Notes
Finally, not just a very good tempo run, but a great one. At this point in the training cycle, I could not execute a tempo run any better than I did this morning. Warm up mile was solid and lived up to its name given the chilly & windy conditions. Ran the first mile of the tempo section at a hard, but controlled pace, As soon as I hit mile 2, I increased the effort to comfortably hard, quickly got into a great running rhythm, and basically maintained the effort and cadence from that point straight through to the end of the five miles. There were a couple of points during the final four miles when my mind started to think I might have to slow down up ahead, but each time I focused instead on the fact that I was running really well at that particular moment & that kind of dissipated the mental doubts about maintaining the comfortably hard pace all the way to the end. Felt great at the end of the five mile tempo section & the cool down mile was relaxed and easy. To put this training run into perspective, I ran the five mile tempo in a comfortably hard 44:35. That's 24 seconds faster than my 8k PR at the Shamrock Shuffle in 2011. Completed pedestals with lifts x 2, Grant Green routine, leg circuit 2, and the Core X routine after the run. Core X went really well & was much improved over last week.