8.0 miles - tried to tempo

As planned, I got up early this morning and headed out for a long run. I was going to do a mile warmup and cooldown, and in the middle I would do a 10K (6.2+ miles) at as close to race pace as I could manage.

Factors working against me: Not nearly enough water. I do really well drinking 2 liters or more of water during the week because I keep a water bottle at my desk and start drinking early. On the weekends, not so much. Saturday I think I had about 20 ounces of water.

Second - without being too gross, I should not have left the house until I'd, um, evacuated my system, if you know what I mean. Because that decision came back to haunt me during the run.

Third - no fresh legs. I had already run a hard, near-race-pace run this week, and had done a medium run on Friday. My legs weren't really rested well enough for another hard run.

Factors working for me: Well, I did manage to get up and leave early enough that the temperature was perfect. Also, the route I was using was nearly flat. I brought along some water with me, and some Cliff Blokz. Also, I had mental toughness (OK, I just threw that one in there 'cause I wanted four positives).

And... I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, but I didn't fail too badly, if you discount the huge "bio break" I took between mile 3.5 and 4.0. Yes, shamefully, I actually stopped the watch while I stepped off the path and, um, got rid of something holding me back.

And, truthfully, the early miles were hard, too. My legs just didn't want to move fast. I wasn't able to concentrate well enough to do my visualization thing, and I think I ran the warmup mile too fast and didn't allow enough rest before starting the actual tempo run. Even so, I ran the early half-miles a bit too fast, then slowed down to make each one as close to 5:00 as I could - which worked against me because I kept speeding up and slowing down, not getting into a groove.

I was eventually able to see each half-mile as a separate segment, like running 12 consecutive 800s.

Here's my half-mile splits, along with the mile times, and my total time:

1. 04:37.15
   
2. 04:49.74 (0:09:26.9)
   
3. 04.55.14
   
4. 05:03.39 (0:19:25.6)
   
5. 05:28.01
   
6. 05:25.79 (0:30:19.4)
   
7. 05:39.18
   
8. 05:35.25* (0:41.33.9)
   
9. 06:05.14**
   
10. 05:33.40 (0:53:12.4)
    
11. 06.26.60
    
12. 05.28.27 (1:05:07.0)
    
13. 02:02.36 (1:07:09.6)

* This is the segment for my off-path adventure.
** This is the segment where I slowed to a walk to drink my water and eat my Blokz.

So, I did pretty well on the first two miles - I averaged a 9:42 pace, which I know I can maintain for 3.1 miles on a decent day. But then I started losing it. Still, I finished the whole thing (not including my unscheduled pit stop) with an average 10:48.5 pace, which surprises me.

Still, lesson learned. Take care of business before going out for a long run.