Today was my first real work of the season! I was assigned a tempo run consisting of 2x2miles with a minute of rest between intervals. I did the usual warm-up, then got moving. First mile in 5:06 - too fast. Not knowing what particular pace feels like (since I seem to have lost my "feel of pace" since my injury), I just gave it a moderate effort and churned up this time. Obviously, I was pushing a bit too hard for the first mile. Two miles in 10:30, then a minute of rest. This minute of rest seemed to do nothing but take me out of my groove. Very little recovery actually happened in this minute, but it did make the start of the next interval feel harder than if I wouldn't have taken a break. Next two miles in 10:43 (5:23, 5:20). These miles felt fine, and I was in control the whole time. When I did this workout last year, I remember that I ran the first mile way too fast (some things don't change haha :)), but the last three miles were miserable (5:35-5:40's at that). Today was very manageable, which is re-assuring for this seasons first workout. Last year, there was significant difference between my first & last AT runs (over the summer), so I figure this is a good starting point to improve upon (I am sure that within the first few workouts, my times will also be changing quite a bit due since my body is re-acclimation to running). Overall, this workout was a good re-introduction into medium paced running. | 