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8.71 Miles Easy

Jump Rope

(100 each leg, 5 reps of 20)

Mile 1	7:09
Mile 2	6:58
Mile 3	6:29
Mile 4	6:23
Mile 5	6:26
Mile 6	6:33
Mile 7	6:27
Mile 8	6:26
Mile 9	6:22
Total Average Pace:	6:36

These runs are feeling easier. The first 2 miles I ran with Sean, the next 6.71 miles I ran solo.

Hakeem "The Dream" Sighting

Remember the Dream? He should be walking around town with the key to the city. After all, he did bring us our first 2 championships. He's kept a low profile since he retired. Well I happened to bump into him tonight. This is actually the 2nd time I have managed too bump into him. The first time was in college when the Rockets used to come to our gym to practice. He walked by me and said "Wussup". I said "Wussup" back to him in a nonchalant way, like I knew him or something :)

It's been a few years but I bumped into him again at Whole Foods. He was relaxing with 2 friends of his. Once I realized it was him, I sort of stalked him around the store snapping pics. He came by the sushi section and got to wait behind the counter while they made him his stuff.

I stalked him as he made his purchase.

Alas, I finally get my picture.

Albeit, not a very good one. Beggars can't be choosers. He was very gracious and humble.

8.73 Easy

Jump Rope

(80 each leg, 4 reps of 20)

Mile 1	7:01
Mile 2	6:40
Mile 3	6:45
Mile 4	6:39
Mile 5	6:39
Mile 6	6:27
Mile 7	6:20
Mile 8	6:28
Mile 9	6:31
Total Average Pace:	6:37

Had some extra pop in my legs, held back some. It might have had something to do with today normally being my workout day. Still, this is rather surprising considering I ran solo.

8.72 Miles Easy

Jump Rope

(60 each leg)

 

Mile 1	7:21
Mile 2	6:52
Mile 3	6:46
Mile 4	6:47
Mile 5	6:47
Mile 6	6:47
Mile 7	6:49
Mile 8	6:48
Mile 9	6:49
Total Average Pace:	6:52

Hot and humid today. Felt uncomfortable the last 5 miles.

8.71 Easy

Jump Rope

(50 each leg)

 

Mile 1	6:45
Mile 2	6:42
Mile 3	6:29
Mile 4	6:25
Mile 5	6:29
Mile 6	6:28
Mile 7	6:29
Mile 8	6:35
Mile 9	6:37
Total Average Pace:	6:34

The fastest 9 mile average in forever. I did the first 6 with Sean before he peeled off. Still managed a respectable pace when he left. The new plan is to drop the tempo, track, and hill workouts. Run 6:30-6:45 pace on my easy days and just keep adding miles on to the long runs and throwing some 6:30-6:45 paces on the long run. Hopefully this will allow my adductor to heal properly while also gaining some strength.

I heard the HARRA cross country relay was a success with a lot of local big names showing up. I heard Cesar Figueroa won prize money with a 4:33 split on mile 1 and then cruised in for a 9:45 2 mile time. I'm not sure which team won overall as that would be interesting to know. It would also be interesting to know who were on the teams. Oh well...that's all I know.

Long Run With Kenyan Way - 14.09

Mile 1	7:36
Mile 2	7:12
Mile 3	7:13
Mile 4	7:07
Mile 5	7:23
Mile 6	7:08
Mile 7	7:08
Mile 8	7:12
Mile 9	6:55
Mile 10	7:02
Mile 11	6:54
Mile 12	6:54
Mile 13	6:45
Mile 14	6:26
Mile 15	6:10
Total Average Pace:	7:04

I actually got to base on time. I was rewarded with very capable runners to run with and a much easier effort this week. I'll do my best to run with the group because I feel I short change myself when I run alone.

I wanted to watch the HARRA cross country relay but I couldn't make it because of family obligations. I truly believe this is one of the most exciting races of the year. And I don't mind watching this race from the sidelines either. If anyone participated or watched from the sidelines, I would be delighted to know how it went, who won, and who did really well.

Easy Run 8.71 Miles

Jump Rope (300)

8.71 Miles Easy

Mile 1	7:25
Mile 2	6:54
Mile 3	6:48
Mile 4	6:44
Mile 5	6:48
Mile 6	6:46
Mile 7	6:44
Mile 8	6:34
Mile 9	6:37
Total Average Pace:	6:50

12x400 - ~8 Miles Total

3 Mile Warm Up

Jump Rope (290)

15 Second Strides (60 seconds rest)

1. 4:43
2. 5:04
3. 4:39
4. 4:43

12 x 400 With About 30 Seconds Rest

1. 69
2. 73
3. 74
4. 75
5. 76
6. 72
7. 76
8. 76
9. N/A
10. N/A
11. N/A
12. 65

2 Mile Cool Down

I started the 400's struggling a bit. Sean told me to run 70's and try not to tax the adductor on this workout. I told him that I felt 70's wouldn't be fast enough. Well, when I started the run, 70's felt more than fast enough. So I stopped looking at my watch and stopped worrying about Luis and Sean and started running 73-76's. I was thinking that I lost some fitness until the 6th 400 when my body was warmed up and I started creeping up from behind on Luis and Sean with the same effort as previous reps. I felt a slight twinge on my adductor so I slowed it down and still finished with a 72. I was hoping this was nothing because I felt I could give Luis and Sean a little push from behind. Well, that was not the case because right away on the next 2 I could feel the adductor all the way until I decided to stop because it was obviously getting worse. I felt extremely frustrated because I was hitting the part of the workout where my body loosened up. So I stopped and watched Luis and Sean do the next 3 400s as I stood frustrated on the side line. My frustration pent up till I decided that I was going dictate the pace on the last 400 no matter what. If I tweaked my adductor more, I didn't care. Well that is where I busted out a 65 and I felt no pain...luckily. The 65 felt easy and calmed me down a bit, for the moment.

I told Sean about my adductor and he said I should be banned from the track. He recommended that I do workouts by myself and I protested a bit, but deep down I know that this would be the most prudent route to take. As a matter of fact I'm willing to take it a step further.

All throughout the day I've been thinking about what my options are. I have signed up for 3 races so far: The Susan Komen Race For The Cure 5k, The USA 10 miler, The Chevron Houston Marathon. I don't fear the 5k to be too physically demanding, so I'll probably give that one a go. But I have been thinking about just selling my 10 miler bib and maybe half heartedly giving the Chevron Houston Half marathon a try, since I can't sell that bib. Basically the idea is to give up the Fall races and just run slow for a few months until my adductor heals up. The way I see it, I'm not a professional runner so there is no reason why I should risk further damage. Currently I think the injury is relatively minor but I know it can develop into something worse. Giving up the racing will certainly put a damper on things. I mean after all, I don't get most of my enjoyment out of training. I get it out of racing, and without that it's going to be tough mentally.

I have not made any decisions yet. I'll give all this some thought and discuss this with Sean and see where I end up.

I have not mentioned it on the blog, but there is an event that is more important than all of this that will play an even BIGGER factor in determining my racing season. I'll mention it later.

8.92 Miles Easy? - Motivation and Running

Mile 1	7:41
Mile 2	7:38
Mile 3	6:40
Mile 4	6:44
Mile 5	6:33
Mile 6	6:24
Mile 7	6:14
Mile 8	6:15
Mile 9	6:14
Total Average Pace:	6:42

Jump Rope (280)

I didn't feel unusually good or anything, I just ended up running with Sean. It's funny but when I run with Sean, running these times are very easy. When I run by myself I run in the 7 minute pace range. The effort is harder by myself. It's funny because I never figured myself for a mental case. ;)

I skipped on the strides today. I'm going to try and do some speed work with Luis and Sean on the track tomorrow. So I'll save myself for that. The jump roping is starting to take on a life on its own. I'm getting comments every day about it. I enjoy jump roping for some strange reason.

Sean and I ended up having a conversation about motivation. I told him I don't use motivation to get myself to run. Motivation comes and goes, but in the mean time there is always work to be done. I just go about my business and focus on the individual daily tasks at hand. My goal is to be like a robot :) Save the emotions and motivation for after the race.

4.86 Miles Easy - No Headway

4.86 Miles at 7:21 pace

For the last month or 2 it seems I have not been able to get the ball rolling. Every time I seem to have some momentum going I get a small obstacle thrown in the way. Today it was the rain and the lightning that cut my run short. Also for some strange reason my adductor is starting to flare up again. It's probably because of the volume of miles last Thursday through Saturday. I wouldn't be surprised if I have not improved much since my last race.

What has been missing is the volume. I just have not been able to string together a few good months of consistent running. Last year I steam rolled through marathon training. This year I'm tripping and sputtering about. I need to string together a few long runs. Long runs are like the vegetables that you should be eating consistently. They may not taste as good, but it's good for you. Right now I have a lot of sizzle (speed) but I know I'm lacking substance (strength). As the distances get longer, Sean and Luis run further and further away from me. This is why I'm thinking that actually running the marathon and not the half will be good for me. Every time I run that thing I just get so much better. The only problem though is that life may get in the way. I'll leave it at that for now.

Good night.

Bill

Easy Run 5.81 Miles

5.87 miles @ 7:42 pace

Jump Rope (270)

15 Second Strides (60 seconds rest)

1. 5:27
2. 5:10
3. 5:06
4. 4:45
5. 4:54
6. 4:24

Total Average Pace: 4:56

Lack of sleep really makes a difference performance-wise. I just wasn't feeling it today. I just have to try and get to bed earlier tonight.

Recovery Run 8.66 miles

Mile 1	7:15
Mile 2	6:41
Mile 3	6:44
Mile 4	6:48
Mile 5	6:59
Mile 6	6:54
Mile 7	6:53
Mile 8	6:57
Mile 9	7:01
Total Average Pace	6:55

Jump Rope (260)

Just 3 loops around the park. Legs felt a little bit special today which was surprising since I had a pretty good workload the past 4 days. I think most of this had to do with the extra sleep I had. It really makes a difference even though the temperature and humidity were higher by the time I got out to the park.

Long Run 14.29 Miles with Kenyan Way

14.29 @ 7:29 pace

I came late so I had to run by myself. The pace was slower but I was glad to get the miles in. The last 3 days I have increased the effort. 33 plus miles in the last 3 days makes for 11 miles a day. Also with the 6 mile tempo added, I believe that factored into the slowed pace. I'm not really worried, though. Next weekend I need another good long run.

Speaking of next week, next week is the HARRA cross country relay. That should make for some good fun.

6 Mile Tempo - 10 Miles Total

2 Mile warm up

Jump Rope (100)

Strides

1. 5:21
2. 5:52
3. 5:10
4. 5:52

Total Average Pace: 5:33

6 Mile Tempo @ 5:20 pace

Mile 1	5:26
Mile 2	5:28
Mile 3	5:19
Mile 4	5:30
Mile 5	5:38
Mile 6	5:48
Total Average Pace	5:32

2 Mile cool down

I think my shortcomings are evident. I ran behind Luis and hung on as long as I could but the big collapse happened around mile 5 and continued on mile 6. I haven't had that huge of a crater since the early days of training with Kenyan Way. The 10 miler is starting to look so much scarier now.

9 Miles Easy

Mile 1	7:30
Mile 2	6:51
Mile 3	6:46
Mile 4	6:42
Mile 5	6:36
Mile 6	6:33
Mile 7	6:37
Mile 8	6:41
Mile 9	6:33
Total Average Pace:	6:46

Jump Rope (250)

15 Second Strides (60 seconds rest)

1. 4:45
2. 4:25
3. 4:27
4. 4:04
5. 4:17
6. 3:49*

Total Average Pace: 4:17*

I ran with Sean today. I find that while I run faster when I am with him, the effort still feels like a 7 minute run. So physically I believe I probably should be running sub 7 minute easy runs but mentally I feel comfortable doing 7 minute runs when I am by myself. Sean said I need about a 100 easy runs at 6:30-6:40 pace. We'll see if this happens.

I guess my speed is back. I felt great today. I did some jump roping and after I was done I felt ready to roll. I'm jump roping for about 4 minutes straight these days. It feels pretty easy. I'm not sure how effective it is, but it's not breaking anything, and I like doing it. I broke 4 minute pace on my stride for the second time and actually recorded my fastest stride today. The overall pace of the strides were the fastest yet. I think part of results were motivated by Al Lawrence giving me a high five as I jogged by. My confidence is pretty high right now. Tomorrow I'm going to do a 6 mile tempo with Luis. Luis has been running well these days and it will do me well to try and stay with him.

6 Miles Easy - Cross Training

6 Miles @ 7:13 pace

Jump Rope (240)

Cross Training

1. Arm Curls
2. Squats
3. Toe Raises
4. Leg Curls

3 Mile 30/30 Fartlek - 9 Miles Total

3 Mile warm up

4 Strides

1. 5:06
2. 4:24
3. 4:45
4. 4:50

Total Average Pace: 4:45

Jump Rope (230)

3 Mile 30/30 Fartlek

4:41, 5:18, 5:13, 5:25, 5:11, 5:16, 5:09, 5:45, 5:02, 5:32, 5:16, 5:37, 5:08, 5:30, 5:19, 5:23, 5:10, 6:01, 5:20, 6:02, 5:22, 6:17, 5:35, 5:43, 4:46, 5:40, 5:29, 5:17, 5:09, 5:11, 4:54, 4:44

Time 15:43

Pace 5:21

A couple of things I noticed on this fartlek run. My slow parts were a lot faster than in the past, but my fast parts were a lot slower. I'm not really sure what this means. This isn't the fastest that I've run this fartlek but it ranks second. This was also the easiest 3 mile 30/30 fartlek I've done. I just ran by feel but the feel part ended up being too slow on the fast parts. I just need to get used to doing these again.

Meanwhile Sean and Luis have gotten a lot better while I was away. Both of them ran in the 14:3~ - 14:5~ range. These fartleks can give a good indication of what kind of 5k shape you are in.

Speaking of 5k shape. It's been almost 3 months since I last raced. It looks like I'll have to wait till October 3rd when I do the local Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure. It will be Downtown and last year it drew over 20,000 people. I expect a similar turnout. Hopefully I can do better than last year. That was almost a year ago! I'll be celebrating a year on this blog coming soon :)

9 Miles Easy

9 Miles @ 7:47 pace

Jump Rope (220)

15 Second Strides (60 seconds rest)

1. 5:05
2. 4:50
3. 5:01
4. 4:37
5. 4:54
6. 4:28

Total Average Pace: 4:49

I had to get up and run an hour earlier than normal. I don't think the legs were quite up for it. Anyway, I'm looking for a 5k race this weekend. Does anyone know of one? I haven't raced in forever (July) and need some feedback on what kind of shape I'm in.

Tomorrow we do the 30/30 fartleks. That should be pretty fun. I have not done those in a while.

9 Miles Easy

9 Miles @ 7:10 pace

Jump Rope (210)

15 Second Strides (60 seconds rest)

1. 4:51
2. 4:34
3. 4:34
4. 4:33
5. 4:29
6. 4:32

Total Average Pace: 4:35

There was nothing special about today’s run. Everything felt pretty easy. My last 5 miles were at sub 7 minute pace. My strides were about average. Oh wait, I guess there was one thing. When I was running a came upon a father and son running the trail. I had seen this father and son do intervals on the track next to the trail many weekends before. I always stood in admiration as the father showed a lot of dedication to his sons. I always thought this is the template that I want to follow with my children. I always looked at this father and smiled when I saw him. So today as I passed by them, I told the father, “Good Job!” and smiled. Big mistake. I don’t know if he misunderstood me or not, but next thing you know I hear him tell his son not to let me go. At first I scooted to the right side of the trail to let them pass. But no they weren’t going to pass. I was now the pace maker, the lead runner. Oh boy… Mind you, I’m running about 6:45 pace, and this kid is probably between 10-12 years old. So now I get to hear this kid dying behind me (breathing hard and loud, maybe gasping?), and dad pushing him to keep going. I’m starting to feel a bit weird. Somewhere between guilty (because maybe I’m running too fast for the poor kid) and just uncomfortable. I mean this kid is literally giving his all to stay with me, should I slow down for his sake? Is his dad going to let him stop? Finally they stop shortly before I finish. Lesson learned. Keep head down and don’t make eye contact. DON’T UTTER A WORD!

12 Mile Long Run with Kenyan Way

12 Miles @ 7:06 pace

It was good to run with Kenyan Way again. For one, the 12 miles seemed to go by a lot quicker. And secondly, it was good to talk and run with some of the guys I did a lot of training with last year. It was also pretty exciting seeing SO many runners in the area that we were running. It almost seemed as though there was a marathon race going on as there were literally about 400 or 500 runners congested in a very small area. Another running group, “Houston Fit”, decided to start near by. I may make an extra effort to run with the group on Saturday’s. The only limiting factor is that Sean, Luis, and I do a workout on Friday and so the safe thing to do is go long on Sunday. But this is a lot more boring and difficult to do, the more miles you have to put in. The run went well and I threw a few sub 7 minute miles in there and everything held up.

2 Mile Workout - 7 Miles Total

3 Mile Warm Up

Jump Rope (200)

15 Second Strides (60 seconds rest)

1. 5:02
2. 5:09
3. 5:03
4. 5:05

Total Average Paste: 5:05

2 Mile (10:06)

Mile 1	5:06
Mile 2	4:59
Total Average Pace	5:03

2 Mile Cool Down

So I did it. I went back to the track, but this time I didn't get hurt. At least I don't think I did, we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out. I'm not terribly impressed with the time but I'm also not worried about it. As I said earlier, the plan was go sub 10 with relatively little effort. The problem was my legs started out pretty flat. I should have recognized it when I was running the strides, but then again I don't look at the times for my strides until after I'm done running. So even though I didn't feel very smooth on the strides, I still thought I was doing 4:40's at least. As you can see I was striding around 5 minute pace. The main reason I didn't hit sub 10 was my first 2 laps were done in 2:38. I was having trouble getting going and then I started messing with my awesome watch trying to get it to work right. By the time I looked at the time, I saw 2:38. The next 2 laps were done in 2:28. And the next 4 laps in 4:59. I made sure I wasn't going to run  63 or 64 second laps and just relaxed and just slowly increased the pace. I felt relaxed throughout the run. The run was pretty easy. At least I got 1 milestone. This is the first time I went sub 5 minute pace in a mile on a multi-mile run. I'm reaching, I know, but I got to take what I can get :P   

Based off of this run, I may have to tone down expectations a tad bit. Sean says I need another 3 weeks. I'll probably be running a 5k next week. I was going to be super aggressive for the race, but I'm going to tone it down just a tad.

On a side-note I overheard a lady talking at the park. I see this lady in the park every single day. What makes this significant is when she first started coming out, I'll be honest. She was extremely overweight. No big deal, many people are. But the difference with her was I saw her come out religiously every single day for months and months and months. All she did was a modest pace walk. After some months of walking I saw her jog for the first time. Not very long but it was a milestone. I started noticing she was dropping weight. Now recently I have noticed that she has dropped A LOT of weight. So anyway I overheard her say that she had lost 80 pounds. I believe it! A couple of people asked what she did, and she said walk every day and eat Weight Watchers meals. So now I know what it takes to lose 80 pounds. I watched it happen slowly over time.

9 Miles Easy

9 Miles Easy @ 7:17 pace

Jump Rope (190)

15 Second Strides (60 seconds rest)

1. 4:31
2. 4:31
3. 4:24
4. 4:32
5. 4:28
6. 4:51

Total Average Pace: 4:33

My legs felt pretty strong today and my leg turnover is starting to get quicker as you can see by the strides.

Today I spoke to Al Lawrence for the first time. I felt obligated to go and introduce myself. He's made a pretty good impact on the local running scene, not to mention his own personal accolades, among those an Olympic bronze in the 10k. He's also set world records and won a couple of NCAA titles. He's trained countless local runners. When I first started running, I would see him on the bench coaching other runners. That was 3 years ago. It's funny that today was the first day I introduced myself. He was a pretty pleasant guy.

Tomorrow I go back to the scene of the crime. The place that contributed to me getting injured,...the track. I'll be doing a 2 mile run with the goal being to go sub 10, but not necessarily all out. I need to see how this goes before I start ratcheting up the effort level.

6 Miles Recovery & Cross Training

• 6 Miles @ 7:26 pace
• Jump Rope (180)
• Weight Training
• Arm Curls
• Leg Curls
• Single leg squats
• Calf Raises

4x1 Mile Workout - 8 Miles Total

3 Mile Warm Up

Jump Rope (170)

15 Second Strides (60 seconds rest)

1. 5:07
2. 4:53
3. 5:09
4. 4:48
5. 5:01
6. 4:47

Total Average Pace: 4:57

4x1 Mile (3 Minutes Rest)

Goal	Result
5:15	5:15
5:10	5:13
5:05	5:12
Sub 5	5:19
Total Average Pace	5:15

1 Mile Cool Down

I finally did strides for the first time in about 3 weeks. I wanted to do them at 5:15 pace to get me warmed up for my work out. I ended up doing them at 4:57 pace.

As for the work out, I think it went pretty well. I think the goals were probably overly optimistic because I wasn't physically ready to hit the times set out today. But I did the work out on the trail so you can probably subtract 5-6 seconds per mile compared to the track or 3-4 seconds compared to the road. So I was within range for 3 of the 4 miles but physically couldn't hit the target on the 4th. On the 4th mile my legs were fatigued and I was probably pushing it a bit. Cardio wise, I was breathing pretty easily throughout. So it seemed the legs were the bottleneck this time out. It makes total sense that I would be lacking strength since I have missed quite a few long runs recently. I'm encouraged that I'm not as far off as I could have been but I still have to watch my body closely in the coming days and weeks in order to stay healthy. I'll need to start increasing the mileage on the long runs.

8.65 Easy - Happy Labor Day

Ran 8.65 @ 8:10 Pace

Jump Rope (160)

I woke up way too early and arrived at the park at 6:15 am. My body just wasn't awake yet and the legs protested by running slow.

9 Miles Easy

9 miles @ 7:18

Jump Rope (150)

I wanted to start strides today but Sean told me to hold off. Bummer.

9 Miles Easy

9 Miles @ 7:25 pace

Did some adductor exercises the night before.

9 Mile Progressive Run - 10 Miles Total

Mile 1	7:10
Mile 2	6:54
Mile 3	6:42
Mile 4	6:28
Mile 5	6:11
Mile 6	5:56
Mile 7	5:42
Mile 8	5:24
Mile 9	5:15

1 Mile Cool Down

This was definitely the easiest progressive run I have done so far. I guess I don't know my body. I came into the workout unsure of my adductor muscle and I ended up breezing through this workout. The reason I was unsure of the adductor muscle was that I could feel it all day yesterday and early this morning. But the thing is that during the run it sort of relaxed and went away. I didn't feel anything until the last mile. Sean said the muscle was a "good kind of sore because of the adductor workout the other day". I believe he's right. The run was easy and my breathing didn't elevate until halfway through mile 8, but only mildly. I only started breathing heavily on the last mile. During the last mile I got down to 5:05 pace halfway through. I realized this when I looked down at my watch so I shut it down a bit till I slowed to 5:12 pace and then cruised on in and finished the mile. I really didn't want to go too fast so I wouldn't strain anything unnecessarily. The last two workouts are encouraging because they indicate that I'm in the best shape ever, but I ended up limiting the efforts in both due to apprehensiveness about the adductor muscle. Before, during my workouts, I would have to put up massive efforts to hit the times I'm hitting easily right now(temperature change is a factor). I really can't wait to start training the way I was before. I feel my body is ready for another level of challenge. But I must remain cautious and allow time for my adductor muscle to heal properly, or risk going back to square one.

On a side-note Sean suggested running the Half-Marathon instead of the marathon. I'm seriously considering this. I'm never going to be a blazer in the full marathon and only use it for training, but I think eventually I could do damage in the half. I'll have to mull over this one.

6 Miles Easy

• 6 miles easy 7:26 pace
• Jump Rope (140)

Worked out with Sean on my legs last night. I found out my problem is with my adductor. I did a few exercises on my adductors and afterwards that is where I felt the pain. The plan is to do the adductor exercises to strengthen the area.

What is a Big Running Engine?

The name big running engine comes from comments I heard from famed distance running coach and former American running great Alberto Salazar. He basically said the "perfect" distance runner would be like a Formula 1 race car. They would have a light frame but a big powerful engine. The legs represent the engine and the body represents the frame (Think of Kenenisa Bekele or Haile Gebreselassie). I enjoyed the analogy and decided to use it for the name of this blog.

6 Miles Easy - Cross Training

1. 6 Miles @ 7:31 pace
2. Jump Rope (130)
3. Weights

Ran a little bit with Sean and Joe Flores.

4 Mile Tempo - 9 Miles Total

3 mile warm up at 7:27 pace

Jump Rope (120)

4 Mile Tempo - Target 5:30 Pace

Mile 1	5:40
Mile 2	5:30
Mile 3	5:29
Mile 4	5:29
Total Average Pace	5:33

2 mile cool down at 9:39 pace

The tempo run was a success. I intentionally took it easy for the first mile because I didn't want to put immediate duress on my groin. That ended up being the correct strategy because I could feel the pressure start to build up in that area at the end.

For the 1st part of the 1st mile I hit 5:2x pretty easily. But then I decided to slow it down because I knew I would end up paying for it later (groin) if I worked too hard now. So I slowed it down to around 5:50 pace and then eased my way down to 5:40 pace at the end of mile 1.

During mile 2 I sped it up and aimed toward hitting proper pace. I was able to do this pretty easily.

By mile 3 I noticed that my breathing and effort level was still pretty easy.

By mile 4 I was actually down to 5:25 pace and then with a third of a mile to go, I could feel the stress start to build up around the groin area so I slowed it down till I felt comfortable again. I ended up finishing mile 4 at 5:29 pace.

Cardiovascular-wise the run was effortless. Physically I was able to handle the run easily, save the slight stress on the groin area at times. The main thing I gather from the run is I just need to get the area 100% healthy and I will be running fast rather quickly.