Daunting tempo run this morning. I woke up this morning feeling a little unprepared. I hadn't mixed up my accelerade like I usually do the night before. It worries me when I don't stick closely to a routine. Outside was slightly warm but very humid and foggy. I headed out to Starkey Blvd to run on the bike trail there, about two miles away. First mile I felt ok but was surprised to see that it was 9:42, it felt more like 8:50 or so. I was supposed to do 7 miles @ 6:46 pace and was worried about making such a big jump in pace. So, in the next mile I tried to vary the speed to prepare myself for the faster speeds. So, I started the tempo portion, got onto my pace but was having trouble hanging onto it. I did ok the first mile, just missing the pace by 1 second too slow. The next mile felt tougher and about half way through it I came so close to stopping and taking a short break. My mind was compiling a list of reasons to stop and how it wasn't so bad to take a break. I pictured myself stopping then feeling fresh and having a great run. The fog reminded me of the day of that 5K in December where the guy with the 2:59 on the back of his shirt pulled away from me and disappeared in the fog. Sometimes the conditions aren't great and you don't feel on top of your game, but don't give up too soon because things can change. I decided I needed to at least finish the second mile on pace, and if I can get that one on pace then I can keep going. If I can't hold onto the pace then maybe something is wrong and I should stop. I made the time goal for the second mile with 2 seconds to spare (6:44). At that point it became the usual mind games, get to the next mile, get to the turn around point, get to the next mile, get to the last mile, etc. So, I made it, but it was way harder than the 6 mile tempo I did last time, fortunately the last two miles were good so a lot of these problems were mental and not physical. Splits: 6:47, 6:44, 6:38, 6:42, 6:45, 6:36, 6:34 Recovered a bit and did a slower mile followed by the last mile at 7:06 which felt nice and flowing. Average pace: 7:18
Felt good to get this run checked off.
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