Practice To Suffer So Racing Becomes Easy

Evening:  2 mile warm-up - didn't feel well so I stopped back at the house laid down on the bed and fell asleep for an hour.  I must have been run down and just needed the sleep.  It was really hot and humid too, so maybe my body was trying to tell me to wait till the sun started to go down.  I woke up a little before 8:20pm jetted out the door with my new Saucony Type A racers for my 3-2-1 tempo workout with full rests (1 min for each min of tempo).  The idea behind the full rests is to feel good doing the workout.  Just working on fast tempo running and trying not to wear myself down with only a week to go until Grandma's 1/2.  The sun was down and the temps were down to the low 80's, which felt much better than earlier in the evening.  Tempo went 6:12 slooow, 5:32, 5:38 (all uphill) (4.5 min easy running), 5:19, 5:37(a lot uphill) (3 min easy running).  Still not exactly sure how I ran a 5:19 considering it was rolling to mostly uphill, but it certainly didn't feel like a 5:19 to me.  5:26  for the final mile on the flat trail in the dark.  All of these felt really good, I'm loving the miles in the 50's.  It's so refreshing not to be grinding out volume.  It's also strange to think that I can run 5:19-6:12 and easily change gears.  I really feel like my speed is coming back.  It will be important to keep that in check to have successful pacing next weekend.  Only 1 easy speed session to go. Something focusing on my goal 1/2 pace is in need because today was not very even split running. (3)

Avg pace 6:47

Avg tempo pace 5:37 with the slow 1st mile