but right away my brother made a surge, built a gap and pretty much maintained the gap for the rest of the tempo.

I tried to maintain my effort/pace, these runs are about that, I did not want to race, so I let him go ahead. 3 kms came in 14:58 (4:58 for 3rd km), was feeling good, but I could not go any faster at that effort, if I speed up, then the purpose of the workout changes. 4 kms came in 19:51 (4:53 for 4th km), then I tried to maintain that pace till the end without sprinting or anything, finished in 24:49 feeling pretty good and controlled. Last km came in 4:58. My brother finished in 24:42, but I just could not pass him at the same effort, it would have taken and sprint to pass him, again, not the purpose of the workout.

After the 5k were over, I inmediately jog for 1.7k or so for cool down at my normal easy pace, I passed my brother ( He did the cool down much slower than me). Cool down for around 13 mins or so. I suspect it was around 9k total for the day.

When I was walking home, I felt the legs a bit burned, so I predict that they will be sore for the next couple of days. Weather was good, but very windy. Wore my windbreaker. Felt good and happy with the workout, its good to do a hard workout with my brother!

Have a great Friday!