Success! (Finally)

2 mile w/u + strides
Target: ~5 miles uptempo (~6:30 pace) down the McMullen Creek Greenway; then in-and-out miles back (3 hard @6:00)
Actual: 35:35 for 5.8 miles (6:15, 6:06, 6:05, 6:04, 6:03, 4:37 for .8); 6:30 (.8), 5:52, 7:28, 5:50, 7:30, 5:58 (on dirt)
1 mile c/d
Total: 14.5-15 miles

Praise Jesus, I'm not as terrible as I thought. In fact I would venture to say that, not unlike the greatest runner of all time, I'm contemplating coming back from brief thoughts of retirement. (Obviously that's where our similarities end.)

Details to follow soon, but suffice it to say I felt about a million times better than on last week's tempo run. I was able to run controlled and relatively relaxed throughout, only truly fatiguing on the final few "in" miles. The tempo portion in particular felt surprisingly easy, as I was able to approximate the pace I ran for a five mile race last month with significantly less effort.

Whew. I needed this.