Wishing I was Superwoman Tempo

One of these days I will learn some lessons about tempos. Today was not that day :)

The workout on tap really didn't seem too hard. We've been doing 8 mile tempos for a few weeks and last weeks 8 at 6:25 was pretty relaxed. So today's 6 starting at 6:50 and getting down to 6:00 seemed like a pretty doable challenge.

And here is where we impart some wisdom for ourselves to learn from.

1) I am always a bit tired on Thursdays. Paces that feel easy on Sunday are challenging on Thursday. This is the way it has always been for me, and despite the new found happiness and change of attitude it hasn't changed. I am still a bit tired and rundown on Thursdays.
2) Given #1 I should learn to set myself up for success on my tempos. This would mean running a course that is not as challenging the second half as the first or running with the right people to help pace. Instead I seem to set myself up for failure quite often in the hopes that it will somehow make me tougher if I succeed despite the added challenges.
3) It is windy in Cleveland and that wind is almost always coming from the west.
4) When it is that windy stop targeting the paces and target the effort. It is near impossible to run certain paces into the Marginal wind on the best of days, let alone on Thursdays!

All that said here is how it played out :)

6:34.20 (This was laughably easy, I was holding a very animated conversation and not working hard at all, this should have been a sign of what was to come!)
6:37.23
6:30.28
6:19.62
0.51 at 6:19 pace
I was absolutely wiped out at this point and falling way off pace so I took a 2:30 jog to recover and then ignored the watch and just ran hard for 1.5
6:29.65
0.50 at 6:08 pace (This was downhill assisted and extremely painful, absolutely wasted at the end)

All in all, not bad, wish I would have stopped looking at the watch after the 4th mile and just went by effort so I could have backed it off a bit and not taken the break. I for some reason discount the wind while I am in the heat of the tempo and start wondering if I am dealing with exhaustion or being a pansy etc. I need to give myself more credit than that and chalk it up to reality, it was really windy and it juiced me, end of story.

Next time I run a progression run in Cleveland mark my words I will not run East on the way out no matter how tempting it is to have company! Solo would have been better today and running with the wind at my back on the back half would have been a fun bolster whereas dieing into the wind on the way back was just a suffer fest!