Saturday morning session - 5 miles at goal 10km race pace

I don't know what it was this morning? Was it the cool temperature? Was it the fact that being sick during the week forced me to actually rest & recover for once? Was it the fact that I have reverted back to my old university day lunches of two avocado and vegemite sandwiches? Whatever it was, I felt absolutely gold this morning, and had a great session. Returning to Sean Williams' squad at Centennial Park after a month of training solo at Manly, a threshold session was on the cards. Given my terrible week suffering from the stomach bug, the goal this morning was to simply stick to 3:25 min/km pace for 6-8km. After 2km, I was feeling strong and looked at my watch - which read back to me 3:13 min/km pace. I thought it must have been a typo, but kept running and decided to see what I could hang onto. It gradually crept back to 3:15 min/km by the 7km mark, and so decided to hang on for an extra km, finishing at an average pace of 3:16 min/km for the 8km. This was an extremely encouraging run, as I definitely could have held this for another 2km if I had to (although, it would have hurt a lot)! I have learnt over the years (unfortunately through more error than trial) to really listen to my body - so light of being sick during the week coupled with the fact that I want to race next Saturday, there was little point in going for personal glory in running a 10km PB at training. Nevertheless, it was fantastic to be back out there training with the squad again - I've really missed having these awesome athletes around!