I had zero desire to get out of bed and run this morning. I did it anyway, and I'm glad I did. I would have gained nothing by staying in bed an extra hour but I got to experience a beautiful sunrise and breathe the fresh cool morning air.... in mass quantities.
The temperature was just right this morning. I could have stood it just a couple degrees cooler, but after weeks on end of 80 degree 100% humidity mornings I'm not going to complain for a moment about mid 60's. I got myself out of bed my negotiating (with myself) an easier run than I had planned. When I got started, I pulled the old switcheroo. Bait and switch. I'm the master of manipulating myself into doing things I really don't want to do. I'm not sure that's such a good thing, but it's worked well for my running.
I did the first mile as a semi warm up mile in the mid 9's. From there I pushed the pace up to the sub 9 range and tried to keep it there for the remainder of the run. I concentrated my efforts on mile 4 because I was starting to fatigue at that point. Mile 4 was my best mile of the day at 8:28. I told myself after really pushing mile 4 I would slow down and take it a little easier for mile 5. I did slow down some, but actually ran mile 5 very slightly faster than miles 2 and 4. Miles 2, 4, and 5 were 8:45, 8:46, and 8:43 respectively. I'm pleased with my ability to pick a pace and pretty well stick to it only occasionally referring to my Garmin watch for confirmation of what I already know. I'm also pleased that my comfortable cruising speed seems to be increasing. Some of that may have more to do with the cooler temperatures we've had in the mornings the last couple of weeks, but I'm sure some of it is also attributable to the efforts I've been putting into making myself faster. I'm looking forward to my next couple of races to see how much I've improved.
Today's Stats: I did 5.06 miles in 44:35 for an average pace of 8:49/mile.
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