10 Mile Tempo

Goal:
60 min tempo at 600-605 pace

Actual:
2.25 mile warmup
10 mile tempo in 59:23 for 5:56 pace (5;58, 5:49, 5:54, 5:57, 5:59, 5:52, 5:57, 5:54, 5:58, 6:00)
1.25 mile cooldown for 13.5 miles total

Caleb and I decided to be environmental today and carpooled to McMullen this morning for our tempo.  I was pleasantly surprised when he texted me yesterday about joining the workout.  I've always known that Caleb can workout with me, but he just didn't believe it yet.  I hoped today's workout would change his attitude on that.  We pulled into McMullen just as Mike Kahn pulled in as well.  After some aimless wandering in the parking lot, we started a slow warmup before turning around to find Spada, who had to drop his kids off at school.  We rounded back to the start line, did some strides, and all toed the line together.  My plan had been to go out in 6:20 and to gradually get faster, with hopes of hitting 5:50s for the last couple of miles.  Spada had other plans.  After about 400 meters with Kahn and I leading in what was apparently too pedestrian of a pace, Spada bolted ahead to take the lead.  Through the first mile, I even said out loud "6:02--we're fast."  This didn't phase anyone.  Spada pulled another couple of meters on Kahn and I.  Caleb even pulled ahead to go stride-for-stride with Spada.  Kahn was my trusty sidekick as we relaxed behind the two who were dueling.  By mile 2, the pace had dropped considerably, and, in doing so, we had dropped Kahn who is coming back from injury.  After a couple of minutes, Caleb dropped back to stick with me.  We ran the rest of the tempo together, side by side.  Spada continued to maintain a 10 meter lead on us through 3.5 miles.  Soon, I could tell that we were catching up to Spada and passed him just before the 4 mile marker.  I wanted to say out loud that we had just passed our motivation to keep the pace strong, but I didn't because I felt like saying it out loud would make the pace falter.

We got to the 5-mile turnaround and I think this mile is a little short, so you might need to add like 5-8 seconds onto my overall time.  After the turnaround, I broke everything down into multiples of 6.   This seemed to help a ton as at this point I could the effects of the Cardio Latin dance class I had taken the night before, especially in my hips and calves.  Caleb's presence helped considerably as we ran stride for stride and he pushed on the uphills while I pushed on the downhills.  His Garmin was completely off on the mile markers, so I tried to ignore his beeps that were putting us as a slower pace than what the markers on the path were telling me.  With just two miles to go, I tried to remain as relaxed as possible. I noticed that even though my legs were crying for me to stop that my breathing was fairly controlled--or, at the very least, it was relaxed.  It didn't start to feel taxing on me until the 9th mile, quite possibly due to the change in terrain from asphalt to cinder.  I clung to Caleb like he was my lifeline because I knew that if he dropped me, I would completely fall off pace.  Somehow we ran through the finish line right on pace. 

A couple of thoughts on the workout. 

1. Caleb Boyd is in shape.  He might not have believed it before, but now he sure as hell better.
2. This is the first time that I've run under 6:00 pace for a long tempo.  Side Note:  this is also the first time I've run a long tempo at McMullen that wasn't a steady state long run.  Clearly, the terrain here is much more conducive to faster times than McAlpine's terrain. 
3. This is a confidence booster going into the half marathon champs in just one month. 

Overall, I'm very pleased with this workout.  Looks like the hard work that I put in over March and April is finally starting to pay off and I'm seeing improvements in my times in workouts that I've done in the past.  Now, I can focus on moving for the rest of the weekend!