Tempo Run

So I didn’t get enough sleep on Monday night. I went to a coffee place again to work on those essays and didn’t even get anything done on them because I was chatting with a few people in IM and then was hanging out with a friend…sigh…I had a double latte and then a single…when I left around 11:15, well, let’s just say a good nights sleep wasn’t going to happen!! So even though my hottie hadn’t been at the gym on Monday, and he was most likely to be there on Tuesday, I opted to reset the alarm and went back to sleep. I have been doing strength different (used to be 30 minutes 3 days a week now it’s about 15 minutes 4 days a week and specific training from Weight Training for Runners, just to see) but figured if I missed it yesterday, not a huge deal as I can still get 4 workouts in this week.

Anyway, exhausted all day, eating candy (but a healthy lunch of peanut butter sandwich on wheat and an orange) I went home and laid down for about 15 minutes, but popped up and threw on running clothes. A 6 mile tempo run was on the plan…this is how it broke down (for a basis, I’ve been planning for tempo pace, right now, to be 8:00 for up to 4 miles so far):

Mile 1 - 8:53
Mile 2 - 7:56
Mile 3 - 8:03
Mile 4 - 7:31
Mile 5 - 7:37
Mile 6 - 7:33
Mile 7 - 8:14

Yes, that is 7 miles, not 6…and yes, that is 3 miles (well 4 technically) UNDER the 8 minute pace, 3 of them quite a bit under. Mile 5 I’ll somewhat discount because that one is mostly downhill…but Mile 4 is a fairly flat, with ups and downs about equally as is Mile 6…if it was on my Garmin, and the route I ran a fairly common one that Garmin has consistently measure at the miles it clicked off, I’d say some were short…and no, I didn’t lose signal at any points either…overall time was 55:53…I hit 6 miles under 48 minutes (guess I wasn’t off much when I said 45-46 was my 10K race pace, or maybe I was off as this was just a “fun run” what would it have been in a race?). When I finished, I wasn’t overly tired…but I thought…can I really maintain that pace for 26.2 (my goal pace would be 8:00 for fall)…guess we’ll see. I had one thought on it...but not sure I want to post that here...might have to do with some frustrations on my part...I'll leave it at that!!

On a good note, the friend I was having coffee with on Monday might possibly volunteer to bike along with me on longer runs…and carry water, powerade etc…I need to hunt down a few more people so I have lots of options when I need it!!

Today I got up (and no, hottie wasn’t there) and biked for 30, elliptical for 15 and 15 of strength training and I’ll do an easy 4 after work. Then I desperately need to clean!!

Glad people are liking the look. I was needing something new…I really didn’t like the last layout and no idea why I had kept it. I’m still playing with it, but it’s definitely better so far (I like that it’s easier to read, not such long narrow columns now).