Hmmm.  Didn’t do real well today, either.  I’m getting down to the nitty gritty here and I’m starting to lose some steam.

Part of the problem with today’s run is that my last ‘speed’ run didn’t really get completed, either, and this one was to build on that one.  The last ‘speed’ run that I completed successfully was 4.9 miles.  I botched my 5.4 mile speed run in Vegas, and today I was supposed to do six.  I just didn’t make it.

I was pleased, when I first started, that my warm-up pace was pretty fast and I got up to 7 mph fairly quickly – only 8 tenths of a mile.  I was also doing fairly well at that pace for a while and entertained some fantasies of actually doing the whole six miles at that pace.  Wrong!

I did about 2-3 miles at 7 mph, but then I just had to stop and walk and drink some water and rest briefly before getting back up to speed.  I probably managed another mile or most of a mile before stopping again, and another mile or most of a mile before stopping again, that time, requiring a whole lot of warm-up to get back up to speed.

At some point I realized I had exactly one mile left to go and I did manage to keep up my speed for the whole final mile, even going well over 7 mph briefly, when my music was good.  (It may have also helped that a woman at least 10 years younger than me got on the treadmill next to me and was doing like 6.6 mph and kept raising her speed.)

So, I can’t really claim this run as completed, but it was a fine workout and I will give myself credit for having gotten this far to begin with.  I remember when even doing one or two miles at this speed was incredibly daunting.  Today I certainly did better than that!