As of yesterday I didn't know if I would be running today because of my knee. After yesterdays 3 miler it felt real good. It got a little sore by bedtime but nothing like the two previous nights. It felt pretty good this morning. Slight pain when I straighten it. I decided to go ahead and run.
It was a perfect morning. Sunny with a slight wind and close to 40 deg by the time I got out. It was 22 deg. 45 minutes earlier. I never felt one thing from the knee from the time I started running. I was planning to go at about an 8:45 pace but was running about 8:20. I had been planning to do my first 3 mile tempo run in months. Then Tuesday night the knee problem hit and I figured it was out. I felt so good this morning [ probably from the last 2 days being so easy] that I decided to go for it. I haven't run hardly any miles under 8:00 min. in a long time so I figured if I could keep it close to 7:00 pace that would be great.
After running 4 miles at 8:20 pace I started my tempo. The first mile is on dirt and gravel and climbs about 80 ft. then drops about 100 ft. I figured I'd be doing good to get 7:10 on this mile so I was suprised to see I was at 7:10 pace at halfway after all the climbing. I finished this mile in 6:42 and felt pretty good. Now I hit pavement and flat and did my next mile in 6:32 and still felt good. This kind af got me excited to be this far ahead of expectations and I sped up and did my last mile in 6:16. That last one felt like a race effort. I finished the 3 miles in 19:36 which is a 6:31 pace. I was very pleased with this and farther along than I thought I was.
More importantly neither my knee or my hamstring gave me any problem. My back still gives me slight pains after some runs but it keeps getting better. Overall pace for 7 miles was 7:34. did one more mile cooldown after.
PM did 2 miles with my son then 1 more myself easy pace. I haven't felt one bit of sorness from my knee since this mornings run. | 