Tempo Thursday

I had butterflies today… for a workout… not a race… a workout…. One I would complete alone.

I’ve not done a tempo run in a month…. On Thursdays I alternate between intervals and tempo… I cut the last tempo run I had scheduled short because it was New Years Eve…

My training schedule called for 9 miles… with 7 @ 7:52.. that’s a long way to run fast… not insanely intense… just not sure that I was up to it today…

Every time I glanced at my training schedule… affixed to the wall of my office right above my phone… I got a rush of adrenalin… was I ready for the pain?

It was in the low 50s today so I started out in a long sleeve shirt… I was pretty cold during the warm-up mile.

After the warm-up mile I amped the speed up to where it should be and just tried to hold it there…

1st mile: 7:52… I tried not to think about running 6 more… just run

2nd mile: 7:55 still trying to just stay in the groove

3rd mile: 7:58 – most of this mile is on the sand/gravel road next to the railroad tracks… nice and peaceful but the footing and rocks makes the pace harder to hold.

4th mile 7:52 I made the turn onto the second loop… and immediately relaxed. I stopped trying to hold something back and just ran.

5th mile 7:51: Tom Jones came on my Ipod singing “It’s not Unusual” and well… it is a little unusual that the tempo for this song is *perfect* for running a 7:45 pace… I reckon that I’m unusual for putting Tom Jones on there in the 1st place….

6th mile 7:56: the last .3 next to the railroad tracks

7th mile 7:54: really starting to tire… had a hard time picking up my feet to clear rocks on the trail… had to work really hard to bring it in under 8.

I only cooled down for a half mile… I had a conference call to prepare for.