I felt much better today and ran a pretty comfortable 50-minute tempo run. Tempo runs are supposed to be "comfortably hard." I'm not sure if I was at that point or not.
I ran on the treadmill and gave myself 15 minutes to warmup at 6.8 (about a 9-minute mile pace). I reached 1.5 miles in about 13-14 minutes and felt good so I started the tempo sequence a minute or two early. Bumped the speed up to 7.3 which is about an 8:15 mile pace and about 15-20 seconds slower than my 10K pace. Very comfortable at first, and even later when cardiac drift began to push my heart rate upwards and I drifted closer to my lactate threshold. HR was around 148 or 85% at first, and at the end of the 3-mile segment, I was hovering around 158-160 which is about 90% for me. Still, I felt like I had good reserves and felt only a tiny bit uncomfortable. After reaching the 4 mile mark -- 3 miles "in tempo" -- I dropped the speed down to 6.8 again to recover and then felt like doing some 100 strides over the course of the final 8 minutes or 1 mile.
Finished in 50 minutes. Walked for 10 and then stretched for 15. Spent about 30 minutes on the weights, working a quick upper body circuit.
I feel great. No lingering intestinal discomfort from yesterday. Not sure what I should do tomorrow, the day before the long run. I need about 5-6 miles to make this week's mileage target of 32 miles. If the weather's nice, might do a morning easy pace out-and-in just in the neighborhood.
Oh...and I picked up the "Competitive Runner's Handbook" by Bob Glover from the library today, on the recommendation of Kathleen.
