Tag Archives: tempo runs

Tempo from hell

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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.

Fastest tempo run yet and then rain

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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!

Couple days of rest and running

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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.

Two quality runs sandwich a rest day

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Today I ran my East Moreland Tempo run again, I thought I did my fastest first and second miles, but they turned out to be both sub 8 min miles which was a bit slower than the week I did 7:18 and 8:27. My third miles in both runs was really close, only a few seconds off at 9:10. I had to push that second mile for almost the entire run and I was tired. I slowed down for the entire third mile and kept it  pretty consistent at that pace.

I have been living on running candy on these quality run. This one I only had  four sport beans and no water until the third mile. No gels either, but a Lara bar beforehand. I swear those Sport Beans are addictive.

So this was the second quality run in a row with a non-running day in between. I did do lots of gardening that day, so a lot of up an down and crouching. So I was not feeling 100% for the tempo run which I think why I had to push myself harder to get the first two faster miles. I’m glad I did  though as I was close to just doing a junk run. Overall I feel good after both, I think I can see a recovery run in my near future.

Tempo Tuesday

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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.

High HR tempo

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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.