Tempo run today

To bad it's not Tuesday, "Tempo Tuesday" has a real ring to it...but I'm not changing my training schedule now!

So this morning was a tempo run, and it turned out pretty much as I expected--okay. Not great, not horrible. (To clarify, my performance was "okay" but I actually had a very good run overall.) I had written it on my schedule as 45 minutes tempo, but I really didn't like that designation because the slower I ran, the shorter the distance would be. I prefer to designate by distance instead of time. Maybe I should go ahead and modify the rest of my training schedule. Right now it's just written in pencil anyway. Chances that I will do a typed version at this point? Not great. I'm liking the eraser option, anyway.

So I changed my plan to 5-6 miles tempo, after a two-mile warm-up. I would have prefered to do the full six miles, but time did not allow and I ended up with two miles warm-up, followed by 5.77 miles tempo effort. (I designate something as "effort" when I am trying hard but not really achieving the pace I would like.)

After my two miles of warm-up my tempo paces were 9:23, 9:21 (.28 mile), 9:15, 9:19, 9:20, 9:18, 8:46 (.5 mile). I know, this is barely faster than my paces for my 5.5 miles at marathon goal pace effort last Friday. Well, you don't know that because I don't think I wrote a post about it, but it is true. However, those paces were between 9:15 and 9:30, and as these were between 8:46 (barely) and 9:21 I was clearly a little faster this morning. Plus those miles were done mid-morning, when I am always stronger, and this was very early, partly in the dark, on just-out-of-bed legs. So I am giving myself credit.

And look how much room for improvement this gives me! Hopefully soon I can get the tempo pace miles under 9 minutes overall, and of course the better tempo pace is sub-8:30. Oodles of opportunities there.

I will say I felt good this morning. My legs didn't feel tired or achy at all, and even my ankle and heel didn't bother me in the beginning. (I did feel a little heel tenderness when I picked up the pace, but it wasn't bad.) If I had just kept going at a comfortable (10:30) pace, it would have been a bed of roses kind of run.

However, it was a hard work kind of run and I felt not just good but GOOD when I finished! Nothing like the feeling after you make your body work beyond its comfort zone.