Duh... I kept checking the August thread and wondering why nobody was updating. Get with it, Fat Pants!
I've come to the conclusion that I'm trying to up my miles too quickly. Every time I attempt 5 miles, it turns out to be a disaster. I just recently hit 4 miles so I think for September I'm going to concentrate my long runs on 4-4.5 miles, October will be 5-5.5 miles and November I will do one 6 miles run before my 10k. Rookie mistake... wanting to run more than my legs can handle.
My 5k is in 1.5 weeks!
I'm sooo excited. I ran on the race route last Saturday and as I was running I was thinking about our discussion in the August thread about increasing speed. Mkroyer, I remembered what you were saying about not being afraid to run faster. The first mile of the 5k route is uphill and then a significant (1.5 miles maybe) stretch down hill. I've always used that downhill portion for recovery... never letting myself go too fast for fear of wearing myself out and not being able to finish the run. Well, on Saturday I said screw it, paced myself for a quarter of a mile to recover from the uphill mile and then just flat out ran as fast as I could for the rest of the downhill portion.
1) It felt AMAZING to just let myself go and see how fast I could run... felt very freeing
2) As a result, I had my best 5k time yet of 30:27... usually I'm around the 33 minute mark.
So just wanted to say thanks for the great advice, everyone!