The $20 Tempo Run

I was up late again last night and decided to sleep in today and skip swim team, especially since my shoulder has been a little cranky since last week. Of course, I woke up at 5:30--it's pretty bright in the Shoebox these days--but somehow willed myself back to sleep till 7:00. Packed my running bag for later and walked into work looking at the clear, blue sky and singing along with the ipod.

During a morning meeting I suddenly remembered (but fortunately managed not to yell out loud), "CRAP! I forgot to bring a running bra!" Usually, I'd go for the back up supplies I always keep in my car, but I haven't idiot-proofed for my walk-to-work days yet (this will now, of course, happen tomorrow). So...before I could go for my run, I had to do a quick detour over to REI where I was fortunate to find a (very ugly puke green) Moving Comfort bra on sale. Cool. And when I got to the checkout, they reminded me that I still had a little of last year's dividend left. Double cool. So...today's forgotten item mistake only cost me about $20. I had brought 2 choices of running shirts and one of those served as a towel since I forgot that, too...serious cobwebs in my head this morning.

So ANYWAY...once I got properly outfitted and out there, I had a good hard tempo run. I went my usual route up over the freeway, along Lakeview, Boylston, Roanoke and into Interlaken...out and back. I pushed the 4 mile tempo part pretty hard and did a mile before and after, so I got in 6. It's gorgeous out there today and I had some good views of sailboats on Lake Union, a little of Lake Washington and the mountains...and, of course, Interlaken is my favorite and the birds were chirping up a storm. If you're going to be tripping over your tongue, you may as well have some nice scenery along the way, right?

Tempo Run:
1 mile warm up: 8:49, Avg HR = 130
4 miles hard: 30:49 (7:42 Avg mile pace), Avg HR = 160
1 mile cool down: 8:42, Avg HR = 151

Total: 48:21