5K at 29:37.6

I was falling way behind in my training because of all the workouts that I missed this week so I decided to do a 15 kilometer walk to make up for it. I was feeling pretty good and here's how it went:

Start Time:     6:00:29
Total Distance: 15.04 km
Total Workout:  1:31:06
Zone 1 = 00:00:16 very light ( 50-60% HRmax)
Zone 2 = 00:00:42 light      ( 60-70% HRmax)
Zone 3 = 00:05:54 moderate   ( 70-80% HRmax)
Zone 4 = 01:24:14 hard       ( 80-90% HRmax)
Zone 5 = 00:00:00 maximum    (90-100% HRmax)
Average Pace:  6:03 min/km   ( 9:44 min/mile)
Max Pace:      4:14 min/km   ( 6:49 min/mile)
Best Lap= 9 at 5:48.1        ( 9:20 min/mile)
Kilometer ## - Lap Time - Average Heart Rate - Cadence - Stride Length
1 - 6:10.2 141bpm 72 113cm  6 - 5:56.1 162bpm 76 111cm 11 - 6:24.6 163bpm 75 104cm
2 - 6:06.5 158bpm 74 110cm  7 - 6:06.5 160bpm 74 110cm 12 - 6:19.9 157bpm 73 108cm
3 - 6:07.5 160bpm 74 109cm  8 - 5:49.8 161bpm 76 113cm 13 - 6:02.6 159bpm 75 110cm
4 - 5:52.4 160bpm 75 112cm  9 - 5:48.1 160bpm 75 115cm 14 - 5:53.3 159bpm 76 112cm
5 - 6:14.2 159bpm 74 108cm 10 - 5:57.1 162bpm 76 111cm 15 - 5:59.9 163bmp 77 107cm

After writing down all my splits I noticed something interesting from kilometers 6-10. Plugging the numbers into a spreadsheet, that second 5K split time was 29:37.6. So I reached another goal--5K under 30 minutes. I never thought I'd do it in the middle of a 15K morning workout!

Since this was longer than my usual morning workouts I took along a couple of 8 ounce bottles of my homebrewed honey/salt concoction* and a packet of GU. Before starting I drank 16 ounces of the concoction* and took sips every lap, about 2.5 kilometers. At the halfway point I swallowed the GU and took some more fluid. Overall, it was a good combination and I had plenty of fluid left at the end of 15 kilometers. This would probably be just the right amount under the same conditions on a half-marathon.

*1/4 cup honey and 1/4 teaspoon lite salt dissolved in one quart of warm water, refrigerated overnight.