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May 12, 2006
Tempo Run
I have the day off today because I work this weekend - and I will say - it's been delightful so far! The day got off to a good start by me sleeping in until 7:30. It was great. Because we've been pretty busy on the weekends lately, I've not been able to sleep in much so today was my day!
After tooling around the house some I stretched and got ready to run. On the docket today was a 15 minute tempo run. Now I must admit, tempo runs aren't my favorite. I've probably done hundreds of them through the years, and I still don't like them. But I know they offer huge benefit so I keep them in the program.
It was a beautiful day for a run - kind of cloudy and overcast but around 50 degrees - to me, the ideal running temperature. I felt pretty good on my warmup which I did over to the high school track. After 15 minutes of easy running I started into the 15 minutes hard. I did one lap on the track at two different points in the tempo, one right at the beginning and one about 11 minutes in, but otherwise was out on the roads. Both of my 400s on the track were 1:40 exactly, which if I calculated correctly, is 6:40 pace. I'll take it! A far cry from actually being fit, but still a move in the right direction. The last time I did a tempo (for 10 minutes) I was more around 6:50 pace. It was definitely a challenging pace for me to maintain, but I felt pretty smooth and in control. I jogged another 15 minutes home for a total of 45 minutes. Good deal.
As I was jogging home I was thinking about tempo runs in general and remembered how in college during indoor track season and the beginning of outdoors we used to do these 20 minute tempo runs where we'd end up at the track and then have to do hard 400s or 800s. Very hard workouts, but I guess the idea was to have to run fast on tired legs. Anyway, I was curious as to the exact paces and lengths of these workouts so when I got home, I looked them up in my old training logs. We did them all the time - it looked like once a week for about a month span, and then less frequently as the season wore on. It was funny reading back through my comments. For one entry I wrote "20 minutes tempo around campus, holding back some, probably about 6:20 pace" and then to the track for 4x800 and 2x400 in 2:50 and :80 respectively. For the track portion I wrote "felt good, legs tired on last one, getting excited for 10K!" Oh dear. Holding back at 6:20 pace? Getting excited for 10K? I can't even believe that was me! :)
And now I think it's time for some lunch. And maybe some reading/napping on the couch. Ah...a very good day indeed...
Posted by beth at May 12, 2006 11:11 AM
Comments
I love those tempo workouts then going to the track for fast intervals! Seriously, they are great strength builders.
It sounds like you had a great experience the other day when you swam with the Masters team. Swimming with a group is great and it can get your competitive juices flowing.
Sorry that you have to work this weekend.
Blondie
Posted by: Blondie at May 13, 2006 2:03 PM