Pretty good tempo run today. On the plus side, I have often had to skip this particular tempo run in relation to how far out the next marathon is due to some minor injury or feeling like my body wasn't ready. I felt ready today so I guess that puts me a little bit ahead of the game. Since it is starting to get light a little bit later I did not ride my bike to the Y. I need to get some lights for my bike or something for safety. So I drove there and warmed up inside and did some stretching. It was almost 7:00 by the time I actually started my run. Plan was at least 2 easy miles with 5 miles of tempo at 6:56 pace in between. Warmed up with about 1.5 miles then started the tempo. I felt really good starting out and went out a little bit too fast (6:43). Into the second mile it started to get harder, third mile was a struggle to make the pace. At the beginning of the 4th mile I had to bargain with myself to just finish that mile, take a short break and then do the 5th mile. So, that's what I did. Short break after the 4th mile (about 1 minute) then I did the 5th mile feeling a bit better. The sun was up and depending on what shade there was the sun was hitting me pretty hard. Some of it was psychological as I have run through similar weather before. Splits were: 6:43, 6:47, 6:55, 6:55, 6:50 Cooled down with a little bit more than a mile, then went back inside for some more cooling down. | 