I ran a new PR for 4 miles today (21:58).... I love tempo runs. I went out on the river trail and wanted to run 5:30 pace to see how it felt. The weather is perfect today, about 43 degrees and overcast, so after 2.5 mile warmup and a couple strides I got right into it.
The first mile was pretty uneventful, I started on top of the final bridge before Utah Lake, I think it's about 4 miles out from the lake. Anyway, I went through the mile in 5:30 on the nose, feeling good. 4 miles still seems like a long ways to me for a tempo run. I get nervous that I'm going too fast or that I'll burn out before the end, so today I was just trying to relax and enjoy my first full tempo outdoors.
The second mile seemed to come quickly, 5:28 (10:58) and still feeling good, I did my 180 and headed back the way I came. The first two miles must be slightly downhill, because it was harder to hit the times on the way back. The third mile came and went in 5:34 (16:32), and I was still feeling alright. Getting tired, but still good.
I think I need to be getting more sleep, because the fourth mile was a challenge, and it shouldn't have been. The first half was okay, 2:45 kept me on pace, but the last half made me tired. I'm still tired. I really, really wanted to get under 22:00, so I tried to pick it up a little without going crazy. Another 82sec. quarter kept me at 5:30 pace and just over 22:00 pace, so I pushed in the final quarter at 76 to barely break the 22:00 mark in 21:58. I had the weirdest sensation in my arms that last half, like I was waving around giant balloons instead of arms. Kind of a cool feeling. I felt lightheaded the last 200m... I'm pretty sure sleep is the issue here.
Anyway, the overall pace was probably a little under threshold pace, but it give me a lot of confidence all the same. | 