Tempo Tuesday

So today I did my first cross country workout of the summer! On the schedule was a 2-mile tempo run at 6:10-6:40 pace. I woke up bright and early at 6:15 and biked over to the field house with my breakfast and bagged for work. I met my assistant coach at 6:45 and after a quick dynamic warmup we were off to do a 15 minute/ 2 mile warm up. We ran to a neighborhood deemed the Kenya loop because tempo training is the foundation of Kenyan running. I did a couple of strides, then the workout began. We ran the first mile in 6:12 minutes and it felt great. The next 800 meters I really focused on staying loose and relaxing my shoulders. The last 800 meters of the loop are all uphill so I had to really work on maintaining my pace and staying relaxed. I finished the two miles in 12:29 (6:14 pace). Overall this was an awesome workout! I finished feeling accomplished, and like I had put in a great effort but with enough energy left at the end to perhaps do another one? That's for later on in the season though.

After our two mile cool down, we did about 8 minutes of ab exercises, push ups, and some leg strengthening exercises. I jumped into the showers at the field house and got dressed quickly since my stomach was grumbling. I don't have any pictures, but for breakfast I packed overnight oats made with 1/3 c. oatmeal, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/3 c. plain greek yogurt, cinnamon, a pinch of salt, and 1/2 tbs. chia seeds eaten alongside a nie ripe pear. Then it was off to start my day. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I'll try harder tomorrow not to scarf down my food so you have more to look at than crumbs and/or dirty napkins. Here's a picture from a few days ago- a flatout wrap with laughing cow, string cheese, and peas- delicious!

Hope you all had  terrific Tuesday! We're almost halfway done with the week!

Whats your favorite type of workout (running or not)?
Do you like working out in the morning?
Also if anyones interested in a post on ab and leg exercises for runners let me know!