Time Trial ("Tempo Run")

Yeah! The weather turned cooler again, which I enjoy. It was 37 degrees this morning and overcast, which was great. The steady wind was less enjoyable, but at least it was at our backs on the return leg of the tempo run!

A pretty large group gathered at 6:00 am for the tempo run. We joked and shivered, waiting to get going, and then did a short 1.2 mile warmup. By the time the drills were over, we had all warmed up pretty well, and I felt downright toasty. With last minute instruction from Gilbert to concentrate on a negative split on this run, we were off. I tucked in behind Margaret and Sean, alongside Amy. Our little foursome took off, and I suffered through the usual first mile panic trying to get settled into the pace. The first mile was a pedestrian 8:07, and I thought that if the pace didn't pick up by the turnaround, I'd have plenty left to have a nice negative split, at least. The second mile was substantially faster as Sean and Margaret kicked it up a notch. Amy fell back a bit during mile two. I hit the turnaround at 15:30 (second mile 7:33), right with Sean and Margaret. Mile 3, with the wind at our backs, felt easier to me for some reason, as I was pretty comfortable on this one, and it turned out to be a swift 7:19 mile. As we crossed the footbridge on the trail, I pushed ahead with Sean, and tried to keep him in my sights as he pulled ahead 20 yards or so. Concentrating on relaxing and keeping the pace up, I pushed across the finish with a final mile of 7:21, and a time of 30:20. It was a new tempo run "PR," and a negative split of around a minute (actually 50 seconds). Overall pace for the tempo run was 7:35/mile. I was really happy to improve my time, especially under somewhat tough conditions with the wind.

An easy cooldown mile around Auditorium Shores finished off the day, and we happily piled into our cars after putting on dry clothes (or at least extra clothes). For the day, 6.5 miles, average pace 8:15/mile.

Tomorrow is a full off day, and Gilbert has assigned a hilly 14 miler for everyone here in town for Saturday. I'll have to make do with a flat 14-15 miler in Houston while we're there with the extended family. It won't be hilly, but maybe I'll press the pace just a little instead.