19:??

I was going to get up this morning at 0430 to do my three mile tempo run but my bed felt nice and I had been up at 0130 with Nathan. I rolled out of bed at 0530, ate breakfast, drank my coffee and got my baby ready for daycare before heading off to work.

Last night before I went to bed I was sitting at our breakfast bar eating Oreos and reading as Kim was putting Nathan down. We usually give him a bottle on the couch and then carry him to his room when he gets sleepy. Kim took him back to his room and came back out to talk to me and he started fussing a few minutes later. She went to check on him and I continued eating my cookies until I noticed her walking down the hall holding our son. As they entered the living room and approached the couch, Nathan looked at me, grinned and waved as if to say, "Hello there! How you doing?" It was such a funny scene that I almost snorted cookie out of my nose and Kim about shook herself to death trying to hold her laughter in. My little man definitely has my sense of humor.

After getting home from work I warmed up with a mile in 7:57. I then changed into my flats and did two quick strides to make sure everything was ready to go. The weather wasn't as nice as it was at 0430 this morning with no wind, 75 degree temps and 34% humidity. It felt hotter than 75 and I think I was a little on the dehydrated side.

I started my run and was on pace at 400, 800 and 1200 to run a 6:32 first mile. I must have picked it up a bit the last 400 of mile one because I went through at 6:29.01. It was a little faster than I wanted but I felt fine, if a little parched. I focused on keeping the turnover going and hit the 1.5 mark in about 9:47. As I got onto the bike trail I ran into clouds of gnats and ran through them almost to the 2.5 mark. Running through clouds of gnats sucks.

I hit mile two in 6:37.03 with a total time of 13:06.04. I didn't think I'd slowed down too much and I tried to up the ante a bit to see if I couldn't gut out another mile in the mid 6:30s but the gnats, heat and dehydration took their toll on me and I closed out the tempo with a 6:40.79 mile to finish up in 19:46.83.

I only give myself a B for this practice because my pacing was way off. I like that I ran 19:46 in these conditions but I wish I hadn't slowed down each mile.

I cooled down with a mile in 8:29 and then was rushed into the shower by my wife so that I didn't have to watch our son while covered in gnats as she went and bought him some new shoes.