Tempo Troubles.

Day two of cross-country practice separated the men from the boys, and I felt like the junior high kid running 7:30's in the 1600m. The afternoon workout was a 1.5 mile warmup, followed by a three mile tempo run. After the tempo, we were supposed to jog a mile for recovery and then meet up at the track for a hard 1600m on the track. Today's workout showed me the kind of shape that I was in and today I was running blind.

We had to meet up at the Pavilion at 9am for a morning shakeout run (An easy two miles). I got up at around 7:15am, made myself some breakfast (Peanut butter toast) and took a quick shower before we headed up to the Pav. We sat around for a while, waiting for Kevin to show up (Kevin tends to be fashionably late). After our quick run, Matt and I headed back down to his place to grab some lunch and to chill before heading back up to Kiwanis Park for a team lunch. Kevin had made a massive trip to Fred Meyer's, in which he bought deli meats, cheese, fruit, juices, cookies, snacks and other typical lunchtime fare. It was fun interacting with everyone, although there seems to be a trend where the guys always congregate together and the girls do the same. Maybe one day we'll all hang out together haha.

After lunch, Matt and I just went up to Ryan's place to chill before we had to go to practice at 2pm (Meeting about training). We didn't end up running till 3pm, which was fine cause that's our scheduled practice time. We headed out from the Pav, down Brook lane to Brick, up Brick hill and down Radio St to Flenning. We traveled up Flenning a little ways and that was where we would start our Tempo. We waited a little bit for Kevin to get there on his bike, but pretty much as soon as he got there, we were on our way.

This tempo was my first tempo in about a month and a half, so I wasn't too surprised that I found myself in the back of the pack right away. Even Manu didn't pick up his pace until we were about 1/4 mile in. I decided to set my watch to split every 1/4 mile, to help me make sure that I was staying on pace. At the one mile point, I was behind the back of the pack by about ten seconds. My coach gave me my split, "6:09." According to my watch, my first mile was actually a 6:18, but no matter the split, I wasn't feeling too hot. My legs were feeling a little tired, and aerobically I was being "worked," but I had the worst case of cotton mouth that I have ever had. My mouth was completely dry and I still had another two miles to go. At 1.5 miles in, I had to stop for a brief second, try and get any saliva I could muster up, and continued the rest of my run. The last mile of the tempo felt good, more importantly, I felt strong during my last mile. My mile splits were 6:18, 6:21, 6:23 for the tempo. I am pleased with my effort cause I know that I was working hard, yet at the same time it was bittersweet knowing that I was the second to last person to finish the workout.

After the tempo, I quickly grabbed a drink of water and began the one mile recovery jog. At this point, my legs were feeling a little heavy, but felt all right considering my effort. We headed over to the track after Kevin opened the gate and we started our hard mile shortly after. He said that this should be "Everything you had left," but I knew that I wasn't gonna press super hard. I decided that I would try and run 1:25's (which would be 5:40 pace) and thought that would be a good, solid time. As Kevin said "go," immediately I was in the back of the pack. At this point, I didn't really care. I just kept my pace rolled along the track. As I passed the start line for the opening lap, Kevin read off our splits "85". Perfect.. right on pace. Second lap was just about maintaining pace, which I felt that I did. Second lap, "2:51" A tad slower (An 87), but nothing too bad. During the third lap, I just focused on staying relaxed, instead of worrying how far ahead everyone else is. 1200m in... "4:17." That lap was another 87, which felt surprisingly good. As I entered the back stretch, I gradually started to quicken my pace. I noticed that Matt was only a few meters ahead of me, he must have been having an off day. I cross the finish line "5:40." Right where I wanted, and it felt hard, but a good hard.

After a short mile cool-down, I had to go take a massive dump (I know.. maybe not the most appropriate thing to say on a blog, but that's what I had to do). This tempo really opened my eyes to knowing my pace during runs. More importantly, it taught me that all the guys here are already in solid shape. This is only gonna make me work harder to try and improve. With our upcoming time trial on Saturday, only time will tell how everyone is gonna fit in. I was the second to last person to finish both the "tempo" and the "hard mile" on the track today. I hope that Kevin sees something in me that he likes.