Well, That Wasn't So Bad

Uh, yeah, that injury - not that big a deal. It still hurts when I walk but it didn't affect my running at all this morning. I will probably stop referring to it as an injury anymore as it doesn't really warrant that status and compared to SIC it not that big a deal.

I met up with "the ladies" to run this morning as usual, but I did forewarn via email that I needed to do a tempo run and would warm up with them for the first couple of miles and then take off. They were all cool with that.

My tempo pace is supposed to be 6:58/mile and I needed to hold it for 4 miles. It all seemed a little daunting to me as I have taken a little time off from hard marathon training, but I went for it anyway.

The first mile flew by, but I was concerned about holding the pace, so I kept telling myself I didn't have to do four miles, maybe three would be OK. The second mile seemed to take longer and again I told myself maybe just three is fine. Or three and half. Three and a half puts me back at the train tracks that mark two miles from our start and finish.

I seemed to be doing OK and holding the pace, but now I was off the trail and onto residential streets and making corners and then on sidewalks and kind of all over the place.

I made it to the train tracks and kept going because I told myself, "At this point it's only 800 yards to finish, why quit now?" I proceeded to watch every fricking tenth and then hundredth of a mile tick off on my watch and when I hit four miles I stopped.

Then I quickly started running again to warm down.

I had done it. I had done the full four miles and I had held my tempo pace without feeling like I was going all out.

I got another surprise when I got home and downloaded my data. Here is the mile breakdown:

(I don't know why these things are always so fricking small so I guess I will spell it out as well.)

Mile 3 (the start of my tempo pace) Avg Speed = 6:52, Avg HR = 145

Mile 4 Avg Speed = 6:52, Avg HR = 149

Mile 5 Avg Speed = 6:52, Avg HR = 154

Mile 6 (running through neighborhoods and junk) Avg Speed = 6:55, Avg HR = 156

That is CRAZY consistent. I am now feeling much better about my fitness and can imagine it only getting better over the next 8+ weeks. This could be really interesting.