One Last Tempo with Laurie and Eric

Goal:
12-14 miles with 7 miles wave tempo starting at 548 (target range 546-555) and alternating with 615-625

Actual:
3.7 mile warmup
7 mile wave tempo in 41:05 @ 540, 608, 543, 604, 535, 615, 540
2.7 mile cool down for 13.4 miles total

My last big workout before Grandma's Half was a success.  After Saturday's bomb of workout, I needed that!  It was quite possibly my last tempo as a permanent resident of Charlotte and with Laurie, so I'm glad I can leave on a positive note.  At 5:50AM, I warmed up with Michelle and Phill before dropping them off and continuing on my way to get Laurie and Eric.  We decided to do two loops of the 2-Mile Dilworth Speed Loop before heading down to the Sugar Creek Greenway for the remaining miles.

Laurie and I started it off a little quick, but the pace felt reasonable so I went with it.  After that one, Eric told us that we "weren't being disciplined," but he was wrong.  Whenever I go out too hard, I calculate what are the odds that I can continue at that pace or faster and if the odds are in my favor, I continue pushing forward.  Today was one of those days where the odds were good and I ignored Eric.  Oddly enough, I felt pretty terrible on mile 5 because I had a weird breathing issue / stomach cramp that was making it very difficult for me to maintain my composure.  I told myself to just ignore it and it would go away.  Sure enough, it did.  It's these sort of tactics I need to employ in the race should something go terribly wrong.

I felt really good about this tempo and it shows that running 5:48 pace or faster for the half in just 10 days is completely within reason.  As Terry told me a couple weeks ago, running sub 5:50s should feel quite manageable in the first hour at Grandma's and the last 15 minutes or so will just have to come from racing tough.  I am ready.