Notes
On my own and I chose to do some tempo as that has certainly been neglected in workouts lately. The goal was 2 mile repeats @ tempo, 2 repeats for sure, hopefully 3. I've been enjoying the simplicity of the track lately so I decided to do the workout on the paved track at one of the middle schools. 2.5 mile warm-up.
I settled into a pace quickly and while I never checked my watch until the mile, it felt right. My watch ticked the mile at 5:30 when I was only 1500 meters in (GPS can be a mess sometimes). The next mile went by quickly and though I felt strong, I wasn't looking forward to possibly 2 more repeats. 8 laps in 11:37.
Here's where the workout goes awry. I jogged a lap before deciding I wouldn't survive another 8 laps without a bathroom. None in the soccer complex anymore so that meant a ~1/2 mile trip to Casey's (which was very busy). I considered tempo-ing over there but quickly altered that plan to a jog-walk combo.
So with maybe a 10+ minute recovery, I started the 2nd piece on sidewalks (I didn't want to run back to the track). I tried to replicate my effort from the track, and maybe I did better than my GPS would indicate, but it told me 6:12 for my mile. That was demoralizing and I continued my trajectory of heading towards home so that I finished the 2nd mile basically there (2nd mile was a tad more respectable 5:58).
I started my quarter mile cool-down before starting to think about it; I wasn't too tired and I certainly wasn't proud of just 4 miles of tempo. So I revved the engine back up, turned around, and did 2 more miles meandering through the neighborhood. I ran off another 5:57 before a happy surprise of a 5:45 still not feeling taxed. Glad I threw in the 3rd repeat to make me feel better.