Tempo 6 miles in 53m36s

The gritty details are 1 mile warm up at 10 m/mile pace 4 miles at 10k race pace 8:15 m/mile and then a cool down mile.

Oh but what the mind will do to you. I felt great on my warm up mile and I knew I was going to rip off the 4 miles at tempo pace with no problem. Mile 2, first mile at tempo pace went well. I was feeling fresh and just cruising. Then as soon as mile 2 hit my stomach started cramping and I had that mixed feeling like I was going to throw up and go to bathroom in my pants. This happens to me on both my long and tempo runs but normally it's not too severe and I know if I can get past it I will feel fine and finish the run well. Today it hit like a ton of brick and didn't subside very quickly. As I complete mile 3 I thought about just quitting. For the first time I asked myself why I was doing this to myself. I hurt, I mean, I hurt bad. Nothing was wrong except I was just running out of gas and feeling like crap.

Then I remembered why I run. I run because I like racing and I run because I love the sense of accomplishment when I'm finished. So I finished at tempo pace and actually after that conversation in my head I felt much better. It's weird how that wall work, many times its physical but sometimes, like today, it's mental.