Good news: I got in a 34-minute-plus run on Friday, and ran for almost four miles.
Bad news: I'd wanted to run for 40 minutes and/or 4.5 miles.
But not all was my fault, and I don't feel bad about it.
I had planned for a tempo run this morning. Well, planned maybe isn't the right word. I'd thought about running for 30-40 minutes on the 'mill at the gym, and on my drive there I figured it would be good to try for a tempo run since I hadn't done it in awhile. Once I was on the 'mill, I figured it would be good to run for 10 minutes at a 6.0 pace, then run for 20 minutes at a 7.2. Now, that's not the fastest time as it is about 8:20 per mile. I should be running at a 5K pace, and I'm using 8:00 per mile as my 5K pace so it wasn't quite there, but it was between my 10K and 5K paces.
Anyway, it was faster than the first mile. I felt great and was really cruising along when my iPod decided to take a dump. Just felt like not working anymore, I suppose. That was at minute 26, and I still had four more minutes of the tempo part of my run.
I made it just fine, got back down to a 6.4 and was going to make it to either 40 minutes or 4.5 miles, whichever came first. I didn't expect to get a call first, though.
"Attention please," the loudspeaker blared. "Luis Bueno to the kid's club."
Crap! I had to hit stop. Had about six minutes left, was at 3.87 when I stopped.
But Dad duty called. Kennedy's been feeling a bit off the last couple of days. She was fine in the morning but certainly wasn't herself when I saw her after my run. We went by the store and now she's resting at home.
It's good though that I got in my run, even if I didn't get to the 40-minute mark. Had I waited any longer, I probably wouldn't have gotten in any run at all.
Showing posts with label tempo runs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tempo runs. Show all posts
Friday, September 4, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Up Tempo
I'm getting prepared to hit the gym soon and I'm going to try a new run. I'm going to try a tempo run, something I think can have some good benefits.
A tempo run means you sustain a greater pace for a few miles or minutes, whatever you want to use. So let's say you want to run a 4-mile tempo run. The first and last miles you'd run them at a slower pace, so like a 5.8 or so on the treadmill or like a conversational pace outdoors. Then for Miles 2 and 3, you would increase the tempo, so instea of 5.8 you go up to a 7.3 or something. As long as you increase the pace and hold it there for a couple of miles or maybe like 20 minutes or more, that's the key.
I am not looking forward to it though. That's fast for me, the 7.3, and I would rather just run 5 or 6 miles or an interval but I can't do the first and just did the second. So I have no choice.
I'm blogging about it so I have to see it through. Ugh.
I guess I'll be back later to report on my progress.
UPDATE:
What a great run! I would be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous about it and wasn't looking forward to it. I biked for six minutes before the run so I got my heart rate up a bit. I walked for about a minute on the treadmill before starting. I ran the first mile at a 5.8, which is a little slower than 10 minutes per mile. That's a comfortable speed for me; slow, steady, comfortable.
Then at exactly one mile, I jacked it up to 7.3, which is an 8:13 per mile pace. I suppose that would be my 10K pace, since that would be a 10K in under 50 minutes... well, then it would probably be faster than my 10K pace because I've not been able to run a 10K in under 50 minutes.
The first mile went by okay and the second mile was a little tougher but I didn't feel like I was going to hurl or anything at any point. I sort of wanted to keep going at the higher pace but I didn't want to get ahead of myself so I slowed back down to a 5.8 for the last mile, and that was pretty slow going there.
Overall, my time was a little more than 36 minutes for the entire four miles. I walked until I got to minute 40 as a cool down.
Next time - and there will be a next time - I think I'll run a little longer so the last mile won't be so long. I may try to keep the overall running time at 40 minutes so I may run like 2.25 or 2.5 miles at the higher pace. Gradually I'd like to increase that so I'm running three or maybe even four miles at that pace. I guess that's one way to make myself run a little faster, to run these tempo runs and force myself to run faster.
Whatever the case, I feel very good both because running usually makes me feel good and that I was able to accomplish something I felt was challenging. Maybe for Mr. Super Marathoner that's not an accomplishment but for me it is :)
A tempo run means you sustain a greater pace for a few miles or minutes, whatever you want to use. So let's say you want to run a 4-mile tempo run. The first and last miles you'd run them at a slower pace, so like a 5.8 or so on the treadmill or like a conversational pace outdoors. Then for Miles 2 and 3, you would increase the tempo, so instea of 5.8 you go up to a 7.3 or something. As long as you increase the pace and hold it there for a couple of miles or maybe like 20 minutes or more, that's the key.
I am not looking forward to it though. That's fast for me, the 7.3, and I would rather just run 5 or 6 miles or an interval but I can't do the first and just did the second. So I have no choice.
I'm blogging about it so I have to see it through. Ugh.
I guess I'll be back later to report on my progress.
UPDATE:
What a great run! I would be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous about it and wasn't looking forward to it. I biked for six minutes before the run so I got my heart rate up a bit. I walked for about a minute on the treadmill before starting. I ran the first mile at a 5.8, which is a little slower than 10 minutes per mile. That's a comfortable speed for me; slow, steady, comfortable.
Then at exactly one mile, I jacked it up to 7.3, which is an 8:13 per mile pace. I suppose that would be my 10K pace, since that would be a 10K in under 50 minutes... well, then it would probably be faster than my 10K pace because I've not been able to run a 10K in under 50 minutes.
The first mile went by okay and the second mile was a little tougher but I didn't feel like I was going to hurl or anything at any point. I sort of wanted to keep going at the higher pace but I didn't want to get ahead of myself so I slowed back down to a 5.8 for the last mile, and that was pretty slow going there.
Overall, my time was a little more than 36 minutes for the entire four miles. I walked until I got to minute 40 as a cool down.
Next time - and there will be a next time - I think I'll run a little longer so the last mile won't be so long. I may try to keep the overall running time at 40 minutes so I may run like 2.25 or 2.5 miles at the higher pace. Gradually I'd like to increase that so I'm running three or maybe even four miles at that pace. I guess that's one way to make myself run a little faster, to run these tempo runs and force myself to run faster.
Whatever the case, I feel very good both because running usually makes me feel good and that I was able to accomplish something I felt was challenging. Maybe for Mr. Super Marathoner that's not an accomplishment but for me it is :)
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