AM - 5 easy, Cornwall loop. PM - 8 mile tempo at the Northwest soccer fields. Pancake flat grass course, exactly one mile per loop thanks to the genius of Bill Roe. A little bit twisty and turny, a bit of uneven footing, but I like running tempos out here. Started at 5:45 for the first mile, then picked it up to 5:28, then dropped off to 5:40. Then back to 5:32 for reaching halfway in 22:25. I figured sub-44 was out of the question since I didn't think 5:25 pace would feel good for 4 more miles. But that's what we picked it up to. 5:25 for mile 5, then 5:25, 5:23, and we opened it up a little in the last for a 5:11 to finish in 43:51. I was really pleased with how good it felt to pick it up to almost race pace after 7 miles of pretty quick tempoing. And as always, I'm happy to dip under 5:30 pace on the 8-miler. This has been a full week of training, and I'm very happy with how my body is handling it. I'm getting lots of sleep, eating a lot better than usual, and it seems to be paying off. |