Another afternoon run. I could get used to this. It was 49 degrees which is perfect. The only problem was that it was a little windy (10 mph). The plan was to warm up with a couple of easy miles then run a 7 mile tempo run. I have dreaded this run since I put it on the schedule in December. After reading Daniels' Running Formula, I realized that my problem was that I ran these too fast. Daniels suggests running this long of a tempo run at tempo pace + 15 seconds. I've always run this right at tempo pace and struggled to finish them. Warmed up with 2.25 easy miles then I was on my way. Based on the flags, the first 3 miles should have been with the wind. I never really felt like the wind was helping me. It felt more like a cross wind than a tail wind. My target pace was 6:45/mile.
| Mile |
Split |
Note |
| 1 |
6:20 |
Too fast. Maybe wind aided. |
| 2 |
6:27 |
Still fast but feel comfortable |
| 3 |
6:31 |
Still fast but don't feel like I'm pushing too hard. |
| 4 |
6:38 |
Better split but I have turned into the wind |
| 5 |
6:43 |
Good split but the entire mile was into the wind. |
| 6 |
6:38 |
Still running into the wind |
| 7 |
6:31 |
Head wind but feel good |
| Average |
6:33 |
|
Overall, I felt really good about this run. After a couple of weeks of being in the dumps, it feels good to have a good hard workout. The splits look a little wild but the slower times were due to the head wind and the faster times due to the tail wind. I feel as though it was a pretty even effort.
Total Time: 1:09:14 (6:55/mile) | 