For the second time this week, I pulled a multiple and escaped none the worse for wear. It was a hard lift, then it was on to a hard run.
I was afraid to push hard for the tempo. That's right, if it was Tuesday, it had to be Tempo Tuesday. We didn't have nearly the crowd this week... maybe because it was 20 degrees colder? We did wind up with about 8-10 runners in total, a 60/40 split men/women.
Anyway, back to pace. My original plan was for 7-minute pace. Galloway agreed to join me, despite having a secret plan of his own (more on that later). Aaron Ritter showed, which was lucky for Miller, so he had someone to pace him. Heatherly was left on his own, as was Scott (from Orleans). Dan eschewed the whole deal and ran an abbreviated distance.
The start was staggered to give us a chance to finish more-or-less together, which I must say worked. Much better than last week, where we lost track of some of the runners and wound up sending out search parties.
Galloway and I were in the third wave, and it took all of a half-mile to catch the second wave, a full mile to catch the first. Miller and Ritter, on the other hand, caught us before the half. I couldn't tell for the most part if we were running too hard. We were running faster than the plan, but Galloway seemed fine and I wasn't suffering at all. After hitting the first mile in 6:43, I turned to Galloway and said, "Okay, now we slow down." Galloway laughed, "Oh, I will slow down in a bit - the course will get harder."
Okay. I had plenty of gas. Let's hold it!
Ritter and Miller really didn't break hard away from us. We were close enough to see Ritter snap Miller off by the circle. Whether Ritter jumped off pace (likely) or Miller faded (unlikely) will never be known for sure because Miller didn't charge his watch and refused to borrow one of mine (wore two for the run). His mile splits were therefore guesses.
We hit two in 6:36. I was starting to feel guilty now, but guess what? Galloway was there. He was laboring, but he was there. Nothing to do for it now but go on.
Topping to 39th, there was a short level to recover followed by a long downhill to gain. Galloway was right there all the way, to the base of the final climb. I was coasting, not wanting to break the string, but there was no reason to wait from this point on. I kept a steady pace going up, hitting 6:40 for the third split. Galloway was a short time behind, less than 10 seconds.
Within 3 minutes everyone was in. From there it was a straight shot back to the cars and the cool-down walk.
Breakdown:
Galloway - 6:42, 6:36, 6:47
Sandy - 8:00, 8:30, 8:00
Alana - 9:21, 9:31, 10:32
Dan - 8:24, 8:10
Aaron - 6:08, 6:12, 6:08 (GPS dictated distances)
Scott - 7:32, 7:53, 7:30
John T. - 7:10, 7:14, 7:30
Miller - 6:08, 6:12, 6:15 (actual wheeled distances)
IronBill - 6:43, 6:36, 6:40
Not a bad first tempo, gang!
I was afraid to push hard for the tempo. That's right, if it was Tuesday, it had to be Tempo Tuesday. We didn't have nearly the crowd this week... maybe because it was 20 degrees colder? We did wind up with about 8-10 runners in total, a 60/40 split men/women.
Anyway, back to pace. My original plan was for 7-minute pace. Galloway agreed to join me, despite having a secret plan of his own (more on that later). Aaron Ritter showed, which was lucky for Miller, so he had someone to pace him. Heatherly was left on his own, as was Scott (from Orleans). Dan eschewed the whole deal and ran an abbreviated distance.
The start was staggered to give us a chance to finish more-or-less together, which I must say worked. Much better than last week, where we lost track of some of the runners and wound up sending out search parties.
Galloway and I were in the third wave, and it took all of a half-mile to catch the second wave, a full mile to catch the first. Miller and Ritter, on the other hand, caught us before the half. I couldn't tell for the most part if we were running too hard. We were running faster than the plan, but Galloway seemed fine and I wasn't suffering at all. After hitting the first mile in 6:43, I turned to Galloway and said, "Okay, now we slow down." Galloway laughed, "Oh, I will slow down in a bit - the course will get harder."
Okay. I had plenty of gas. Let's hold it!
Ritter and Miller really didn't break hard away from us. We were close enough to see Ritter snap Miller off by the circle. Whether Ritter jumped off pace (likely) or Miller faded (unlikely) will never be known for sure because Miller didn't charge his watch and refused to borrow one of mine (wore two for the run). His mile splits were therefore guesses.
We hit two in 6:36. I was starting to feel guilty now, but guess what? Galloway was there. He was laboring, but he was there. Nothing to do for it now but go on.
Topping to 39th, there was a short level to recover followed by a long downhill to gain. Galloway was right there all the way, to the base of the final climb. I was coasting, not wanting to break the string, but there was no reason to wait from this point on. I kept a steady pace going up, hitting 6:40 for the third split. Galloway was a short time behind, less than 10 seconds.
Within 3 minutes everyone was in. From there it was a straight shot back to the cars and the cool-down walk.
Breakdown:
Galloway - 6:42, 6:36, 6:47
Sandy - 8:00, 8:30, 8:00
Alana - 9:21, 9:31, 10:32
Dan - 8:24, 8:10
Aaron - 6:08, 6:12, 6:08 (GPS dictated distances)
Scott - 7:32, 7:53, 7:30
John T. - 7:10, 7:14, 7:30
Miller - 6:08, 6:12, 6:15 (actual wheeled distances)
IronBill - 6:43, 6:36, 6:40
Not a bad first tempo, gang!
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