Last day for Speed + Shrimp Fajitas

Wednesday night's tempo run marked the last speed workout of my training plan before the big day. Looking back at my training log, I noticed that the last 4 speed workouts resulted in:partial failure/mostly quit, did not do, kind of bent the rules to allow myself a W, and didn't have because it was the week of the Wild West Relay. Ok, looking back at the training log, maybe wasn't the best idea to boost confidence prior to the run, but it did stir up some passion and fight. Speed workouts used to be my favorite run of the week. When I picked this training plan, I was nervous-scared (in a good way) for the last few speed workouts. I wanted to rock this one.

I joked with my co-worker prior to leaving work that as soon as I got out of my car at my apartment it would start raining (the sky looked gloomy all day). Sure enough, by the time I left my office it was sprinkling, by the time I got home, down pouring. Whatever, I love the rain. Then it magically disappeared. :)

I got started on the run: 7 miles, 5 at tempo pace of 8:13. I usually give myself a +/- 5 seconds, so I had a range of 8:08-8:18.

Warm up mile: 9:39

And then I got in to it. I noticed that when I concentrate on good running form, primarily with lifting my quads more, my paces fall significantly (I experimented with this a bit on the mock half last weekend. Whenever I saw my reflection in little shop windows I looked FAST!) I tried this approach with my tempo miles to see how it'd go.

Mile 1 of tempo: 8:14

Legs felt good, I felt good. Garmin was being DUMB. Seriously, my pace was at 10:30-12:30 on the front when clearly I wasn't running anywhere near that. Luckily my legs found the pace, I guess.

Mile 2 of tempo: 8:14

Um...ok, sweet consistency I guess.

Mile 3 of tempo: 8:11

Alright, someone informed the legs we are over halfway done, they're ready to go.

Mile 4 of tempo: 8:21

My quads got REALLY tight toward the end of this mile, I blame the abrupt downhill portion. At this point I stopped to get a drink of water because I was SO THIRSTY! And ran into a guy I went to college with. He said he'd been trying to catch me for about a mile, but I was cruising. Why yes, please keep stroking my ego..thank you. He asked if he could tag along for the last mile or so. I said yes, and we were off.

Mile 5 of tempo: 7:38!!!

I did NOT mean to run that fast, honestly. Again the watch wasn't showing me correct paces, and I typically slow down when talking with someone while running, so I was trying to push a little extra to compensate. Apparently I didn't need to. I was pretty pumped with the time, and the guy was pretty impressed with our pace. I was even more excited that after nailing 4 tempo miles, I was able to pull this pace out of my back pocket and still not be dead tired.

Final cool down mile: 8:52

Which honestly felt like a 9:30....I love speedwork.

I did the 7 miles in 59:12 for a pace of 8:28. The tempo miles were a pace of 8:07-8:08. WHOO!

Post run Taylor and I had plans to try a new recipe for shrimp fajitas. Chevy's shrimp fajitas are probably my favorite food in the world and this recipe promised to be close. Holy moly,amazingness. They were sooooooooooo good.

On my fajita I had refried beans, a lil sour cream, avocado, tomatoes, green & red peppers,shrimpies, and shredded cheese.

Not sure what I'm doing with my right hand...weird...

This morning I had an easy 6 mile recovery run that didn't feel easy, but I couldn't seem to get my legs to find a more relaxed pace. The strong winds and humidity didn't help. Oh well, I got through them. I did 6 miles in 57:00 for a 9:30 pace.