Discussion: another thought

Did you do a warmup? I got in a decent warmup, and I'm sure that helped me move faster in the beginning, so without one it might have just taken some time for your body to warm up. Did you take splits?

This is definitely true, warm up could help at least a bit! I started taking splits, but then gave up when I forgot twice and have now deleted...

I'm going to be interested to see how much off my PR my 5k time trial is actually, that'll be a pretty good indicator of fitness loss vs. other stuff. PR is 17.40, but I'm guessing I'll be closer to 19/20 minutes now, we'll see!