Midweek 8

Yesterday, my coworker and running partner, Celeste stopped by and asked if we could run together some time soon. We haven't run together since the end of January. She has been doing the elliptical at the gym but she has been inconsistent with getting out and running. She has struggled coming back from the stress fracture and has been crazy busy at work.

I had 8 miles planned. She laughed that off rather quickly. She isn't ready for that kind of mileage yet. I had to do some pretty good persuading to get her to go for 6 miles last summer when we ran together all the time. I thought about it later and came up with what I thought was the perfect solution. We would run 4 miles together (2 out and back) at an easy pace for Celeste, then I would go back out for 4 more on my own and pick up the pace. She was agreeable. The only problem I could see with the plan is that it meant that I would have to climb the initial hill to get up on top of the dam twice. Hill repeats?

I let Celeste set the pace. I wanted to take it easy on the first four miles, especially in light of the pace calculations I had done yesterday. The pace seemed to be pretty comfortable for her. Our average pace was 9:23. That was faster than I had expected that we would be able to do without pushing her too hard. I took less than a minute break to send Celeste on her way and started back up the hill to the top of the dam. My goal for the next four miles was the 8:13 tempo pace. I pushed along pretty hard. My breathing was definitely heavier but I didn't feel like I couldn't keep going. I finished the second 4 miles in less than 32 minutes, 7:56 pace. I was pleased with this effort. It has been nearly a year since I've done an 8 mile run in the middle of the week. My max is usually 6.

Tomorrow night we have been invited over to my mother-in-law's house for lasagna. She makes a mean lasagna. I plan on an easy 6 mile run. I'm going to figure out a route from my house to hers and meet my family there in time for dinner. I'll just consider it pre-carbo loading for Saturday's long run.