4/13 7-Mile Tempo

Today was an absolutely beautiful day for running, and although my head was a bit in the clouds I was determined to get a workout in before my afternoon class. The plan was to run a mile on the track and head straight into the 6 mile homecoming loop for a total of 7. Goal pace was to repeat last week's 5:30/mile effort and extend for an extra mile.

I warmed up for 22 minutes (3.3) and stretched briefly at the track while chatting with Wes Moseman and some ladies on the track team. I looked at my watch and realized it was going to be a tight squeeze to get to class, so without a stride I went into a mile on the track (5:20) and swung out right into homecoming. The first mile was faster than intended but I was feeling good so I put it out of mind and went to work on the hills on Mill Road. Four miles was hit in 21:25 and I was still running pretty comfortably. Right around 5.5 I was faced with a really strong headwind and I began pushing hard to maintain pace... bad idea, as I quickly developed a cramp in my side which brought me to jogging pace for about 20 seconds as I pushed and stretched my stomach to relieve it. Luckily, the pain mostly subsided and I finished the 7 miler in 37:50, a PR for that distance. Unlike last week, I was happy to be finished in light of the harsh headwind I faced all the way down 155A and onto main street.

5:24 pace for 7 sounds like borderline race effort when you compare my previous two races (4 miler at 5:14 pace and 5k at 5:08), but I was breathing far more comfortably than a race effort and was solo in trainers. I guess I ran a tad harder than my definition of "tempo", but I wouldn't be surprised if I could run 5:15 pace for 7 in a race at this point. That 4 miler was run less than 3 weeks after getting my wisdom teeth out, and the 5k a week later after two mid-week workouts. Dead legs probably explains my inability to run 5 minute pace at Todd's trot and fresh legs probably explains why I was able to rip today.

Overall, super happy with the effort today. Tomorrow and Thursday will be slow and easy. Friday will probably be a workout of a faster nature.