I didn't run this morning but decided to do some mile intervals at lunch time today. The weather was awesome. Using Google Earth I identified a block about half a mile north of where I work that is just over a mile around (1.07 miles). After a 1/2 mile warmup (8:49/mi) to get there I ran 4 x 1 mile intervals with a 1/2 mile recovery in between. My goal was to run around 7:00/mi for each of the intervals. I completed the four 1 mile intervals in 6:45, 6:55, 7:05, and 6:54. During the last interval, I decided to try to count my steps to take my mind off of how tired I was and to keep me going. I think it helped. I incremented my count every breath, which was every 3 steps. I would count to 50 then start over at 1 again, using my thumb and fingers to keep track of how many sets of 50 breaths (150 steps). For the mile, it came out to be almost exactly 450 breaths (1350 steps). If my math is correct, my average stride length was about 47 inches (3 ft. 11 in.) and my turnover rate was about 3.25 steps/second. I ran a little over 1.6 miles as a cool down (8:52/mi) for a total of about 7.6 miles. | 