Wind

I decided I wanted to get some sort of effort in today, and I wimped out on doing it before work, because, well... running hard before work sucks. I figured tempoing on the Charles would be a good idea. Unfortunately it was about 32 and really windy right after work. My plan was to do about 10 at between 6:10-6:20 pace, which is slightly faster than I'm hoping to run the marathon.

I hit the roads at about 6, and jogged about 3/4 of a mile to the Mass Ave. Memorial Drive intersection and started the tempo. I was immediately greeted with 20 mph winds directly in my face. This sucked. It was getting dark, I was running alone, and the wind made running comfortably almost impossible. Sometimes you have to put in work when no one is watching, and no one cares. Tonight was one of those days. I went through a mile in 6:23 and wondered why it felt so fast. Well, the wind played a big part in this. Once I got past Harvard things started to settle down, and I got into a much better rhythm. Turning around at Arsenal St. I felt great, and I went through 5 miles in 30:25. The way back was great, and I ran 9.7 in 57:54. This is just under 6 minute pace, and I felt very relaxed the whole way. On the way back it almost felt like a training run, which is encouraging. Counting the distance to the Charles and back from my apartment, I got 11.5 on the day, which is good. I also wore my Hyper-Speeds with my orthotics in them. They are going to work out great for the marathon.

For a map of the course, click here.