Tempo Run (sans Group)

This morning, my schedule didn't allow the usual meeting with the Gazelles down at Town Lake, so after I got the kids on the bus to school, I manufactured my own "tempo run" here in the 'Hood. I took off about 7:45, and did an easy 2 miles, using the HR monitor to keep it truly in super easy mode. Once those miles went off, I picked up the pace for 4 miles as I crisscrossed around the 'Hood, building up the proper number of miles. The terrain was hillier than the Town Lake tempo course, but it wasn't too terrible. I tried to make the pace slowly pick up over the course of the run, keeping an eye on HR, but not on the GPS numbers. I didn't feel too stressed until the last mile or so of pace running, when the pace got fastest. Once the 6th mile beeped on the Garmin, I eased back, and did a last easy mile or so until I got back to the house. It wasn't as much fun as chasing all the fast Gazelles in the group, but it was a solid run. My times were an average of 9:35/mile for the 2 warmup miles, then splits of 8:30, 8:13, 8:02, and 7:48 for my "tempo" miles. The last 1.2 miles of cooldown were at 9:45/mile average. Not as fast as I'd have run with the group, but pretty right on for a true tempo effort. Now I just have to rest up and hydrate properly for Saturday's 14-15 miles.