Morning Tempo

So I guess June gloom decided to stay around a while longer. What a downer, except this makes for perfect running weather. I met Kaz, Damien, and John Loftus this morning for a 2 x 2 mile tempo run along Back Bay Road. I met the group around Park Newport on Back Bay Road and we jogged back to the Newport Dunes to finish our 2+ mile warm-up. After a quick bathroom break and a few strides, we started off on interval 1. Target time for the intervals was 11:20 for 2 miles.

I took the first interval a little too fast to start (around 5:30 pace through the 1/2 mile), then backed off to our target pace. I was pleasantly surprised how easy this felt, despite my increased mileage the past few weeks. My breathing was hardly noticable, and my body felt like it was jogging pace. We cruised through the mile in 5:32, then kept the same pace going through mile 2, clocking that one in 5:35, good for 11:07 for two miles. John and I went straight into a 5 minute recovery jog while Kaz came up for air.

After the 5 minute break we flipped around and headed back toward the Newport Dunes. We tried to stay more under control at the start but again went a little faster than Kaz's target pace to start, hitting the 800 at 2:45. Then we slowed down to the exact target pace, clocking of 2:50 for the next three 800's, with me pulling Kaz through the last minute or so with motivational speeches, finishing in 11:15. I was shocked at how easy that felt. It was more like a fast jog than a tempo run. I was barely breathing the entire time and felt like I could have continued for miles at that pace. I'm curious to see how fast I could run that workout if I really pushed myself (my guess is consecutive 10:20's on the roads, 10:00's on the track). This is actually really making me think I can hold 5:40 ish pace for a marathon. It also helps that I've lost about 10 pounds in the last month.

Afterwards, I cooled down with the group for a mile, then turned around and headed toward home for another easy two miles. Total for the day: 9 miles.