Yay for improvements in pacing!!

But before I talk about the awesome tempo run that I'm referring to in the title, I'm want to report on my first hill workout.   I did it on Friday and my friend Brittany was kind enough to come with me.   Since we live on an island that has absolutely no hills, I've been putting this workout off for the first three weeks of training.  (My plan calls for hills once every three weeks starting with week one.   This means that since I procrastinated I now have to do hills 2 weeks in a row, but such is life, right?)   I googled "hill repeats in San Diego" since I had absolutely no idea where to do my workout.   I had considered running in the zoo because it has some monster hills and I know it would be safe, but found a better option during my googling.   It is a long, not too terribly steep hill in Balboa Park that I realized I had actually run on twice during a 5k and a 10k that I did last fall.   So, we parked at the zoo (which is in Balboa Park) and jogged the mile or so to the bottom of the hill.   Then we ran up it as hard as we could.  It took around 2 minutes.   Well, the first time it did.   Each of the three repeats were a little slower of course.   I have to say, hill repeats with a baby jogger are quite the challenge.   I was so appreciative of Brittany because things always seem brighter when someone is going through the same torture as you are.    All in all, I would count the workout a success.   I'm glad I have found "my hill."  And I think I'm just going to set my sights on the goal of doing all my repeats in under 2 minutes.    Here's to hoping that hill work + baby jogger = PR marathon. 
As a little sidenote, Matilda the Koala was in the zoo parking lot after our workout. Mommy had the bright idea to introduce her to Susannah.....

Mommy was definitely a bigger fan of Miss Matilda than Susannah.  

I took Saturday and Sunday off (walked 3 miles or so, but no running).   So I was ready for my 7 mile tempo run today.   My training plan actually calls for a 35 minute tempo, but since I am trying to fit 6 days of running into 4 days,  I'm adding easy miles to some of my runs and today was one of those days.   My plan was to run mile 1 super easy, then pick it up in mile 2 but really concentrate on holding back some too (I was thinking around an 8:45-9:00 for mile 2) then start really picking it up mile 3 and then hold my tempo pace of 7:45-8:05 for mile 4 and half of mile 5.  Then we would be to the grocery store where we needed to stop and pick up a few items.   Then we would finish the last couple of miles at an easy pace.  

Not sure if anybody besides me has noticed, but so far, I don't think I've managed to actually hit all my goals for a training run....yet.....until today.   Check out these splits:
Mile 1:  9:29
Mile 2:  8:25  (okay, so now I'm noticing that this was a little faster than what I had intended.)
Mile 3:  7:52
Mile 4:  7:46
Mile 5:  9:06
Mile 6: 9:09
Mile 7:  9:20

 I'm feeling really good about this run because I never felt super tired.   I finished feeling refreshed and energized which was a first.   I know I still have a looooong way to go before that 8:31 feels like my go-to race pace, but I feel like I'm making progress which is all I can be hoping for at this stage in my training.    Thank you LORD!! 

Doing Hill Repeat workout number 2 tomorrow.   This week is 4 repeats instead of 3.   Dreading/looking forward to it at the same time.   I think I like hill repeats more than 800's.   

Happy running friends!!