7.15km (WU, 5km TT, CD)...

The programme that I'm sort of following for the Half Marathon called for a 5km Time Trial today - to judge fitness and perhaps come up with a HM target time.

I picked a flat-ish route with as few road crossings as possible. I was aiming for about 23 minutes, so asked my Imaginary Friend to pace me at 4:30/km. After a bit of a warm-up I set off.

I saw that I'd set off a bit too quick as I was getting ahead of my Imaginary Friend, so slowed it down a little bit.

I could see I was maintaining the gap I'd created in that first km and was even moving slowly further ahead, so I expected the last couple of km to be hard to maintain pace. I ended up finishing in 22:29, which I'm very pleased with. Splits were:

1. 4:20
2. 4:32 (8:52)
3. 4:11 (13:03)
4. 4:40 (17:43)
5. 4:46 (22:29)

So according to the race pace calculator - I should be capable of a 1:43:26 Half Marathon, which would be 4:54/km pace... for 21.1km!!! I don't think I'll be attempting anything like that. I'd be pleased with 1:50, but I'd be even more happy to run all the way with my mate. I'll see if I can get him to do a Time Trial and see what we can do.