Yesterday`s 8k Tempo Run with my brother

Yesterday I ran in the evening at 6:50 p.m. with my brother, and the plan for me was to run easy, but  in the afternoon He wrote me that He wanted to do a 8k tempo run at 5:30/km pace and He needed help with the pacing. I told him that I just did a tempo run on Friday and needed another easy day. Howerver, when We met in the Turia Park, I tried to convince him so that instead of 8k, would be 7k. He did not change his mind and at the end I felt recovered since I have been running easy for 2 days in a row, I would try to do at least 6k at 5:30 per km.

We warmed up 8:52 mins (1.2k) according to Danilo`s GPS. We were basically jogging and talking about the plans and running in general. Just before the start I felt good but a bit unconfident because of the 8k, I am not even running 8k at an easy pace, How in the world I would do 8k at 5:30 per km pace, but I gave it a try and I would at least should get to the 6k, the last 2k were a doubt.

Anyway, We started and I started ahead till about the mile,then Danilo took the lead and I again took the lead in the 2.5k till the 4k, in the turn around, as soon as We turned around He passed me and built a gap, at that time I was running by my watch and was trying to maintain pace, We were running well faster tan goal pace and that eased me, I was feeling pretty good till the 6k, the last 2k I found them a bit long, but I could hold pace with relatively ease, We had to blow up badly in order to not accomplish the goal.

I passed Danilo with 100m to go and I finished first and finished feeling pretty good, tired, but very strong and We I did a negative Split of 34 segs to finish in 43:06, the goal was 44 mins (5:30 per km).

The splits were 5:32, 5:26 (10:58), 5:26 (16:24), 5:26 (21:50), 5:21 (27:11), 5:21 (32:32), 5:23 (37:55). 5:11 (43:06). We did 10 mins cool down. We did more than 10k, maybe 10.4-10.5k in 64-65 mins. This is the longest run that I have done in over a year, but of course its more funny to do it  running faster (time just fly by)

As We can see in the splits the only Split above goal pace was the first one and I felt very confortable. In the 3k and 4k there were a lot of short Rolling hills that I thought would affect our pace, but they did not, since We turned around We started running faster at the same effort. However, I think that I carried away in the last km, pushed more than neccesary and I should have kept the same effort given the purpose of the workout. I did the last 5k in 26:42 and the average pace for 5k was 26:56, so my endurance is not so bad, eventhough I am not doing long runs, I could hold my endurance and even negative Split. Sometimes you just have to trust the muscle memory ( this was an easy run pace 10 years ago) and go with the Flow.

Weather was around 27 Celsius with 60% humidity, I felt good in these temperaturas and felt good to serve as a training partner to my brother, He wants to hold this same pace for a half marathon in a month, We Will see if He can do it.

Now easy runs till Friday were I might do another 5k tempo run or faster repeats, however, I dont want to forcé the stride, once I start increasing the pouning the calf start to bother me. Today in the first meters of the tempo, I thought that I had to cut the run short due to calf problems, but once it warmed up good the bothering dissapeared!!

This evening I Will a short run of 35 mins
Have a great Tuesday