Despite the wind

I was able to get my first, real-quality workout done today. Plan was for 8 total miles with 4 at marathon pace in the middle. D put 8:35 as my marathon pace at the top of my schedule, so despite thinking he's crazy for that, that's what I set out to do today.

The temps were finally in the 30's, so I left the long tights at home and got back into my capris. Love them. I didn't think about the wind chill still being in the 20's, but my legs really felt fine the whole run. My hands were another story, though. I can never get them warm enough...

So, I got started with the first two easy miles and MAN was it windy! I was running pretty much straight into the wind for the first 4 miles of this run out and around the river, except for the few areas where it swept more across the side of me. I need to look up the wind speed/gusts today, because I was really fighting it and almost got knocked sideways a few times!

I was excited about this run -- I love these tempo style runs -- but I was nervous, too. Other then the 4x400's I ran Saturday, I've been running all slow, easy miles. I wasn't sure I'd be able to hold this pace today, and decided if I needed to, I'd back it down to 8:40 pace.

Surprise, surprise, the paces were easy to hold. I was a little fast, even. I really tried to keep it right around the 8:35 pace once I knew I could run that, but I ended up with 8:36, 8:29, 8:30, 8:27. Sweet! Take that, Wind!