Winner

I'd forgotten that feeling of feeling like a winner. It doesn't always mean winning races or even getting a personal best. Sometimes I feel like a winner when I just have a really good workout.

What can I say about tonight except Goal Achieved?

I wasn't setting my expectations high when I started out on our 6k tempo. My legs were still sore from Sunday's long run, and admittedly I had been eating lots of yummy junk food all day, topping it off with a bowl of ice cream right before I went out into the cold windy weather to run.
The goal was negative splits. And I was bound and determined that this time - THIS TIME - I would actually do negative splits!
I set off with some of my favourite gals and we had what I thought was a decent tempo run plan: 5.40 pace the first 3k then 5.30 pace the second 3k.

The first 3k set a not-so-surprising trend: 5.33...5.35...5.37...all a little too fast for the goal plan. The first two k's especially, I was worried. I felt I could maintain this or maintain close to this, but negative splits? That was gonna be tough!

We hit the turn around point and knuckled down for the final 3k.

First k: 5.22. Excellent! I felt it was tough, but I was feeling pretty good.
Second k: 5.15. Whoop! Even faster! I made the mistake of calling out the time to my crew. My sister then suggested, "let's do a negative split on this last km." Huh. I mean, I was feeling okay but going even faster? Yikes.
But then a funny thing happened. I remembered back to all those 1k repeats I did in Australia and how I consistently cracked a sub-5min time. Oh, how much I miss those 1k repeats! No, this isn't sarcastically spoken. They were a kick-ass way for me to learn to self-judge speed and learn that my mind holds me back from what I'm capable of doing. So I listened to that memory and pushed that little bit harder.
Third k: 5.05. And the best part was, I felt really good at the end. Tired? Yep! But definitely I felt I could have kept going a little faster for a little longer...

I wonder, is this what it normally feels like to run a negative split? Is it typical to end on such a high note? Further investigation of using negative splits in my running is warranted to scientifically quantify this feeling to determine if it is a fluke or a trend.