Really Good 8 Mile Tempo Run

With Coach Brian's sore hamstring, he wanted to take it easy for his run tonight. Fortunately, 'easy' for him is tempo pace for me, so we ran from his place for our 8 mile tempo run. The run was shorter this week for three reasons. I was just barely recovered from my long run last Monday, and I was due to run my longest long run of the training program thus far this coming Sunday -- 22.68 miles.

Despite the fact that the run was 2 miles shorter than last week, it was still a tough run. It was warm and humid out so the air was a bit thick. We were able to carry on a conversation for the first 4 'easy' miles, but when we turned around to head back to Brian's place, the conversation dropped off noticably. I was breathing hard.

There was a wind from the south, but to me it felt like it was a tiny bit into my face, so I had to work hard to keep pace. But, strangely, I managed to get stronger throughout the fast part of the run.

When we turned south towards Brian's house, the wind was right in our faces. But Brian took the lead and I followed about 1.5 strides behind him -- and the running actually felt easier than when when we were running with the wind coming across our bow. Here are our mile splits:

8:34
8:20
8:15
8:10
7:31
7:28
7:29
7:20

We were looking for between 8:20 and 8:40 per mile going out, and 7:30 per mile coming back. So we were right in the range the whole way.

The best thing about taking off from Brian's place, though, is the ready access to my favourite form of rehydration: Guinness beer! A couple of Guinness and some stimulating conversation with Brian and Bridget and I was fully recovered!