(Almost) Race Pace

Today's Run: 6.62 miles through Yarmouth (Home)
Time Finished: 46 minutes, 26 seconds (7 minutes, 1 second per mile)
Type of Run: Tempo - moderate/hard effort
Miles this week: 31.76

I'm not sure where all the energy came from, but if I can get this every Saturday or Sunday, I'll have some good road races in 2010.

Today's plan was just to do an easy run, but I didn't start my run until quarter after 3, which meant that it was another race to beat daylight. The race mentality always gets my adrenaline going so I figured I would try to make a high-effort run out of this.

My spontaneous plan was to run as normal (approx. 8/mile ) from my apartment to the beginning of East Main Street as my warmup, then go at a hard pace until I returned to the apartment complex.

I didn't realize how elevated of a pace I was running until I turned on to the North Road and found myself barely over 32 minutes. It was quick and the wind was biting a bit but I didn't feel tired at all. I wanted to make the most of this run so I just maintained pace until I got to my car and stopped the watch. Not even glancing at my watch until it was over, I expected around 50 minutes. I shocked myself when I saw 46 and change.

I chalked that one up as a hard tempo run, but in the back of my mind I wished that today was a road race day.