Take 2 on a workout that fizzled out three weeks ago. Target was 1 warmup, 10 miles at MP + 1:00, 10 miles at MP, 1 cooldown.
Last time the MP section was a struggle immediately, and I blew up pretty badly around mile 7. I felt confident this time out - before I ran on the Pinellas Trail, with 7 overpasses on the way out, 7 back. I've done a lot of running on inclines in the last three weeks, and the uphill running today was a lot less taxing. Most importantly, conditions were much better. Lots of clouds, lower temps and humidity. We even got drenched in a couple downpours.
Quint and Christina ran the first half out with me, and a couple other friends jumped in near my turnaround. At points it felt a little chaotic in the darkness and rain, but it was a fun time and the pace felt easy. First 10 in 1:08:42, 6:52 avg.
It took a couple miles to really click into MP on the way back, but that seems to be the case in most of my runs around 5:55 these days. It works itself out by mile 3, so I don't force it. I felt as strong on the second half as I have all summer at this pace, and ended in 58:45, 5:52 avg. That's about 10 seconds faster than I ran either of my mid-week 10 mile MP tempo runs.
I think I have gotten a bit sharper, but I attribute most of the improvement today to better weather.
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