I did my first really long run in a while today.  "Long" is a relative term, but today's run was around 14 miles.  I felt really good almost the whole time.  I didn't run very fast after Thursday's "tempo run", which was intense, probably 7.5 minute miles on average.  I was still a little sore from the training last week.  I'm really just getting back into the running "stride". 

The Thursday tempo run is basically a 4 mile "race" with all of the guys/gals in the group.  It was my first tempo run.  I run with Gilbert's Gazelles in Austin, TX.  This is a great group with some really fast runners, including a few elites.  Luckily for me, most of the faster folks weren't there for the tempo run.  I stuck with the fast guys through mile 2, we weren't really tearing things up, averaging about 6:05 per mile.  Fletcher pulled ahead at mile 2 and turned it up a notch.  He smoked us all on the way back, finishing up in under 24 minutes.  Roger? passed me right before 3 miles and then turned it up and left me on the last mile.  I started to fade pretty fast but put together a burst over the last 400 to finish 3rd in 24:45.  That's about 6:11 per mile, which is a good starting point.  I felt really tense the whole time, don't think I was able to relax and find my groove because I was too busy watching the action of everybody else.  I'm shooting to get into the upper 5's for the next tempo run in a month.  It doesn't sound like much but that 11 seconds is huge!  I just need to stick with the speed work and get relaxed at a slightly faster pace.