W14KW#2 - Tempo

My first good tempo session of the training plan so far - it was always going to be a reality check as my main excuse from the last two weeks was gone - it was an absolutely perfect evening for a run - nice, cool, calm, etc. After my laziness yesterday, I went out for a relatively easy cycle at lunchtime, which looking back I probably shouldn't have (since the run was the more important training session).

So the plan called for

• 1 mile easy (10m 43s)
• 5 miles long tempo (9m 38s)
• 1 mile easy (10m 43s)

As I always seem to get my pacing wrong from the start, I decided to just do the main part straight off - I was feeling pretty good and legs were strong after the first two miles, despite the quicker pace (around 30s / mile faster than the required pace on average). I kept that sort of pace up for the next two miles and was hoping at that point to do six miles at that quicker pace. However, I really struggled in the fifth mile and decided to take a rest afterwards, the quality part of the session done.

Rest of the run home was a series of run walks. Just after I'd stopped on the hour mark, I came across the biggest bunch of foreign students I've ever seen - I thought Dublin was bad during the summer, but Cambridge definitely takes that prize now! There must have been over 200 of them going over the railway bridge close to my place - just as well I'd stopped or I'd have had to run out on the road.

Splits:
1m: 9m 02s
2m: 9m 04s
3m: 8m 59s
4m: 9m 15s
5m: 9m 27s

I've posted a screenshot, which should illustrate the difference between today's run and the corresponding run last week :)