So I ran both Tuesday and Thursday. I did my Tuesday tempo run, finishing 4.75 miles in 40 minutes. That's about an 8:25 pace total. But 2 miles of that were run at around 6.7 miles, so the 20 minutes that I did run at around race pace were pretty intense. I think I went around 7.5 mph for those 20 minutes. I think the only issue was a little tightness in my right calf. My quads felt fine.
I took Wednesday and Friday off. Thursday was the interval run. I ran 10 minutes at around 6.5 mph. Then I ran my four 4-minute intervals at 8.0 mph with three 2-minute intervals at 6.8 mph. This was the first time I tried to run an extended time at 8.0 mph. I have to say it was a struggle to keep up. On my first interval, I could feel a little bit of a side stitch. There is pretty much no feeling I dread when I run as much as that pain in my side. Thankfully I was able to shrug it off.
That 4-minute interval was about as much as I could handle at 8.0 mph. I had just enough energy to get through it each time. At this point in my training, I'm not capable of maintaining an 8.0 mph pace for five miles. But for the first time in three years, I did run five miles. It took me 42:00 to get it done. And if I spent two of those miles warming up and cooling down, I have every confidence that I can keep a slightly faster pace than that and finish the race in under 40 minutes.
So I'm scheduled for a 4.5 mile run and then a 3.0 mile run this weekend. I'm thinking I'm going to push pretty well for the 4.5, maybe going around 7.0 mph. I feel ready to push my speed a little bit this. Let's see what happens.
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