Mini MP Run

My body seems to be stuck in slo-mo, so the plan this morning was to do a short marathon-pace run in an attempt to inject some speed into these little old legs! Speed being relative, of course :-) I was a bit skeptical that I was going to be able to pull off 3 miles at 8:00 pace, given how I have been feeling during my runs recently, but I figured there was no way to know until I gave it a try! I got Sam to daycare a little early and headed out a little after 8:00. It was overcast and not quite as warm as it has been recently, but still plenty muggy.

I ran a warm-up mile on the powerlines over to Highland Green Road, and then used the middle three miles of the 5-mile loop as my MP miles. The first mile is all pavement; mile 2 is about 1/3 pavement and 2/3 packed dirt and mile 3 is almost entirely dirt, with maybe the final 1/4 mile back on the pavement. I wasn't quite sure what 8:00 pace was going to feel like effort-wise, since I've never been very good at pacing, so I just decided to go with a slightly uncomfortable effort and hope for the best :-) I did a little math along the way and knew I was headed in the right direction, at least. The MP miles ended up being 7:57; 7:51 and 7:49, and while I was definitely working for it, I felt better than I expected. Even better, the ankle loosened up as I went along, so that was good too. Nice to know the legs can still put out a few ever-so-slightly sub-8:00 miles, even if just for a few miles :-)