It was a little cold and icy out, so I decided to run on a treadmill at the fitness center today. I thought it might be crowded, so I went down a little early. I found Tom Lee, Kevin White, and Scott Blake already running hard. I changed my clothes and got on one of the older treadmills next to Scott. I wasn't sure what I wanted to run today, so I asked for a suggestion. I thought Scott was kidding when he suggested 8 mph for an hour, but when I realized he was serious I figured why not give it a try? One of the newer treadmills opened up so I moved over between Tom and Kevin to do my run. Like Scott, they were working hard and were inspiring. I started out at around 7.5 mph for a little less than half a mile then went to 8 mph. "Da Vinci Code" was playing so that helped distract me, but it was still hard work holding the 7:30/mi pace for 8 miles. After several miles I was sweating and breathing heavily. Since I had started at 7.5 mph, I knew I had to run faster than 8 mph at some point to average 8 mph overall. I pushed to 8.5 mph with a mile to go, 9 mph with 1/2 mile to go, 9.5 mph with 1/4 to go, then 10 mph for the last 1/10 mile. I finished at around 59:30 and averaged about 8.07 mph (7:26/mi). Tom, Kevin, and Scott had long since showered and gone...but at least I get to blog my success. Thanks for the recommendation, Scott, it was a tough but satisfying workout. | 