Did I do a sub 30 5K?

Yesterday I had to take a friends little ones to school and look after her 2 year old for the day as she had an appointment. I therefore planned to get up early so that I could get my 5K run in beforehand.

The alarm went off and I was up, running gear on and out the door. I was almost at the end of my 5 minute warm walk up when I looked at my watch and noticed the time, OMG! Although I had got up early, not nearly as early as I had intended, it was going to be a rush.

I still had 15 seconds of walk left but started my run. I have a nice route that starts exactly 5 minutes brisk walk from home and from there the 5K brings me back to the same spot for my brisk walk home.

Run done, walk done, home, showered, dressed, said goodbye to little ones and hubby (who did our school run), a quick text to my friend to say I was on my way, into the car and off. A thirty minute drive later and I arrived, about 5 minutes to spare, phew!

My friends husband was taking her to her appointment and said he would be gone about 1-2 hours so to make myself at home when I get back from the school run. He would be in and out all day until he collects her later in the afternoon.

With a two year old to entertain the time flew past until a yawn appeared and she went for a nap.

A quick check on my phone and the FitBit app. That's odd, why was I only exercising for 38 minutes this morning, normally about 42. OK, so I did start my run 15 seconds early and maybe my brisk walk home was a bit brisker than normal, but that still means my run must have been below 30 mins by quite a bit, wow!! It has been a while since I did intentionally do a fast run and that was only just under the 30 mins. I think I will give it a few days and then do an accurate timed run again and go for it!

The little one was awake just in time for the school run and my friend returned home shortly after. She was in a bit of a sorry state after her ordeal so I didn't stay.

I could not wait to get home and tell someone about my run, although hubby faked being impressed and then back to his work I felt I had to tell someone.

[nowster Graduate]

The only way to know would be (without GPS) to trace it out on a map and work out the timings.

[Cmoi Graduate]

If the app's using GPS to measure 5k, then probably. If it's estimating distance by number of steps then probably not.

If you definitely want to know whether you've run a sub-30 5k, you need to time the run only, and use GPS to measure distance. It's more accurate than measuring everything and then deducting the time you think you've taken for your warm-up and cool-down.

[Hidden in reply to Cmoi]

I have measured the 5K run part using GPS a number of times but switch off the GPS on my watch most of the time as it kicks in on every run and uses a lot more of the battery.I intend to record the time of the run part some time next week just to see.

I can see from the stats that my heart rate was higher than normal during my run and the time between the points where it increases and decreases looks to be shorter than normal so I am hopeful.

[Cmoi Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Definitely sounds hopeful Hidden . 👍😀 Get out there and do a fast, correctly-timed 5k and then you'll know for sure!

[Nannyshirl Graduate]

Wow sounds like a busy day. Good on you for your under 30 mins run i am sure the pressure of having to help your friend pushed you along. Something to be proud of.