With a 6-mile run yesterday afternoon and P90X: Legs and Back last night, my legs were fairly tired before we ever got started this morning. The schedule called for 8-miles including a 2-mile warmup, 5-miles at goal half marathon pace, and a 1-mile cool down. For this run I met Paxton and Nathan at the Edwin Warner Park Nature Center, and we ran along the Harpeth River Greenway.
After a leisurely 2-mile warmup we started the tempo portion together. Since they were targeting a different pace from me, I decided to break up the tempo section into 2 x 2.5-mile out and backs on the Greenway. This way we would stay close to each other and be able to run the cool-down together. My goal pace for the upcoming 500 Festival Mini Marathon in Indianapolis is 6:42, so this was the target I had in mind for the tempo section. Since my legs were fairly tired I tried to think of this like running the last 5-miles of a race.
At the start, my left shoe came untied about halfway through the first mile which forced me to stop and then restart. This disrupted my rhythm slightly and led to a 6:51 first mile. My second mile felt very good and I completed it in 6:37. Paxton ran mile three with me, and we were way too fast at 6:31. I ended up paying for this during mile four which was 6:43, but is still close to my goal pace. I had regained my wind for the last mile which I finished in 6:37. Once we were all back together we ran a cool down mile back to the cars.
Overall the tempo section felt pretty smooth. I could definitely feel the fatigue in my legs, but my heart and breathing were not a real issue, except for the mile that I ran too fast. Even with that mistake, I’m still very pleased with the run. Tomorrow will be a recovery day with 4-miles scheduled followed by 6 x 100m stride outs.
Beast Mode…ON!