Great Tempo Run

Friday afternoon, I ran eleven miles, including six tempo miles. I set my schedule to run the tempo miles at 6:40 pace (approximately my 10K pace plus ten seconds/mile). My slowest mile was 6:40 exactly, which I hit twice, and the fastest miles was 6:32. I hoped that I could keep the average at or below 6:40 because about two miles (from 3.5 to 5.5) were basically directly into a stiff wind. Conversely, the first couple of miles were run with the wind at my back. I cruised through the first miles without much trouble. I had to work hard to maintain the pace when I turned back into the wind, but I managed to stay on pace. This workout was a great confidence boost for me. Only a couple of months ago, I was happy that I was able to run even one mile at this same pace. Prior to the tempo miles, I ran two miles to warm up. During the warm-up miles, I was giving myself a pep talk because I just wasn't sure I'd be able to maintain the pace for the full six miles.

On Saturday, I ran a six-mile recovery run, which brought my total for the week to 62.1 miles. On Sunday I have a 20-miler scheduled.