Notes
Today's agenda: 45min tempo, or hopefully whatever "easy tempo" is. Goal was 5:45pace but 5:50 would still be good. It's actually been a month and a half since my last 45min tempo and that was a great workout. Today was less windy and slightly warmer (though not much despite drastically different highs later in the day).
I started off strong before finding the right pace quickly. Mile 1: 5:42, which for better or worse would be my fastest mile of the day. The next 2 miles were right on 5:45 pace as I successfully got through the potential ice that wasn't bad.
The 4th mile (and 5th mile since I did a 180 after 4miles) had a couple short hills in them that at first helped me as a distraction but started to wear on me by the 5th mile. 4th in 5:43, 5th in 5:49.
I wanted to get back on pace for the 6th mile and hoped with the hills behind me it would come back naturally, instead I slowed to 5:51 while feeling tired. Halfway through the 7th mile I tried to jolt myself back on pace; still just managed a 5:49. After getting off pace, I wasn't inclined to kill myself during the 8th mile but still hard to push myself to hit my slowest mile: 5:54.
8 miles in about 46:20. I averaged 5:48, still better than the 5:52 average from last time. Still, I was looking for a reason to positive split and the 3mph wind I faced wasn't the answer. Turns out the Heart of Iowa path has a bit more of a slope than I assumed: the first 4miles were 150ft downhill and thus the return trip was 150ft uphill. Not a great amount of elevation but maybe enough to forgive myself for slowing down and call it a fruitful day.
I was happy to finish near the apartment to use the bathroom and change shoes for a <1mile cool down.