December 2nd, 2008
…or can’t, you’re right.
-Henry Ford
Today was tempo day and I’d been worrying about it since last night, wondering what pace to shoot for. Now that my 5K time is faster than I thought, my quality workout paces need to reflect that, but on the other hand, I don’t want them to be too uncomfortable, they shouldn’t be or I’m not doing them right.
So I figured I’d play it by ear today, really try to lock into effort instead of numbers. My main thing was I didn’t want to berate myself if I didn’t go as fast as McMillan’s fast end of the range.
Turns out, the run felt so good that I ended up as surprised as I was at Saturday’s race, with my fastest tempo run ever, 4 miles @ 7:29 avg. (7:35, 7:23, 7:29, 7:30). Then I ran 3 more miles to get home at 8:35/mi. Total distance: 8.75 w/ 4 tempo.
If you’d have told me last week that I would run these paces today and it wouldn’t wipe me out, I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s as if the race gave me permission to go faster. Which reminds of what a couple of those fab gals in my Women’s BQ thread say on occasion, “Don’t be afraid to be fast”. I think there may be something to that.
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That’s so great! I’m glad that your race gave you the confidence to push yourself that little extra bit. I think I could learn something from you.
You. Are. Awesome.
Hey Flo, pretty impressive. It looks like we both have some tempo mojo right now. Thank you, JD and Pfitz!
Greenlee doll, ditto right back atcha! I’m feeling a fantastic 10K coming your way!!
Julie, oh pshaw, but do go on…
Jim, your mojo is going to be blisteringly on this weekend. What are you going for anyway?
Goal: 3:35 BQ. Super-goal: 3:30, because 8:00 pace makes the splits easy to figure
Lol, as good a reason as any.
Nice pace!
Keep up the good work!
I hope you don’t mind but I am going to steal your quote… “Don’t be afraid to be fast”. I think I need that right now. As my non-running husband has told me, “you should throw up at least once a month in your training or you are not training hard enough. That is why you are not getting faster. You don’t push yourself hard enough!” Okay throwing up is not something I want to do but even in his warped non-running logic he does have a grain of wisdom. I am not running fast enough and I do think it is because I am afraid to be fast. Thanks for the timely post!
Hah, your non-running husband is quite the slavedriver, huh?
Just to clarify, vomit shouldn’t come into play for training at all, you want to make sure your tempos are “comfortably hard” and when you do intervals you feel like you could do one more when you’re done.
The idea is to push your boundaries but within your current fitness level. It should be challenging but not so hard that it makes you dread your workouts (as I did till at one point, till I realized I was running my intervals too hard).
Have fun gaining speed, because if you do the workouts (no puking required), you won’t be able to help but become faster!
Hmm. There’s a saying that comes to mind. “Don’t take running instruction from non-runners”. Although it’s usually said about doctors.
Thanks for the great information. Believe me I don’t take my husband’s advice seriously! He just likes to feel involved but he really doesn’t know much at all when it comes to running. He just likes to be the funny man!
I try to reserve my puking for racing.
Great run Flo, I dont know why your surprised. I could of told you that months ago but you never believe anything I say… ( I need an eye rolling emoticon here, fix it for me will ya?)
For you, Brucie:
Also, I read in Running Times yesterday, about how the elite runners train. It said how they will do recovery/ easy runs about 3 minutes per mile slower then their tempo runs. It should feel like your storing energy for your hard runs. Imagine how slow “regular” runners would have to go if they did it just has slow percentage wise.
In other words dont run too hard on your easy runs. Why did I bring this up? I have no idea.
Yes, Bruce, 5Ks are for puking. just try to miss the volunteers. Especially when I am one!
And, yes, many of us go too fast on our easy runs. According to Jack Daniels, easy running’s benefit comes from the time you spend doing it, not the speed. So speeding up a bit just makes it harder without adding benefit. But he puts it at around two minutes slower than tempo.
I suppose an elite 2:10 marathoner might do tempos in the 4:45 range, so +3 minutes would be 7:45 which is still a good clip by our standards. When we add 3 minutes to our tempo times we slow to a speed we don’t have a good gait for, plus we get overtaken by little old ladies.
Jim, I have never puked on a volunteer. But when I volunteered to help finish line I got it from some high school girl. I aint worked a finish line since. Sorry.
WTG, Flo! Although-I’m a little skeered now myself about having to take those tempos faster.
I did my first 6×1 Fartlek workout yesterday. No puking involved!!! I managed to do the speed work at 7.0 speed on the treadmill. Yeah, sorry guys I do a lot of workouts on the treadmill because of the cold and dark. The workout was awesome! I did not go out to fast that I could not finish but I definitely could not do more another hard minute! “I know I will be fast, I know I will be fast!”
Kazz, you can do it!! And congrats for your fresh marathon cycle, nothing like a spanking fresh start. It might take a few squeaks to get rolling again, but once the wheels are oiled, you’ll be back in the groove bigtime.
Christie, that’s wonderful!!! Yay you! And certainly don’t apologize for the treadmill, woman, whatever works for you is what counts. I bet you’ll be floating today with the knowledge that you made a real move toward increasing your speed. Woohoo!
Go Christie! In a little while you will be ready to, in Flo’s phrase, “hang out with the sixes”. And definitely no puking on a treadmill, Ugh!
That’d be one slippery run.
That really is great. 2008 has been great year for running for you!