5k: 16:17 nice road course flat (7/13) first hard running for xc training
4 mile tempo: 22:08 ran it harder than I should have (7/21)
4 mile tempo: 23:12 was feeling way off before I started the workout (7/25)
4 mile tempo: 22:57 felt bad before I started but not terrible (7/30)
4 mile tempo: 21:50 felt okay before hand but ended up feeling pretty good after my warm up. Would have been more comfortable had I not eaten dinner 45 minutes before hand.
All these tempos have been on a pretty flat road to gain rhythm. I did some of my easy run too fast during the 7/22-7/29 which messed me up. When I backed off a little I ended up feeling a lot better.
I understand your point about doing some 6 mile tempos and I agree. However, I am trying to get back into reasonable shape first. It is also difficult for me to focus on running at a reasonably fast or race pace at longer distances. This is why I have started with 4 mile tempos. Also I feel that it will take longer to recover from a 6 mile tempo. And furthermore, running 4 mile tempos allows me to run much closer to my desired end goal of 5:12 pace for 5 miles. If I do a 6 mile tempo I would have been running 5:50 pace or somewhere close to that a few weeks ago. Before your post I was thinking about doing a 5mile tempo in a few days with a time around 27:40ish