I turned down an invite for some track work, figuring that a tempo run would benefit me more at this point. Also, I wanted to try and redeem myself after not being able to hold 7 minute pace for 5 miles on Monday. Unfortunately, last night was employee appreciation night, which meant free food and drinks. Fortunately, I was reasonably careful. The air felt nice and cool as I biked around the neighborhood about 6:30. Started my run, nice and easy pace. As I headed onto 54 I found myself running through a cloud of black insects like gnats but I think they were bigger, but definitely not love bugs. Bugs went away after I crossed 54. Started the tempo portion after a 2 mile warm up. Temp was low 70's someplace with humidity of 93%, there was a fog that was just lifting over the fields. First mile felt good. Second mile felt really hard and I struggled to get under 7:00 pace. At the beginning of the 3rd mile I thought about scrapping the tempo or maybe splitting it up to 3 miles - break - 3 miles. I put that thought out of my head and was determined to try my best. Things looked up once I finished 3 miles. I knew if I could get to 4 miles, I'd keep going and finish all 6 miles. I managed to hang on. Splits were: 6:49, 6:56, 6:49, 6:46, 6:50, 6:47 Ran easy for the return trip home then soaked in the pool for a few minutes to cool down. Average pace: 7:25 Made sure to spend some extra time with a post run stretch. Glad I didn't scrap the tempo.
| 