Archive for the ‘tempo runs’ Category

Tempoed

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Today’s run started out to be sort of a recovery run after the LSD run I did previously. But since I had taken a day off in between then and today I wasn’t firm about my choice. Unfortunately, as I was thinking I would do the recovery run, I didn’t bring any water with me (jeez this is starting to sound like a familiar refrain, isn’t it.) But despite the lack of water I found myself running pretty fast, my first mile came in at just over 9 minutes. So I thought to myself “that’s the fastest first mile I have done in awhile, why not make this a tempo run.” So I did.

My second and third miles both came in under 8 minutes. The second mile felt really good and I felt strong throughout. The third mile was a different story. I really struggled but about halfway through I rededicated myself to keeping a fast pace. I had to do that again at 3/4s, but it worked and my third mile was actually a few seconds faster than the second. But that is where the party ended and I slowed down considerably for the fourth mile. I was really tired and missing that water. But I kept on and actually got a bit reinvigorated once I was in the canyon.

My runs in the canyon are usually a bit slower. The terrain is variable and it usually is much more humid there. I find myself struggling quite a bit. And to top it off I like to go slower cause it is so beautiful there. But not today. I flew over the dirt trails, leaped over obstacles and avoided walkers. My pace was quite a bit slower than the tempo speeds, but was still not slow. As I came out of the canyon I kept up the pace and pushed it out of the campus as well. The last two miles ended up being tempo runs of their own right, albeit slower.

Overall I came in with an average speed of 9 minute miles, which doesn’t sound too fast (and well lets be honest, it isn’t!) but it was for me today and I feel like I worked extra hard. In addition I have been adding a new exercise to my post run workouts. Facing a life long shame of not being able to do pull-ups I have decided to try to do something about that. For the last couple of days I have gone to the park on my runs to try to do some with no success and further embarrassment. But I am not going to let that get in the way (too much anyway) and I have discovered that I can do them on the cross beam above my porch. I am enjoying the added privacy! Still can’t do them. I have decided to rename my pull-up exercises as a hang-down as this more accurately reflects what is going on! But I am feeling it in my arms and shoulders, so I’ll keep it up.

Posted in tempo runs, water | No Comments »

Tempo from hell

Friday, October 15th, 2010

I had to laugh today when I looked at the distance of my hellish tempo run, 6.66 miles! Running with the Devil should have been on my Ipod today. It was actually not too bad of a run, not nearly as hellish as it sounds. I tried to keep a relatively consistent pace on the three mile tempo portion. In the past I have gone out fast and then faded. Today I dialed the pace back a little and ran the first mile at 8:11, still pretty fast for me. My second mile was a bit faster at 8:03. I was still starting to fade on the third mile, but I picked it up for the last half and really cranked it out for the final quarter mile and came in at 8:15. So overall I was pretty happy with the consistency of today’ tempo run.

Even though I held back on going really fast, my HR was still pretty high averaging 163 for the whole run with a max of 187. My avg HRs on the splits was 162, 175 & 177. Still probably higher than I want it for these runs, but actually thinking about how I felt it wasn’t too bad. There were a couple of times when I knew I was going to hard and the 187s of my final mile show that (plus I was pushing it in hopes of combating a slow start to that mile.)

I have been trying to wrap my head around calories burned on my workouts. Last night I ran a slow six miles with an average pace of 10:46 and avg HR of 136. Today’s tempo run, a much harder run in terms of effort had an average HR of 163 and avg pace of 9:17 (which is not totally accurate representation as it was three miles of fast and 3.66 of warm up and cool down. The easy run from last night burned 843 cals and the tempo run (despite being .66 mi further) only added a little over 100 cals. It really seems like I should have burned more calories if it is so tied to HR as they say it is. There is an increase, but very little. 140.5 per mile on the slow run and 144 per mile on the fast. Hardly worth it if burning calories was the goal.

Tags: ,
Posted in calories, tempo runs | No Comments »

Fastest tempo run yet and then rain

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Yesterday I set out to do a tempo run. I wasn’t feeling to into it and the air quality was really poor from either a forest fire or more likely wood burning that has become so popular in the area. If its wood (or even looks like wood) burn it! No regard for pollution, just burn it! Anyway, I could rant for hours about this but I have a run to talk about. So my breathing was not great and I had to keep coughing to remove my neighbors enjoyable fires from my lungs (wait, I said I wouldn’t rant anymore.) So as I was going through a warm up and approaching my tempo route I was none to confident in my abilities. Still, I forged on, I really wanted to get this out of the way in my schedule of quality runs.

The first mile came really easily to me and I recorded a 7:33. I was feeling it in my lungs, but I still felt pretty strong. As I pulled through the second mile I realized I had to slow down. Seems I went out to fast for that first mile. So I paced it down a bit, but still kept pushing it. It was tough, but my second mile was not to bad at 8:13. At the start of the third mile I kept thinking about something my running partner heard at her boot camp. If you are doing a quality run and can’t keep up then its not a bad idea to bag it. The thinking with that being that you aren’t getting the benefit from the activity if you aren’t doing it properly. It was starting to sound like a really good idea. But, I remembered my philosophy of powering through difficulty to build yourself for the future. Sort of a variation of ‘no pain, no gain’. While I disagree with Nike’s motto I am all for powering pushing myself through the hard parts. So I kept at it albeit slower yet. In the end I finished my third mile at 8:40 which wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be and as it turns out the fastest I have done my three mile tempo run yet. So I was really happy with the run. I finished up with a run through the canyon and home.

This morning I got up early to go for a run with my running partner. She is not much for the rains and it is even harder for her to get through that first wet run. So was prepared for the text saying she was bagging it. So alone I headed out for eight miles of recovery. It was a good run, slow and easy and a nice change from the previous days tempo. I didn’t mind the rains too much even though it was too warm to wear my running jacket. So I stripped it off and got soaked. Still it was a nice run. I was actually surprised at the number of runners I ran into in teh rain. Good to see everyone keeping up with it. Now I just need to work on my running partner. She’ll come around!

Tags: , ,
Posted in rain, recovery, tempo runs | 2 Comments »

Couple days of rest and running

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

After running for eight days in a row, personal record for me I took two days off. At first I was just going to skip one day, but convenience turned into two. Monday morning I ran out with a vague plan of a tempo run. As I warmed up my pace felt good and I decided to go for it. I forgot to set my lap at the start of the tempo portion so the first quarter mile got factored in with my slower warm up. Miles one and two were almost identical at 8:16 and 8:17. The pace felt good and like I could step it up if needed, but the third mile is just grueling and slow as I slowed down and then did all the uphill at the end. Next time I think I’ll just do laps on the reed college strip until I hit three miles, should be about two laps, maybe a bit more.

Today I felt enthused to go out and run a recovery run. I did a good job of keeping the heart Rate under 70% of max. There is even a hill as I climb away from East Moreland Golf Course that I always get up into the 150′s. Today I did the entire hill under 144. I really focused on breathing from the belly, I think it makes a big difference.

Also I was listening to the moody electronic trance of William Orbit on the first part of the run. Then when I hit the canyon I switched to Talking Heads and there went the HR. But it is a harder run as well, but I still think music has a huge effect on a workout.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in ms, multiple sclerosis, recovery, running, tempo runs | No Comments »

Tempo Tuesday

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

I am having a difficulty with scheduling my hard runs. Tuesday always seems to be the best day for it. If I do a long run on Sat or Sun, then I have Monday for a recovery run which means I should be ready by Tuesday to go for a quality run. The problem with this is that I have band practice on Tuesday night and after a quality run I am too tired to perform for two hours. Usually after an hour or so I have just lost it at rehearsal. Maybe it is a matter of just doing it and getting tougher. At least that is my theory tonight.

I did my traditional tempo run today, but I did a little bit slower than last time with splits of 8:23, 8:24 and 9:04 for the tempo portion. Two weeks ago my splits were 7:18, 8:27 and 9:12. Four weeks ago my splits were 8:26, 8:20 and 8:14. It appears that when I start out faster  than 8, I poop out. The uber consistent tempo run 4 weeks ago was all flat whereas my usual tempo has an uphill for the final half mile or so, so that could explain the fast third mile, plus I was trying to show off for my running partner who almost puked at the end of that one.

I think it will be interesting to keep track of these runs doing them every two weeks or so along with the speed work at the track and some hill repeats. All in all I am getting some good quality runs in and feeling pretty good about it. This weeks tempo was probably the easiest of the three some of which probably was due to the cool weather we had today. These runs are definitely early morning runs to take advantage of the temp for the summer anyway. I also gobbled nearly a full pack of sport beans on this run and had water.

I just found a fourth recent tempo run (I knew there was another). My splits for this one were 7:59, 8:23 and 9:02. This one I was more consistent, but still had a falling off for that third mile.

Tags: , ,
Posted in ms, running, tempo runs | No Comments »

High HR tempo

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Just got back from a tempo run that kicked my butt. I started out with a 2 mile warm-up (actually a bit less). The whole time I was thinking about how I didn’t want to start the tempo portion. As I got closer to the point where I start the dread faded away and I was off. Pretty quickly I found my HR to be pretty high, higher than I would think it would be for my pace. But it was the third running day in a row so I guess it is to be expected. My first mile clocked at 8:08 with my HR staying around 170, too high. I slowed a little for the second mile coming in a 8:27 with the HR creeping up to 175 or so. I was really feeling the effects of the run, but that’s the way it is supposed to be so I kept on. My lat tempo mile really slowed down to 9:12 and the HR still kept going up. By the time I finished and pulled into the park for water I was feeling really woozy, almost dizzy. Water helped a bit and once again illustrated the need to carry it with me. I had every intention of bringing it, but as often happens I forget to strap it on. I finished up the run with a couple miles of cool down pace. My HR was still pretty high for this portion and I didn’t really try to get it down to 70%. I figured that was a lost cause and I didn’t really feel like plodding along. All in all I averaged 161 for the HR. Pace is of course screwy as I have more miles of warm up and cool down than I do tempo. All in all a great workout and I really feel like I did some hard work.

Once I got home I immediately grabbed a whey protein bar Greens+, very good stuff in there and 16 g of when protein. I really wanted something quick and I think it was a good thing not to wait too long to get something in my belly and protein for the muscle recovery. I added a green drink with protein powder and a big glass of G2 so I should be well on my way to recovering from this. Good quality run.

Tags: ,
Posted in protein, tempo runs | No Comments »

Fast run from out of nowhere

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

My plan today was to do a recovery run after yesterday’s slow 12 miles. I was on my own as my running partner had the dual recovery going on, 12 miles and a open bar gala last night. Since the both of us plan to do a recovery run tomorrow, I decided to just wing it and see what I was comfortable running. During my first mile I was lugging a pile of library books along with me for the first half and managed to do 9:30. I thought that sounds about what I expected. During the second mile I was paying more attention to my heart rate which was around 150-155 so I wasn’t real sure of my pace. When the mile two beep sounded I had ran that last mile at 8:17! And I felt pretty strong, so I decided to do another mile at that pace which I did. As I started into the fourth mil I knew there were going to be hills so I decided I would try to recover for a mile. The first half was all up hill and I relinquished the pace but not the HR which was hovering around 170+. For mile five I cranked out another 8:15 before hitting another set of hills. Again I relinquished the pace but kept the HR up topping 181 at one point and keeping a pretty steady HR of 175-180 for the next six tenths before I decided to back off and recover up the last hill. My last mile I ran pretty steady but relaxed around a 9:30 pace with a stop off at the library. All in all a much faster run than I expected and very enjoyable after the luxurious slowness of yesterday. Speed rules…sometimes.

Posted in ms, running, tempo runs | No Comments »

True tempo run

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

I was planning to do a speed run tomorrow to add some variety to my runs which I am feeling I really need to do in order to improve. Then my running partner sent me this article on tempo runs and announced she would be doing one at the gym tonight. Inspiring as always she got me thinking I should do one as well and with the added benefit of adding even more variety to my running workouts since I did speed work last week (not ready to do both workouts in one week!)

So since the last 10K I did I ran at an 8 minute mile, following this article’s directions I added 15 seconds to that to establish my tempo pace of 8:15 miles. I wasn’t totally firm on nailing that exact pace, but I decided I would just run fast for the prescribed 20+ minutes sandwiched in between 15 minute warm up and cool down runs. Last night I planned out my route in my mind and this morning I hit the somewhat chilly (but not enough so that I wore tights) day.

I warmed up for about 15 minutes or so, actually covered a shorter distance than I had planned. I think I was going so slowly on the warm up and I was excited (excited?) about the fast pace that I just couldn’t hold back. So I was off! I checked the watch and figured my time (8:00) that I needed to start my cool down. As I was nearing my first turn back toward the college I realized how quickly I was going through my normal route. The blocks were flying by!

Like I said earlier, I wasn’t totally sure what my pace was exactly, but as fast as I was going I was able to keep my three steps in and two steps out breathing going for the first 2/3 of the fast portion. For the final 1/3 I switched to a 2-2 breathing pattern. As I was nearing the college I realized that my first guess of how far I needed to go was off and that I would need to go further to my second estimate point. When I hit the that second guess I was perfectly on schedule at 8:00, 23 minutes of fast pace running. Phew, the temp portion was over! Time to cool down. My cool down was longer than it probably needed to be, but that was ok with me.

As I type this I feel the run in my thighs, gotta love that soreness you get from knowing you worked hard. I am looking forward to the next tempo run I do!

Posted in ms, running, tempo runs | No Comments »

Fast run today

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

I am reading a running book called Brain Training for Runners. It is very interesting so far, but I really don’t think it is for me. The program is a little aggressive and prepares you for a specific race, of which I am not training for anything right now. Still I enjoy reading about other people’s thoughts on running and it always gets me fired up to get better.

One of the concepts he has is talking about (and others that I have read) are the different types of runs that you can do. Here are a few of them he mentions:Intervals – doing alternating fast and slow running; Hill Repeats – sprinting up hills for a short distance; Temp Runs – Runs slightly slower than your goal race pace; Base Runs – the building blocks of any program, just your all purpose runs that get you to your weekly mileage goals, and others. So today I did a Tempo Run. Actually all I did was push myself to run faster. If I caught myself slowing down I would up the pace. It was a somewhat tough run but it felt really great. After a couple miles I was questioning whether I should do this, but I kept going. I know I slowed down a bit towards the end, but that’s fine. I think I got the benefits out of it that I needed.

I have done these in the past and have noticed some pain in one of my knees or sometimes hips. Nothing like that today. If I had noticed it I would have abandoned the plan and run a more basic run or if really bad crawled back home on hands and knees. This is another concept that Matt Fitzgerald (the author of the above book) discusses; the importance of listening to your body and following it’s instructions. This is a concept I wholeheartedly embrace. Your body is your best coach. More on this later.

One last note before I get to work. last night I managed to give myself a new sports injury. It is probably one of the more common sports injuries in America as it took place on teh couch as I was cheering for my Blazers. They hit a great three-pointer and I wildly shook my fist as I jumped off the couch. Well I think in doing so I managed to do something to my elbow, probably hyper-extended it a bit. I call it couch-potato elbow. To add insult to injury (no pun intended until I wrote it) the Blazers ended up losing the game on a last second shot by Orlando. Grrr.

Posted in ms, running, tempo runs | No Comments »