From work, not running.
I had some time off available, and yesterday I noticed my calendar had no important items on it for today. So I took a much needed Mental Health Day. Woke up, had some eggs at Dimitri’s, and gave myself plenty of time to get my 4 mile tempo run in during the daylight hours.
A good day off is one where you don’t worry about the stress that caused you to need that day, and today was a good day off. Coincidentally, a good tempo run is one where you are running just fast enough to be unable to concentrate on rational thought, but not so hard that you can’t form words in your native language in your head. So today was a success on both counts.
My Garmin was out of juice before this run, so I went old school, timing my rough miles around the neighborhood with my sport watch. Over the recent years and months of running I’ve become less dependent on the Garmin (though I still like the record keeping aspect) I was able to keep a decent pace, my watch indicating splits of:
- 8:43:15
- 8:22:03
- 8:27:43
- 8:04:15
All things considered, with a target of 8:27 minutes/mile, that’s a pretty good approximation, well within the error one can expect.
The air was cold during the run, and I dressed as normal for a winter run, but with each mile I shed a bit more. Unzipped my jacket and half zip, tucked in my mittens, even shedding my tight running cap, which is very odd for a winter run. But the hard workout still had sweat pouring down my face.
It felt good.
Aren’t those days great when you can just get away from it all? And when you fit in a great run, all the better. Nice job!
Sounds like it was a great run! I haven’t done a tempo in a long time, I am just trying to put miles in. Thanks for making me feel guilty!
j/k
Don’t blame me, slacker! Get out there, especially if the weather is half as nice as it is here.
Hehe, HAI Papa-san!!!!