New Year's Eve 8 Mile Tempo

Today I had to 13 miles with 8 of them being a tempo run. I wasn't really sure how this would turn out. Our 24 mile excursion on Saturday was pretty intense and I didn't know if it had a lasting effect. I started my warm up and ran into Sean. We talked a little and he gave me some good marathon tips. He's preparing for the half marathon and has started to incorporate some longer runs into his training. So I finished my warm up and switched to my flats. So here is how the tempo went down.

My goal was to go about 5:35-5:45 pace for 8 miles. I usually add 10 seconds/mile if I'm running the loop at Memorial park. This is accounting for the dirt on the trail and the way it gives as you run. Since I was at Memorial Park loop I was shooting between 5:45-5:55. So I started out mile 1 really really tight. I eased into to it the first half mile and was at 6:05 pace before I forced myself to finish the first mile at 5:54. The second mile I relented a little and bumped back up to 6:05 pace and once again at about the halfway point I rallied and finished 5:55 pace. I was a little nervous that I was not warmed up by now. The concern was that if I didn't warm up soon and these splits didn't become easier to complete then there was no way I was going to successfully do 8 miles on pace. It was during the 3rd mile that things started to warm up for me. By now I was running a 5:50 at the halfway point of mile 3 and decided to ease up a bit so I would save enough till the end of the workout. I finished mile 3 at 5:53. Miles 4, 5 and 6 were similar to mile 3 as I was easily running under 5:55 and was flirting in the 5:40's from time to time and then letting off of the gas to finish just below 5:55. Miles 4,5,6 where 5:53, 5:54, and 5:53 respectively. It wasn't until mile 7 that I started to feel my hamstrings start to tighten up and my legs start to fatigue. I still had plenty of speed left but I wanted to guard against a potential tweak by running smoothly. I finished mile 7 at 5:54. During mile 8 I was running completely into the wind and that slowed me down to 6:05 pace at halfway point of the mile. At this point I was debating whether to stop the workout here because my hamstrings were beginning to tighten up and feel strained. But then all of a sudden they started to ease up so then I started putting in the speed and all of a sudden with a little less than a quarter mile to go I was running a 5:48 pace. Whoa! I certainly did have quite a bit of speed left. So I basically let off of the gas quite a bit and even came to a slow jog as I finished off the last mile at 5:52. Here is a better look at the splits:

• 3.22 Mile warm up
• Mile 1: 5:54
• Mile 2: 5:55
• Mile 3: 5:53
• Mile 4: 5:53
• Mile 5: 5:54
• Mile 6: 5:53
• Mile 7: 5:54
• Mile 8: 5:52
• Overall average 5:54
• 1.8 Mile cool down

Obviously you can see I chose to stay on the slower end of my split range. I probably could have really hammered the splits but there is a time and a place for everything.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!