A Reprieve At The End

Another 18 minutes of running last night. It really kicked my butt, in a good way though. So far I have been adamant about sticking to my running speed on the treadmill because I didn't want to sacrifice my mileage. Anyway somewhere around the 20:00 mark I felt like it was getting easier to run. Then I looked down at the display and realized that I had been running at 3.5 mph instead of 3.7 mph. I changed it and gutted out the rest of the workout expecting my mileage to really be off at the end. I was surprised though to find that I finished with 1.644 miles only 3 thousandths off yesterday. So I did some thinking and some math and I came up with a new idea. From now on for my last 4 runs, which amounts to about 6 minutes, I am going to run at the slower pace. My logic is that if I were running outside there would be no way I would keep up the 3.7 mph pace when I'm so drained. I don't think I need to retreat my whole workout to the slower speed because my body doesn't get bad until the 20:00 range. Also the past couple runs I have had a slight chafing issue on my inner thighs so I think I'm going to start using my compression shorts that I bought a couple weeks ago.