Great Tempo Run That Told Me Nothing, 8mi@6:45/pace

This morning I ran my typical weekly Thursday Tempo Run.  The weather was great.  I was well rested and recovered from my Tuesday Speed Workout.  My legs and body felt great.  And as a result, I breezed through the workout.  Frankly, it didn't really seem that hard.  But's here's the problem ... normally I would be doing back flips if a workout at those speeds came that easy, but there were a lot of variables this morning.  The bottom line is, I'm not really sure it was an accurate depiction of where I'm at right now with my conditioning.

First of all it was friggin' 57 degrees, with no wind.  Amazing!  It had been quite a while since I ran in temps that cool.  Secondly, I ran again in Ankeny, IA, which is probably the flattest place I run.  I mean there is no hills whatsoever.  I think I only had about 150 of elevation gain in 11 miles.  Veeeerrrry easy course!  And third, I didn't do the typical 30 minutes of core work before the run, so I basically felt a lot fresher than normal when the run began.  I compared the workout to where I was last year at the 10 week point in marathon training, and I think I'm a little ahead of the pace.  Basically I'm a little faster now than then.  And although I was really encouraged at how easy the run felt, it SHOULD have felt easy based on the conditions.  I mean no hills and amazing weather aren't exactly typical conditions.  But I guess the bright side is that it wasn't hard.  That would have really got in my head. I guess at this point in my training, I SHOULD be able put down 8 miles at a 6:45 pace.

Anyway, it was a great run - but I'm not sure I really learned that much about my conditioning.  Hopefully Saturday's run will feel that good too.  We'll see.  Have a great weekend!
... be great today!