3x5k Success

2.5 mile w/u
Target: 3x5k @18:15, 18:00, 17:45 w/3 mins. rest
Actual: 18:08, 17:56, 17:39 (slowest 1k @3:44; fastest @3:27)
1 mile c/d
Total: 13 miles

No time to blog, but I want to note a few points before it slips my mind.

Going into this workout, my legs were particularly tired and sore, no doubt residual effects from Sunday's hard 10-mile race effort. Usually if my legs are sore after a race or hard workout it always feels most pronounced in my calves, rock-like. To my surprise, this time my calves feel totally normal but my quads are absolutely trashed. As I slowly trotted my warmup, I reminded myself that this was precisely one of the tenets I'd planned to focus on during this marathon training segment: running hard and fast while tired. No small task today, but I gritted my teeth and pushed through. From the outset, even during the "slow" first segment, this was work. In particular, the second and third kilometer of each 5k segment (done on the 5k course from the Thursday night Wicked group run) were quite a grind; the second a long, gradual uphill straight into the wind, and the third with several sharp turns and another short but steep uphill section. The lingering fatigue in my legs manifested itself swiftly and acutely in the second half of this workout, but I managed to push through. By far this was the fastest workout of its kind I've ever done--I'd have to look back, but I think I've even done 3x3 mile repeats slower than this--and definitely a huge confidence booster at this stage in my training.