Ice Cream Taper? No way!

While my legs may be enjoying a taper from running, I'm definitely not tapering from ice cream consumption.  Does anyone else think I need to change my blog to Ice Cream Runner?  Geez...this is getting out of hand (and into my tummy...muhahahah.)  Of these 4 cartons (purchased on Sunday) I am 2/3 (at least) done with the strawberry cheesecake and the snickers.  Doing work, kids!

This morning I woke up early to head out for my tempo run that had been swapped from Tuesday.  I checked the weather per usual, and realized I needed to bundle up!  38 degrees, that's COLD.  I dug through some running clothes and found my light running jacket and gloves and was out the door.

I had 7 miles with 5 @ a tempo pace of 8:25.  Since it was cloudy/gloomy out, I didn't know how the garmin would fair (he tends to FREAK and tell me I'm running 11-12 mm when the clouds are out).  A half mile in to the warm up, I knew I had made the right decision with swapping out my runs, mid-run.  Especially during taper time, there's no sense pushing too much.  My legs felt great!

First two tempo miles were kind of all over the place as my body was searching to find that "groove."  Dare I say it, but shorter tempo runs are *hard*.  You have much less time to hit/find that magical pace.  At the turn around (3.5 miles) I decided to set my virtual partner on my garmin to 8:24 (apparently I've had BQ pace on my mind, and was oblivious to the 8:25 my training called for....silly brain :p).  This helped dramatically!  I was worried that the VP would be effected in the same way that my average pace display is when cloudy, but it was spot on.  Hence why my splits were a lot more consistent the second half.

I ended up with 7 miles in 1:00:21 for a pace of 8:38.  My tempo pace was 8:20.  Heck yes!  (P.S.  I can't WAIT to run a HM post-marathon to see if my legs have any legit speed left in them!!)
1. 9:30
2. 8:29
3. 8:15
4. 8:19
5. 8:23
6. 8:16
7. 9:06

Don't you just love how the cool down mile always feels sooooooo slooooooooow and ends up being at a pretty decent clip?  I sure do. :)

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a carton of ice cream yelling out my name.
Amanda at Run To The Finish is doing an awesome {shweaty, just my style!}giveaway.  Check it out!