I ran the Orem route down to 400 South and back this morning. It was nice having it be nearly 20 degrees warmer this morning than yesterday morning. Shortly into the run I was feeling pretty good and decided to insert a couple of fast miles. I decided I would push the pace on the mile from 800 North down to Center St. on 400 East, rest the mile down to 400 South and back, and then push again from Center St. back up to 800 North.
I ran the first (downgrade, wind-aided) fast mile in 6:54, the second (upgrade, headwind) fast mile in 7:24, and averaged 8:11/mi overall for the 6.5 mile run. It felt good to run a sub-7:00 mile again, even if it was wind-aided on a downgrade. I mostly just wanted to try moving my legs that fast again. I was actually running around 6:40/mi the first part of that mile but backed off a little. I ran the Spectrum 10K in 41:42.5 last year (6:44/mi) and won my age division. I would love to match or beat that next week, but with my foot injuries over the winter I have not been putting in any speed work or tempo runs so I'm a little concerned about leg turnover. I averaged 7:07/mi in the Painter's half in January, and there's some great downhill in the first three miles of Spectrum 10K, so maybe I have a chance. Even though 7:24 isn't very fast for the second "fast" mile, it was on a steady slight upgrade into a pretty stiff headwind. It was great practice focusing on keeping my legs moving and pushing when it wasn't very easy. It seems odd even to me, but I kind of enjoy that struggle.
Even though I was pushing the pace more than I have for quite a while, I was still reluctant to give it full throttle. The last time I did that, two weeks after the St. George marathon last October, it triggered the injuries I've been fighting all winter. I feel good about how my training is going and don't want to jeopardize it by beeing foolish going for too much too soon.
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