I ran a tempo with Sasha this morning. We didn't want to push the pace too hard, but we planned on hitting the last mile hard where I would try to go as fast as possible, and Sasha would try to hang with me for as long as he could before slowing down and tempoing the rest of the way to the finish. Anyhow, we started off slow, and went through the first 2 miles in 5:57, 5:57. The third mile was a 5:52, followed by 5:48, 5:47, 5:49 for miles 4-6. I then sped up a little, probably in anticipation of the mile to come, and ran the next half mile in 2:51 (86, 85) before launching into my all out mile. My goal for the last mile was to run it in 4:55 or faster, and I went through the first quarter in 73 (on pace for a 4:52, good). The second quarter was also a 73. Sasha lost contact about 300m into the second quarter, and after that I really had trouble motivating myself to go faster. Without realizing it I slowed down quite a bit, and the next thing I realized the pace no longer hurt, I had run a 77 second third quarter, and I was having trouble motivating myself to speed up. I think that I slowed down even more during the 4th quarter before finally speeding back up over the last 200m to finish with a 76 last quarter, and 4:59 for the last mile. I was not too happy with myself for the lack of focus, or for the inability to push through the discomfort as soon as I was alone. However, I still finished under 5:00 for the last mile, and it does give me some consolation knowing that the mile is slightly uphill the entire way. The total time for the tempo was 42:59. After this, we finished our run by running back to Sasha's house for a total of 10.25 miles in 1:05:57.
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