I was sore when I woke up this morning, but building on the good workouts I’ve had this week, I started faster than I should have for today’s tempo run. I usually run the first third of the run between 9:30 and 10:00 minute mile pace, but today I started out at 8:40. I picked the pace up pretty well in the middle, running at about 7:45 pace for 5 minutes, then a consistent 7:00-7:15 pace for 4 minutes. When I went back down to 7:45 pace, I developed a stitch that I couldn’t shake, so I actually slowed to a walk. This brought my average pace for the middle 1/3 of the run down to 8:10. The final third was a struggle against the stitch the whole way, but I pulled it off at an average pace of 9:18/mile. Overall, my average pace was 8:40/mile…just 2 seconds better than my last tempo run.
Actual workout
8 minutes warmup
13 minutes at 8:40 pace
14 minutes at 8:10 pace
13 minutes at 9:18 pace
8 minutes cool down