Notes
86 degrees and sunny this afternoon. Have been thinking about my cutdown tempo run since Sunday and last night decided if not too warm Wed afternoon to do the tempo run after work so I can do it in the sunlight. Don't mind doing it in the dark in the morning but wary of hitting a crack/pothole due to lack of light and screwing myself up so lace them up after work and get after it.
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Shortened warmup of 1.36 miles in 9:58 around the perimeter of Arena Park as I watch all the carnivel guys put their crappy rides up... Oh well, at least they are working.
Back to the truck and hydrate up some more and stretch lightly. Don't feel completely warmed up but dont want to get 12+ miles in today and will be close to that mark by the time I do an easy cooldown.
Plan is to do 9 miles with 3 mile paces of approx 6:40/6:30/6:20 but will play it by ear as not sure how much the heat will affect me in the last 3 miles. Keeping it mostly flat as starting at Arena Park and going north on the trail. Plan to keep going toward Walden Park subdivision and loop back around on the trail heading south to complete the work.
Distance of 10.34 in 1:09:13 elapsed time. Stopped for 30 seconds at the 8.10 mile mark and drank some water out of the fountain on South Osage trail prior to doing my cooldown.
8.1 mile tempo run splits: 1 thru 3 = 6:32/6:29/6:23(19:24); 4 thru 6 = 6:14/6:13/6:14(18:41); 7-8.1 = 6:17/6:16/:36 seconds.... Water fountain the stopping point as decided enough was enough.
Only a training run and confident I could have punched out a couple more 6:15 miles out in race conditions with temps 15-20 degrees cooler as well as slow down to 6:35 pace through the hills and not be wiped out at 9.3 mile mark when the "real" racing will begin.
Heat did not seem to affect me. Felt very comfortable at 6:30 pace, controlled but working harder at 6:20 pace and anything under 6:20 pace requiring concentration to continue needed turnover while close to LT line later in the run.
Cooldown miles of 7:40/8:09 and 8:08 ave pace for last quarter mile.