Training Log - Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Temperature dropped yet again for the coldest morning run to date. James, Mike and I met at their office at 5:30 AM and decided that the cold called for a shorter tempo run today. We just didn't want to be out there long. We chose the Research Park to Madison Square Mall loop we hadn't run in a while. We started out slow until Mike and James started to set the pace, slightly faster than ususal. I kept my eyes off my Garmin and just tugged in behind them, mostly trying to stay warm.

As we made our way around the mall our pace continued to increase, but I kept going. I felt it but it felt good to go a little faster than usual. After mile 5,my lungs started to burn a little, but I couldn't slow down now. I had started to take the lead in our little running group and I didn't really want anyone to pass me. Mike continued to stay close, trying to make up time he lost retying his shoes. While this was "just" a training run, we often take the opportunity to push each other just a little bit. I guess there's a little bit of competitiveness in all of us...and especially me;-) When we finally finished the run, my lungs were on fire, my heart as racing and I even dryheaved a little. It was definitely a worthy training run

When I got home and uploaded my Garmin data, I realized we had run negative splits literally for every mile we ran. I definitely need to incorporate these types of tempo or speed runs more regularly into my training schedule. Oh yeah, I just registered for another local ultra I just found out about last weekend, the Tashka Trail 50K near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Should be fun.