Failed Tempo Run

It was windy and icy and below freezing on Friday morning, so that called for a speed day on the treadmill. I had been planning on hitting the track, but it was just another basement run for me. Dang.

Two weeks before that, I had a fast 5K on the treadmill in 17:24, and I was trying to break that. The great thing about a treadmill is you can set the speed, so I was planning on keeping things about 0.1 mph faster than the workout 2 weeks prior.

My first mile ticked away OK in 5:39 (half mile splits of 2:50 and 2:49).

I got a LITTLE worried during mile 2 as things were feeling pretty hard. But I kept speeding up a bit and ran mile 2 in 5:31 (2:46 and 2:45).

But I wasn't able to finish mile 3. I hit mile 2.5 with another faster half mile split of 2:43, and I hopped off the belt. Done. That was 2.5 miles intead of 3.1. I started at 10.6 mph, sped up 0.1 mph every half mile, but couldn't hold on to that 11.0 mph pace (or faster) for more than a half mile. Dang.

It ended up being 2.5 miles in 13:54, which was 5:33.60/mile pace. I was ON PACE to break the time from the 5K two weeks prior as that one averaged 5:36.77/mile pace. But I couldn't hold on.

I'm OK with an OCCASIONAL failed tempo run because that helps me feel out where my "line" is. If I'm always below that line, how can I find it? So it's not a total bummer. Just a minor bummer.