tempo thursday is BACK!

i still love thursday runs. today, two cool things happened. first, i had a much faster tempo run. second, i learned about garmin connect. let's talk about the tempo run first. my workout today was to be a tempo of 6 miles with a slow mile warm up and a slow mile cool down. the pace for the tempo was to be 8:45. yesterday, james emailed to say he was going to come on the run with me. chris and terri were also going to be there. we headed out and that mile warm up wasn't that slow. i was thinking, well, if i'm running an 8:45 tempo, it at least won't get much faster. after 1 mile, we were off, blazing! we were striking hot right off the bat, but we settled down quickly and eased into a more responsible pace, in the low 8's! i didn't think about not being able to sustain that pace for 6 miles, i just ran. a few years ago, i used to get told all the time to 'just shut up and run!' so that's what i did. we clicked away in the low 8's, stopped for a sip of water, and finished it. my average for the 6 tempo was 8:10. not too bad! the average for the first 7 was 8:19. we took the cool down mile much slower, and i needed it cause homegirl was tired! i'm excited about this run, and excited about what is to come. taking james on as my coach could be one of the best decisions i've made regarding my running in a long time. during the run he mentioned to send him the garmin reading from the run. i was like, uh, ok. i remembered having a CD of some stuff that came with it, so i got to work and tried it. well, that wasn't what he was talking about. he gave me the link to garmin connect, so i downloaded it and then uploaded my history from my garmin, and there it was, and it was so cool! everything was there, pace, map, best mile, etc. i'm not normally a big information junkie, but that stuff is the shiz! i will be uploading ALL my runs from here on out. and if you aren't doing it, you should be! here is my run from today - thursday tempo so, my legs are tired. fortunately i get a day off tomorrow and will enjoy a full day of rest. although, after today, i feel like i can tackle anything. this morning i learned that i am faster than i thought i was. there is a runner inside of me!