week 9 mid run

 Completed this afternoon (on the treadmill, too too hot outside!) with the following speeds:

7mph for mile 1, flat
7 mph for mile 2, 0.5 grade
Mile 2-2.5 0.1 speed increases (so 7.1-7.5)
then last half a mile with 0.5 grade increases finishing at 7.5mph and 2.0 grade.

Generally, I've found a good way to increase the difficulty and mix up the workout is to vary things for the last mile either by speed or grade, or both.

As confidence increases, it is OK to start varying the grade and speed earlier in the run, but particularly for longer runs you don't want to push yourself with too much variance up front and psych yourself out. I've fallen into this trap a few times, where you 'cheat' yourself during the run by upping the challenge too much too soon, and then I find it difficult to get back into a good workout for a few days.

The balance? Hard enough so that you are genuinely working out, not so hard that you psych yourself out of future workouts at that level.