Tempo Run - 10 miles, to Pump House and Back

Tonight the legendary John Ferguson had us doing a 10 mile out-and-back tempo run, with the first half slower than marathon pace and the return half faster. It was a very nice night for July -- about 23 degrees C and not humid at all. I had high hopes.

I was targeting 5:20 per K going out, and 4:35 coming back. Here are my splits:

5:24
5:13
5:14
5:20
5:21
5:24
5:08
5:16
4:37
4:31
4:35
4:38
4:33
4:33
4:41
4:32

So my average going out was 5:17.5 (8:31/mile) going out and exactly 4:35 (7:23/mile) coming back. I did stop at the forks of the Thames for a couple of minutes to cool down a bit, but then picked up the pace right away again.

This certainly ranks right up there with one of my best tempo runs. I had a good 9 miler on a similar route last year with a 4:36/k fast pace, and another on October 25 2011 that was just 9 miles and flat (but windy) where I did 4:30.6 per km.