I ran to school this morning in 1:02:07. Not as much wind this morning as we have had here recently, which was nice. PM: I ran home from school today in 51:14. On the way home I ran approximately 7 miles as a tempo run in 38:37 (5:31 pace). The wind was nasty on the way home today (either a headwind or a crossing headwind the entire way) so I am rather pleased with the effort given the conditions. I started my tempo after a warm-up of a little less than a mile. I have measured this route multiple times in my car over the last couple months, so I have approximate mile markers that I use to gauge pace off of. The first mile (5:35) had a crossing headwind, and I decided to not push myself too much at the beginning in order to allow myself to relax into the pace a little. After 1 mile I turned straight into the headwind and spent the next 3 miles fighting the wind. I increased the effort, yet I still slowed down in comparison to the first mile. I couldn't remember exactly where my second mile marker was, but I hit the next two miles in 11:25 (5:42.5 pace). I followed this up with another mile in 5:42, at which point I turned again and had a crossing headwind from here until the end of the tempo. After I turned again, it still felt like the wind was slowing me down a lot, so I was pleasantly surprised when I split the next mile in 5:25, even with a slight uphill grade over the last 200-300m (the wind probably felt worse than it really was due to the crosswind). After 5 miles I don't really have any mile markers measured off, but after a little more uphill (for about 2 min) the grade starts heading downhill. Just after the downhill starts there is a mile measured by some race that is marked in the street, which I ran in 5:12. Once I was only 1 mile from my house I knew that I was 6.8 miles into my tempo, so I estimated how long .2 miles would take (based on my last timed mile) and I ran hard until I reached that time. So if my estimations for distance are correct I ran the last 2 miles in 10:30 (5:15 average). There was a slight downhill the last 2 miles, but I stopped the tempo before I got to the bigger downhill, so I think that the downhill did nothing more than eliminate the effect of the wind. Overall, I think that the day ended well. I feel like I am really getting into good shape right now. | 