When I was training for the Portland Marathon I did two a days a lot. 4.25 miles to my office, 4.25 back home. The early morning run was downhill and then uphill on the backside. The summer runs in the afternoon were grueling, the uphill portions also included a flight of stairs in Creston Park. Great training runs both ways.

I haven’t done any of these double runs since then until today. Instead of being a back and forth run, today’s was a slow 4.35 miles and then a separate 2.8 miles at a tempo pace. The slow portion was a lot funner and it was good to run with my running partner and her dog again, it had been awhile. We managed a nearly 12 minute pace with several stops for pee breaks and house price scoping. We had perfect cool running weather  with a start right after 7:00. We concluded the morning run with a mouse removal.

After a quick bus ride I dropped my bag and picked up my water bottle. I headed out on my Tour of SE run and busted out a 8:03 first mile followed by a 7:56 mile, just under an 8 min mile average (If I factor in my actual time, I add 8 seconds to the first mile pushing me over an 8 min average. I’ll take the faster!) The last partial mile I slowed way down and eased myself back into a more reasonable 9:30 pace. I wanted to do the entire run at tempo, but I’ll take 2 miles.

Both runs were really good and together make a pretty nice quality run of sorts for the morning. And its always great to run with my favorite running companions!