Speeding into the weekend

I had a tough speed workout yesterday. Treadmilled it because it forced me to keep my pace. Plus I was pressed for time.

The workout called for six miles:

1 easy mile (9:13 pace)
4 fast miles (7:23 pace)
1 easy mile (9:13 pace)

It's similar to a workout I did a couple weeks ago, and once again the last easy mile was worse than the four fast ones. There was a point where it crossed my mind to slow down a tad from the 7:23 pace, but then I thought that if I couldn't get through an uncomfortable 6 miles I couldn't ever expect myself to get through an uncomfortable 26, so I pressed on. I'm glad I did.

I made it to 5 miles at about 38:30, which is a minute faster than I've run 5 miles in a year, even with the first mile at a 9+ minute pace, and with the .25 mile walking cool-down I finished 6.25 miles in around 51:00, which is faster than I can ever remember running 10K. Weird, even though it was all indoors and at a minimum incline.

To keep pacing the theme, the next part of my marathon race-strategy is going to be about speed and pacing. But here's a hint: I plan on starting slowly. Der.