What was that?

Running four days a week has me looking forward to my runs on the day off in between, and I was really looking forward to today's 5 km. It's pretty cold today, with snow in the forecast, but I decided to suck it up and just run outside rather than on the treadmill at the gym.

I could see my breath outside, so I just got right into the run and started out going faster than my normal pace. I wasn't sure how much faster I was going, but it felt good, so I just went with it and didn't bother looking at my watch. About 2 kms in, it started feeling less good, in that I was feeling a little lightheaded and very, very thirsty. That's when I remembered that instead of water yesterday, I had had several cups of coffee and maybe a glass (or two) of wine at dinner last night. Undeterred, I kept going as there was a big downhill coming up and I figured if I could make it to that, I'd be fine.

By the end of the downhill, I was cursing myself for not drinking more water. Do I literally need to stick a sign on my desk reminding me to do this? This seems to be a frequent problem for me and you would think I would have learned my lesson by now. Aren't I the one that prescribes water as a cure-all for all complaints. Have a headache? Drink water. Have a cold? Drink water! Tired? Drink water!!

At this point I looked at my watch. I was 3.5 kms in and had been running for 18:45, which means I was doing a 5:22 pace. Not too fast for some, but compared to my usual 6:10ish pace, this was insane. I gave myself permission to take a 2 minute walk break, but after 1:40 seconds got frustrated with myself for doing so, and went back to running. I finished the 5.1 km route in 30:04, which considering the walk break, is pretty good, and still faster than I have been running.

My problem, aside from not drinking more water on a regular basis, is not knowing how to go a little bit faster. This was obviously too big of a jump in speed, but I don't know how to judge my pace and know what is sustainable. I either go way too slow, especially on long runs because I'm afraid I'll run out of energy, or way too fast and feel like death on a short little 5 km run. I'm hoping this is something that I just figure out over time. Any advice on how to figure this out sooner rather than later would be much appreciated!