8.0 miles - 4.0 miles tempo

I did something a little different this morning.

Got up early because it's going to be hot (over 90° F) - when I left the house at around 8:45 AM it was only 63° F.

After a little over a mile warmup, and a bathroom break and lots of water, I ran (or attempted to run) 4.0 miles at race pace along Springwater Corridor, from the 3.5 mile marker to the 1.5 mile marker and back again.

Then I ran the long way home, approximately another 3 miles. It was a jog/walk, though I wasn't keeping track of pace at all.

The tempo portion of the run was hard considering I didn't have any breakfast this morning (probably a bad thing), but I still managed to finish it in 39:40.8, under a 10:00 pace. Here are my half-mile splits:

1. 04:36.7
   
2. 04:48.1 (09:24.8)
   
3. 04:41.7
   
4. 04:52.5 (18:58.9)
   
5. 05:11.8
   
6. 04:50.9 (29:01.5)
   
7. 05:20.2
   
8. 05:19.2 (39:40.8)

Musical accompaniment was Bad Religion "Stranger Than Fiction" and Thom Yorke "The Eraser". After the tempo miles, I had two Cliff Blokz and a lot of water.

During the ~3 miles, I aimed for "fartlek" - speeding up and slowing down on a regular basis. Didn't really work, though. I just... finished. I am proud, however, of my 4.0 mile "speed" section - I beat my time from the last time I did this tempo run - and this time I didn't have to stop and rest at the halfway point, either! I'm a rock star!