Train harder Thursday

Another stellar workout today.

9.33 miles
1:07:35
7:15 pace

For the second week in a row I went out for a Thursday group run and like last week I felt blah on Tuesday and raring to go today.

Started out with a relatively easy 7:48 1st mile.  After that I was feeling good so I took the lead and ripped off a couple back to back 7:10 miles.  A bit faster than I would have planned that early in the run but I was running by feel and that was what I felt.  Miles 2-5 are on rolling hills so by mile 4 and 5 I was trying to stay relaxed and wound up backing off the pace a bit running 7:18 and 7:25.  Mile 6 is down hill and ran 7:11.  Mile 7 was back uphill and ran 7:26.  At around the 7.25 point we turned around and started heading back towards the parking lot so I picked it up for the last 2+ miles.  7:03 pace for mile 8.  6:49 for mile 9 and the last .33 at 6:52 pace.

Definitely worked hard today but felt pretty good and definitely had more in the tank. My knees felt good but my left quad was cramping up during mile 5-6.5.  Heart rate was in the 160-170 range for 18 minutes of the run but only got over 170 for 7 seconds.  Less then a year ago (April 23) I ran 3.12 miles at 7:45 pace and average 165 for my heart rate for 24 minutes so my conditioning is drastically improved.

Got some general soreness and niggles I'm feeling... planning on a cut back week next week to recover a bit.