tempo thursday - gonna miss it

8 days away and counting. counting fast it seems too. 11 1/2 weeks ago, terri and i started training, and boom, we are here!

11 1/2 weeks ago, we started out with 6 mile tempo runs and steadily increased to 10 miles. we have grown to love them, and we are excited to see the pay off of these runs. not only did our tempos become more aggressive, our tuesday speed work did as well. we started off doing some 800's, but added in 2 mile repeats, eventually doing 3x2 mile repeats. those we didn't grow to love quite as much, but i would say we had a lot of respect for them. i think we will reap the benefits of those runs too.

our tempo runs have been steadily growing in distance, but our paces stayed more conservative, needing to average to 9:15. most days, we took it a bit less conservative and ran them faster, but today, we stayed on track and finished up at a 9:12 average. terri and i usually start slow, on our long runs too, and gradually increase speed, so our last few miles are always really great - usually well under 9. today we still finished faster, but we didn't get too out of control. we didn't want to risk anything being only 8 days away. we went home feeling satisfied that we did well.

there is something extremely satisfying about waking up at 4:30, running 10 miles of tempo, then going to work. it's invigorating to have a quality workout under your belt before most people head to the shower. i feel like that old army slogan that said, "we do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day."

i will miss tempo thursday for the next few weeks, but i know it will be back. saturday is our last "long run" of 10 miles and tuesday we'll have a little more speed work, and then it's pretty much go time. the tempos are done, long runs are done and its time to go put it all to the test. after the recovery time, i will be back.