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Positives about last night's tempo run?

1. It wasn't raining.
2. It was light out!
3. I hit below my tempo pace for several of the miles.

Not so positives?

1. My planned six mile run (one mile warm-up, four miles tempo, one mile cool-down) turned into a 5.3 mile run when I hit the the "lake" pictured above. That's actually a parking lot next to a lake. The lake just decided to expand after this weekend's rain fall.

2. I felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest for the entire run.

3. Although the temps were in the 40s, it was damp and overcast outside making it feel a lot chillier. So I still wore tights and a long sleeved top.


I decided not to run with the running group last night. I knew that running with them would help me stick to my tempo pace but there were several reasons I chose to go it alone.

1. I had my book club meeting at 7:30 (discussing my suggestion of The Brief History of the Dead. Everyone loved it, by the way.) Running group usually ends at 7:30. Since I haven't figured out how to be in two places at once I chose to run on my own and get done at 7PM. That gave me time to change before heading to book club.

2. My running buddy, Anne, told me last week she would miss this Monday due to a special event at her church. I didn't feel like running alone at the back of the pack. I figured I could run alone, well, alone!

3. I wanted to see if I could hit my tempo pace by myself. I feel like lately I've been using my various running groups as a crutch during my faster runs. Could I hold those paces on my own? Could I push myself even if I wasn't trying to keep up with someone?

Turns out that I can although I'm not as consistent. Strangely, when I run with the groups my pace graph is much, much smoother. When I run by myself it's jagged and all over the place. I guess this means that I'm still not so great at actually pacing myself. I wish I could figure out what a 9 minute mile really feels like and just get into the groove. Instead I'm always speeding up and slowing down over and over again. That can't be efficient!

Also, I don't know why it was so hard to breathe last night. I also had a mild side stitch and a little bit of intestinal discomfort. Was it the pretzels I ate right before I left? Was it the carrot cake cupcake I had at lunch (oh man, it was good)? Was it the cooler, damp weather? Was it the weird eating I did over the weekend? Who knows.

Oh, I also left the music at home again. I guess I just wanted to see if I could push myself without that, too.

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 627 ft Location: Forest Park, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 03/15/10 Up/Downhill: [+104/-104] Time: 06:02 PM Difficulty: 2.1 / 5.0   Weather: Mostly Cloudy   47 F temp; 65% humidity   47 F heat index; winds NE 13 Performance Distance: 5.35 miles Time: 0:49:26 Speed: 6.5 mph Pace: 9' 14 /mi Calories: 633 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 16 +1' 02 5.8 -0.7 +4 ft 2 8' 44 -0' 30 6.9 +0.4 +10 ft 3 9' 15 +0' 01 6.5 -0.0 -7 ft 4 8' 54 -0' 20 6.7 +0.2 +7 ft 5 8' 52 -0' 22 6.8 +0.3 -13 ft end 10' 06 +0' 52 5.9 -0.6 0 ft Versus average of 9' 14 min/mile

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