This was a useful tempo session because it finally brought controlled quality back into the week after the race-and-recovery stretch. The first work block landed close to the intended feel: smooth, contained, and strong rather than forced.
What changed the tone of the session was the second block. It moved clearly faster than the first and well beyond tidy tempo pace, getting much closer to 10K effort than to matched threshold work. The encouraging part is that the overall cost still looked manageable: heart rate rose, but not chaotically, and the run finished without the session collapsing.
That makes the main lesson pretty specific. This was not a flawed workout, but it was not perfectly even tempo execution either. You are ready to rebuild quality, and the more important signal than the watch's VO2 max estimate is that the session felt right-sized: enough work to matter, not so much that it emptied the tank.
Takeaway. Good quality signal and a good return to purposeful work. The next step should be a steady long run that absorbs this tempo session while rebuilding endurance, with enough control to avoid turning the day into another hidden race.
Next step. Long run. Make the next long run steady and patient from the start. The purpose is endurance and rhythm, not chasing pace.