6 miles @ 8:44/mi Murdock trail north solo.
I found myself alone this morning. I didn't really feel like running fast, but I decided to throw in some random ~20 sec uptempo fartlek intervals throughout the run. That resulted in me running the slower portion of the run faster as well.
The first warmup mile was 9:57. Then I started inserting the fartleks and ran the next 3 miles in 8:44.43, 8:45.83, and 8:44.01 (all within 1 sec of each other). The next mile I chased a runner ahead that I was slowly gaining on and ran that mile in 8:21. I continued the next 0.4 miles to the steps where I leave the trail by Kevin's house @ 8:15/mi. I rolled the next 0.4 miles down to the 4-way stop @ 7:45/mi, then pushed the last 0.2 miles level @ 7:13/mi.
Those little fartlek pushes at the beginning really got/kept my tempo up. As I passed that runner late in the run I thought this was good training for passing competitors in a race. I always like to pick up the tempo a bit as I pass so they don't try to come with me.
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