First workout of the week this morning. I figured I would run the same route as last week and try to get a comparison of the pace and effort from last week to this week. Warmed up four miles via the U and Federal Heights. I started the 5 mile Tinman Tempo just before the fire station. Just after I started, the hydration pack I was wearing started to come loose and bounce all over the place. So I was trying to run 6:10 pace and manage this little problem. At about .5, I saw Adam RW jogging toward me. I was pretty annoyed with the little gear problem I was trying to fix while running at pace so I can't say I gave the friendliest of greetings. Sorry Adam. Anyway, he took off like a demon after he saw me. I did manage to run the first mile in 6:01, which was about 10 seconds faster than last week. The second mile was down to the horseshoe and then up into City Creek about .30. I slowed to 6:18 (last week was 6:17). I tried to chat with Adam for a moment at the gate while still running at pace and he said he was doing mile repeats. That's why he took off so fast. The third mile is what I wanted to concentrate on the most this week. Last week I gave an even, honest effort and ran 6:47 up the canyon. This week, I wanted to run faster than that while still not feeling like I was going to blow a gasket. I ran 6:35 for mile 3 this week, which is an improvement in time, but it took quite a bit more effort. On the fourth mile, back down the canyon, I could tell I had run harder on the uphill mile because it took me a couple of minutes to settle into a downhill pace that was quick but without much effort. Fourth mile was 5:46 (compared to 5:51 last week). The fifth mile heads out from the bottom of the canyon toward the Capitol. It's flatter, but I suspect it is actually a little downhill. They don't call it Gravity Hill for nothing. Anyway, I ran 5:48 on that last mile (5:53 last week). So, to summarize, I did make improvements in time, but it did require more effort. I think the course tool would probably show this was equivalent to about 6:05-6:07 pace on a flat route, maybe a little faster but not much. I have to remember that for these runs the point is not to focus on pace or splits but to fine tune the sense of relative effort over the distance.
After the tempo, I headed down Memory Grove, then down to 1st Avenue. While running east toward home I added 8 x ~ 100m striders. These were definitely not fast, but they did push my form back together and keep me from getting sloppy in the final couple of miles after the workout.
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