I did my last Albuquerque long run along the Bosque Trail yesterday. It was hot and quite humid for Albuquerque but I ended with a 9:26 average pace. I was even able to speed up- actually speed up, not feel like I was running faster but actually running slower- at the end. I'd give my total time for the run, but for some reason my Garmin skipped a mile somewhere in the beginning. Very strange. And it's not like I could have skipped a mile. It's an out-and-back course. I ran from mm8 to mm2 and back- 12mi.
Last Thurday I did a tempo run on the treadmill that also went very well. I did 2mi at 6.8, then 2 at 6.9, .5mi recovery, then 1mi at 7.2, moving down to 7.1. The second mile was definitely tougher than I thought it would be, I think because my brain was "done" after the 4mi tempo. The good part is that I know next time I can do the entire 4mi at 6.9. My goal will be to be able to run the tempo run at 7.0 by marathon training time because that's what the RW Ultimate Training Plan suggests as the tempo pace for a 9min/mi goal pace marathon.
Friday I went to spinning and today I'll be packing all day. I'm actually glad I have something physical to do because this has been such a great training week, I want to go out and run more. But I know I have to resist or else I'll be back to slogging along.
