AM - Met at Sasha's house this morning for a 5-mile tempo. The trail was a little mushy this morning with the leaves and the rain, but after about a 2.5 mile warmup Sasha and I started out. The first two miles went by in 5:30 and I was mildly uncomfortable, my legs are a little sore still. But by the turnaround I was feeling pretty good, and I was thinking we could cover the last half significantly under 5:30 pace. So I was a little surprised to see mile 3 go by in 5:37. We went through mile 4 in 5:33-5:34 and I was feeling great up to just after the 4-mile mark. Just afterwards, I started to hurt and couldn't accelerate at all. Sasha started to pull away and I let him. I slowed to 5:40 pace and pushed the last quarter in 1:23 for a 5:38 final mile. Total time - 27:48, 5:33.6 pace. This was very revealing of my training so far. I was hoping for a worst-case 5:30 average, but I'm satisfied with this run. I've still got plenty of time to bring my times down.... I'm in a decent position for this time of the year. Mile 1 - 5:30 Mile 2 - 5:30 (11:00) Mile 3 - 5:37 (16:37, 180 turnaround) Mile 4 - 5:33 (22:10, Sasha said 5:34 and 22:11 here) Mile 5 - 5:38 (27:48) PM - Added an easy 4 this evening feeling very tired. I averaged about 8:00 pace. |