10k Tempo with 950'.

Last weeks Tempo gave me alot of confidence and put out the signal that I can take it out a little harder than I have been. So today I did a nice warm up on a 10k loop with 950' of up/down. After getting a feel for the loop during the warmup I thought I'd shoot for a 7:00 pace for the Tempo. I felt strong on the Tempo and thought I did a much better job at keeping an even effort than I have in the past - average HR for the first 5k was 154, and 156 for the last 5k. I was a good minute slower than what I had hoped for, I went 44:31 (7:11), but would have to say this was solid for me, and true to where I'm at right now. I like having the 7:00 pace (sub 43:30) to shoot for in the next few weeks.
This Tempo today was 3 minutes longer than last weeks with an average HR of 9 bpm's higher, 146 vs 155. I might just have to go back to the trail I did the Tempo at last week and run it at today's effort so I can say I went sub :40:00 on it ;-)