Man oh man oh man. I know I need to get some speed work/tempo in, so I decided to grab the bull by the horns and get it done (a bit) today. I asked Chad to pace me, after the first 4 miles of hills, at MP for the last 6. My legs were tired. I wasn't sure. If I hadn't have said anything the night before on the group chat I would've chickened out.
We stopped at the top and I just brought the HR down, grabbed a drink, then took off. I expected Chad to then just pull/push me as needed to hang on to MP. HA! He let me do the guiding (which in retrospect I'm grateful for!). The first mile was a 7:20ish, and then it just got better. The next mile has flats and some hills in it, so hitting a 7:42 wasn't a surprise. I still didn't know what pace we were running. I was just pushing myself and trying not to doubt that I could run this for 26 miles! Then, a couple people turned onto the street but on the opposite side. They were carrying a pretty good pace, but I wanted to show them who was faster. My pride got the best of me. So, I surged enough to pull ahead of them so they could tell I was running faster :) No, I'm not competitive, why do you ask?!? Then the last 3 miles have a pretty good downhill slope. With about 2 to go I got out enough to tell Chad I felt like I was falling off the wagon. He laughed "maybe that is because you were never ON the wagon." Crap. Seriously? I was running that slow. Craptastic. Oh no. He told me that only the 2nd tempo mile had been above 7:20. WHAT?!? No wonder I was falling off the wagon. I was tired and my legs knew it. But, I tried not to let that play head games with me and just push through. I did pretty good, but probably let it get in my head more than I should've. I know had 'time' to relax and still hit the goal. pbbbttt!
Finished and ran home to catch my daughter before she left for school! Love that girl. Then, went back to bed!!! I'm tired.
AP: 7:56 (fastest time for this course!) splits: 8:20, 8:21, 8:54, 9:22 (yes...those last 2 were the big hills!), 7:21, 7:42, 7:11 (competition), 7:17, 7:17, 7:26 (flat and a little uphill home). The last 30 feet recorded it says were at a 6:01 pace...I like that!
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