Monday, March 2, 2009

Tempo Run

Today's scheduled run was 20 minutes at 6:50 pace on the treadmill. I ran a 20 minute warm up and then increased the speed to the perscribed 6:50 pace. I could tell it was a little too fast in the first minute or so and bumped it back down to 7 minute pace which was hard work, but a pace I thought I could hold for the whole 20 minutes. I ended up doing 21 minutes to make it a nice even 3 miles of tempo pace. It was hard work. 5 years ago(the last time I was regularly doing any sort of fast paced running) my tempo pace was 6:45 for 30 minute tempo runs. Right now I just can't hold that kind of pace. I'm hoping it will feel a little easier once the roads are clear and I can move my tempo runs outdoors. The treadmill is hard for me mentally, which adds a degree of difficulty to the workout. It was a good run today. I definitely feel like I put in a hard effort.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Laurel - good job on the tempo run, and that is the right idea to develop the sense of pace so you know as soon as possible if you will be able to hold the pace. It is better to do the whole run slightly slower the whole way rather than do 90% of it and have to slow down at the end, or for it too get too hard so it isn't a true tempo effort anymore. You'll quickly get back to the 6:45 pace I think.

    - pauld

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