O'Dark Thirty Tempo Run

I had a somewhat successful tempo run this morning. It was my first attempt at a real tempo run. And I think I did pretty okay. Pacing really isn't my thing. I can be consistent, yes. But I have no idea what a certain pace feels like. Anyway, according to this training plan, the tempo pace should have been at 9:28. Of course, I think that's too slow. According to this other calculator (on the same damn website, mind you), tempo runs should be at 9:00. And according to my bootleg calculation (the original pace minus 30 seconds), tempo runs should be at 8:58. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I'd do once I got to the track. It's just too damn early to expect my body to cooperate. I figured I'd just run 5 miles and hope for the best.

Alright, so here's what happened. Once I started, I figured I'd try to keep miles 2 through 4 at 9:00. But it didn't help that it was pitch black at the crack of dawn. I could only make out numbers on my Garmin on one side of the track, where the stadium lights were. And about the time I got to checking where I was, mile 2 was just about over. And too fast. Okay, so let me slow down. Then about the time it was light enough to see the numbers clearly, I had about a half mile left of tempo running. It wasn't until after I got home that I saw that miles 2 and 3 were on point for the most part. Not too shabby. Like I said, pacing isn't my thing. And of course, track running isn't my thing either. I'm just happy that my body didn't go on strike.

So my next run is Sunday. It will be 7 miles of trying not to go too fast. Or maybe I'll just do away with pacing all together on long runs. If I can get it over with sooner, then why not?

Side note: I ran into this lady on the track who knows my father. This morning she told me, "You look good. Now don't lose anymore." I'm getting a lot of comments like that these days. I have friends telling me, "You run too much. You need to eat." My aunt asked me, "How small are you trying to be?" I've had co-workers call me skinny or tiny. I think I'm normal (You can see here and here). I have a healthy amount of body fat (not like I've been measured, but my bones don't start fires from scraping against each other). I'm 5'5" on a good day. I weigh between 140 and 143lb on any given day. Add about 5 more lbs to that if I'm using the scale at the Y. That's not skinny. So I'm wondering, is this just a thing in the black community? And probably the Latin community too (My Puerto Rican ex made comments as well). Or do some of you get this too? Since when is being healthy a bad thing?