Tedious Tempo

Distance: 7
Time: 54:28
BreakDown: 1mi warm up @10:00, 5mi Tempo @6:54, 1mi cool down @10:00

I am going to go ahead at start this out by claiming the title King Of Tedious Runs. I'll get to that in a but. Its been some time since I actually ran a tempo on purpose. That is, its been a while since I've had a structured training program that involved a tempo. That being said, I was slightly worried about being able to hold my tempo pace for 5 miles. I'm using my training paces given from the McMillian running calculator based on one of my hard effort runs early this year. Actually, I took the 10k split from a hard 7 miler. That puts my tempo range from 6:58-7:16.

I started out on the tm for my warm up, that way I could make sure it was slow. Then I hopped over to the track for the tempo. As I said before, I was worried about holding pace for 5 miles. Well, I can't seem to run slow on indoor tracks. I have no idea why, its just one of those quirks I have. So I knew running on the track would make it easier. Here is where my new title comes in: 1mile =11 laps! So, if you do a quick bit of math, thats 55 laps! It actually felt really good. The first half felt comfortable. The second half I really had to push myself. When I finished and looked at my watch, I saw why it was tough at the end, I was running 4 seconds per mile faster than the fast-side of my tempo range!

Oh, the fun part about running on an indoor track and being a marathoner: I was running faster than everyone else there, and longer. Even the couple of people who started after me finished before me! Once in a while on the run, the outside of my right calf, just above my achilles, would twitch/feel sore (today was a clockwise day on the track). Jess, if you're reading this, any ideas what would cause that or if its anything to worry about?

I'm on track to set two PR's this week. The first is a weekly mileage PR. If all goes well tomorrow and Sunday, I'll have 46.3 miles. In my marathon training, I barely cracked 40. The other is a monthly mileage PR, 170 and change (current PR 165 and change). 

We finally got information about our graduate projects for my Abstract Algebra class. I'll be reviewing a paper on the classification of groups of order 2p where p is a prime number. Then I get to write a paper and present it (15-20min) to the class. Well, now that I've rambled long enough, I'm gonna go find another way to avoid doing homework before class.