I beat 7mins per km, but I think that's pushing it too much for me

Lately when I do my runs I focus not on speed but on BPM, I sometimes feel as though I am doing the "old man shuffle" when I do these runs but afterwards I also dont feel awful or like I need to do a foot soak or run my foot around on my polo ball.

Yesterday I didn't plan on going fast (for me) but when I got out there on the trail at 6pm, which is not a time I would normally go because of the potential crowds) I was shocked to see that almost nobody else was there relative to the size of this city.

So given that it is much cooler at night I thought this might be a good time to have a try at beating 7 mins per km on a 5km run.

I realize this is not a super-special feat for real runners, but since I never was a runner in my life and merely transitioned to it from a life of weightlifting, it would be quite an accomplishments for me.

Not only did I beat 7mins per km, I destroyed it. On one of those km's I was closer to 6 mins than I was to 7. I was very happy with this when I saw the results at the end and even though it was quite cool relatively and I was running without a shirt on, I didn't get as hot as I thought I was going to.

My usual system of staying in zone 3 or lower zone 4 went out the window during this though and for a little bit of time I actually went into zone 5 which I don't think is very good for a person my age. Maybe it is, I don't know.

I was really happy that I was able to pull this off but I'll be honest, it was really tough for me. Even though I train quite regularly this was too much work for me and the only reason why I didn't quit was because I went into the zone and started thinking about David Goggins statements during the times I wanted to stop. When I hit 5km and the vibration the watch gives you when that time comes, the 30 meters after that are only there because that is how long it took me to get my sweaty fingers to turn the timer off. Then I walked for 2-3 more km before arriving back home.

I was wrecked after that and now I have a sore leg, a sore knee, a sore lower back, and strangely, a sore upper back. They say that running doesn't use your entire body but I don't think that is necessarily true. The vibrations through my spine must do something to my back as well.

I really legged it on the last km because I remembered that two of my previous km's were over 7 minutes and I knew I was so close that I wanted to make sure that I made it. I didn't realize I was going so much faster on the last one until I stopped.

Now while I am happy that I was able to do this I really don't think I should aspire to push myself so hard to make it happen despite what David Goggins says. Today, I am sitting here in genuine pain and am going to need to spend quite some time stretching just to have a chance to make some of these pains go away.

On my normal days where I run at what I consider to be a comfortable pace for me which is around 10-20 seconds over 7 mins per km, I don't feel sore or in pain at all afterwards. Today, I don't really feel like I am capable of running at all.

So that can't be good right?

I think I will just let my body get me to that pace naturally rather than attempt to force it to get there. I don't know what a trainer would say in these situations but I am sure a trainer would suggest that if you are wrecking your body doing something, to maybe step it back a notch