Yesterday I started my run with some trepidation.  Yes, I have never used that word before in a sentence, but it fits here.  My plan was to run my first tempo run since the week before my half marathon.  So it has been quite a while since I have attempted this run.  What scared me most was my body’s reaction to the workout.  My goal was to run 2-3 miles at tempo pace which is somewhere between 7:23 – 7:29.  Last time I was doing tempo and hill workouts was when my hip, knees and body in general rebelled and I was in a lot of pain almost every day.

So I began my run.  I ran 2 miles at a normal pace just trying to get warmed up.  My first mile wasn’t good.  My right hamstring had been hurting for two days and actually started hurting at work walking down a hall.  On my run it felt fine, but my left hamstring began hurting.  Crazy.  I really considered trashing my plans and just running a normal run.  By the time I got done with 2 miles, I felt better and decided to go for it!!!

I ran well.  I felt good.  The first two miles weren’t easy, but weren’t hard.  I decided to go for the third mile.  It was getting difficult to keep up my pace for the third, but I did.  I ending up running those 3 miles in an average pace of 7:17.  This put me just 40 seconds behind my 5K PR.  That was where I needed paramedics to look at me because I ran too hard.

Finally I ran a SLOW cool down mile.  I ended all 6 miles at a 8:10 average pace.

I haven’t been running well lately.  I seem to be slow and feel blah in my runs.  This run pumped me up.  I can still run the hard runs and with 15 lbs off of my body, it wasn’t nearly as bad.

So today is an easy day and tomorrow a hill run.  Hill runs have really hurt in the past.  I’ll be interested how my weight loss has helped in that area also.