Friday, May 23, 2008 [12M]

8M tempo at Sawyer Camp. 5:44, 5:43, 6:19, 6:50, 5:34, 5:32, 5:43, 5:39. I drove out to Sawyer camp after work and got things started by 6PM. My plan was to run a controlled, long tempo, shooting for 5:40s the whole way. The first couple of miles were just off pace but fairly controlled. I knew it would be hard to maintain the pace for the next couple of miles since most of that part would be uphill but I wanted at least to maintain the same effort. It's been a while since the last time I made it to the end of trail and I forgot how steep it gets, especially in the last mile. As shown by my splits I slowed down quite a bit and wasn't putting in the effort needed to do a decent climb. In retrospect, opting to go all the way to the end of the trail was a bad choice for this kind of workout. I wanted a controlled effort and the long uphill part threw me off. I didn't make an effort to pick up the pace after making the turn but I was expecting to be a bit faster since I'd be going downhill. It was steep enough, though, to force me to break my stride so I couldn't really get rolling. The decline in the 6th mile was a bit more gradual so I could get the legs moving better. I got back close to 5:40 pace for the last couple of miles, after hitting the flat parts. I could have pushed the pace more but that wasn't the point of this workout so I just kept things under control all the way to the finish.