Steve - 6.15

Well there is a huge fire near where Pasadena so the track club workout was canceled. The air quality in Pasadena is pretty bad, but somehow UCLA is going to be playing in the Rose Bowl on Saturday. Instead, I decided to run on a dirt track near my house instead. Plan was another 4 mile tempo run around 6:52/mile pace. When I got there the high school football team was finishing up practice, so I figured the lights would be on for awhile. Once I started the tempo run, I could tell I didn't have my "A-game." First lap went through in 1:47. For the pace I was aiming for I wanted more like 1:41, 1:42. Well second lap was about the same. So I decided I wouldn't push any harder because I wanted to keep this effort aerobic. Once I hit about the 2 mile point, the football team had packed up and left and no one else was left. As I made the way around my track for my 9th lap, the lights went out and I was running in darkness. I moved to the middle of the track and kept plugging away. Once my eyes adjusted, it wasn't too bad. Actually, it made it kind of fun. So I wasn't able to look at my watch the last 2 miles but it turns out I ran them a bit faster than my slow second mile. Final time for 4 miles was 28:57 (7:11, 7:19, 7:13, 7:14). I think the times were slower cuz it was dirt, I didn't have someone to help with pace, and I was a bit tired.