Tempo Run

This morning was another good one for running. Nice and clear, full moon (and Mars) shining in the morning sky, and temps in the low 60's. We all got there at 5:45 as usual, but we apparently didn't get the "memo" that we'd be starting at 6:00 this morning, since it was a shorter workout. I was feeling tired on the way down to RunTex, so I wasn't at all sure that I'd be worth much on the scheduled tempo run, but I figured I'd do it anyway, and see how I felt. I called Gilbert to make sure we weren't in the wrong place or something, and he told us to get going on the warmup, and he'd meet us at the start line for the tempo run.

A nice easy 1.2 miles later, we were warmer, and then after some standing around, we finally got into the drills. I chatted with Richard while we warmed up, along with Bryan and a couple of other folks. There was significant discussion of Pervasive, of course. By the time we were half done with drills, Gilbert had materialized, clipboard in hand, for the Big Event. I saw Jan there about that time, and had a short talk with her (she was out for an easy run with the dog) as Gilbert told the new peeps about the tempo run. A few seconds later, and we were off on the trail, still really dark, but it was time to run.

The crowd went out quickly, and I was near the back as we got going. I was going to do this whole thing as a "run how you feel" deal, and soon found myself slowly catching and passing folks ahead of me. I tried not to overdo it early, because I still wasn't sure how much I was recovered from Pervasive, but kept up an honest pace. It was tricky on the really dark trail, but I kept passing folks, both Gazelles and not, and by the one mile mark, I had done a respectable 7:57 opening split. When I did my "PR" for this workout a month ago, I think my first mile was something like that. I moved on.

The second mile has some tricky bits with footing, but I got through all that, and rolled to the turnaround. I saw Richard ahead of me by a relatively short distance, along with a bunch of other Gazelles sort of packed up ahead. Good job on mile two: 7:27. My halfway split was 15:24, so I had a chance at the 30:03 PR if I held it together in the second half. Could I negative split?

I kept pressing during mile three, and eased up on Rich, a fellow Gazelle, as we carefully negotiated the sometimes slippery corner at Point Neff, and I stayed right on his shoulder as we crossed the footbridge at the three mile mark. Now I had someone to chase, and I dipped into my bag of mental running tricks, and lassoed Rich with an imaginary elastic band to pull me along. Mile three split: 7:12. I was pretty sure I was going to break 30:03, but I didn't have the capacity to work out my exact situation while I was chasing Rich.

The last mile was at a hard clip. There was more foot traffic on the trail by now, and we had to do some weaving around large groups of walkers, but I don't think that slowed us much. I was thinking that maybe Rich had gone out too hard, and I pushed up the little incline at the half mile mark, but he still had enough to stay just ahead of me there. Darn. I pulled up alongside him as we turned into Auditorium Shores, and he jokingly put his arm out to hold me back. Turns out, he had another gear left, and he threw down for a 40 yard push, which gave him a 10 yard gap on me that I couldn't close. I tried to keep that gap consistent, and we blasted down the finishing straight to the finish line, running hard. It was a great finish, and my mile four split was 7:18. Overall, I finally broke 30:00, with a 29:54 finishing time, a 9 second improvement over my previous best from a month ago. Average pace 7:29/mile. Second half was 14:30, a good negative split, too.

It was a terrific run, as it turns out, and I was very pleasantly surprised that I could perform this well so soon after the Pervasive race. It was hard work, but all the same, it was a lot faster than it felt to me, if that makes any sense. My HR numbers were actually better than for the previous PR tempo run, too, which I'll ascribe largely to the better weather this morning.

We did the prescribed 6x100m strides, and it was a done deal. Jan was done with her easy run by then, so we chatted a bit about her Chicago marathon and her plan for recovery and return to Freescale training. By now, the sun was finally creeping up on the horizon, so we could all at least see each other. :-)

A few minutes of discussion with Gilbert about Saturday's logistics for the Mt. Bonnell (and more) 16 miler, and it was time to get home. I did do a little stretching just for effect. For the day, 6 miles of running.

Thursday is an easy one hour run, then the gym on Friday and 16 miles on Saturday. All of a sudden, the long runs are starting to look like long runs. Once the distance creeps over 15, you have to start paying more attention to them. At least another cool front is on its way, so we may have temps in the 50's for Saturday morning!!