Tuesday, September 18, 2007

True Tempo

Monday 8.0 miles/1:07:10/8:24 average pace

Whew, what a relief to have a great run after Saturday's melt down!! I was pumped up and anxious to get out there and redeem myself, and I delivered. Yay!

I gave myself a little pep talk before hand. Basically, I need to take a little pressure off myself, relax a little, and take the pace a little easier. There are plenty of opportunities to push myself during training, but I don't need to push myself every single run. How many times do I have to re-learn this lesson?? So even though the schedule called for 8 miles with 4 miles LT pace, I told myself to take it easy.

The two warm up miles felt great: 9:09, 9:15. I made a little pit stop at the end of mile 2 and then was ready to ramp it up for my Tempo miles. My goal pace for Tempo is 7:22-7:47 or so, but I would be ok with anything sub-8. Historically, I've done this workout all wrong. I basically run too fast, then have to take a break between miles because I'm too tired to do them continuously. That is wrong. That is mile repeats and I"m supposed to be doing a Tempo run.

Well, I did this one right! Since I gave myself permission to keep the pace slightly slower, I started off strong and maintained control and I was able to run the tempo miles continuously! 7:41, 7:54, 7:59, 7:45. Average pace 7:50- nice! I actually got pretty tired in that last mile and did stop for a brief drink, but finished strong. I really feel like I met the objective of this run for once!

Last 2 miles cool down: 8:58, 8:27. I got a little side cramp toward the end so I did walk a couple of times but had no problem starting to run again right away. It was such a relief to prove to myself that I CAN run without stopping and without wanting to cry. :)

I have to give a shout out to the Extra Mile Podcast, since the great music and inspiring stories really energized me out there. Thanks Kevin, Chris, Nigel, and the others!! :) Maritza and I will be using the new comment line to call in and give shout outs to you guys and everyone else who needs a boost while doing their tough training runs.

After a great night's sleep I got up early and went to the gym where I swam 750 m total. I did 500 m in 9:58 (whoo hoo!) and then finished up with 250 m worth of drills. I alternated kicking-only with the kickboard (3 laps total) and breaststroke (2 laps total). It was fun to incorporate some different ways of swimming! I was always intimidated by these drill sets that I see, but actually it's pretty simple- kicking, pulling, and using different strokes. I still really want to take some kind of class though, to work on my freestyle and to learn how to properly do the other strokes. I saw swimcrush girl today and she can butterfly like a mofo. :love:

6 comments:

Chris said...

Nice tempo run! Is this your first time using Pfitz? I know the first time I did a Pfitz plan, I didn't think there was any way I'd make it through the progessively longer tempo runs, but it's amazing how quickly your body will adapt. Good luck and go Grizzlies!!

Marathon Maritza said...

Great job! See? I knew you'd bounce back! :)

I got to the swimming part of your post and couldn't help but think:

But they got, Diff'rent Strokes.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world!

*jazz hands*

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

JEN Said:I gave myself a little pep talk before hand. Basically, I need to take a little pressure off myself, relax a little, and take the pace a little easier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GOOD WOrds Jen, you speedy peeps DON't always have to run speedy :-) it's ok to run like us avg peeps every once in a while_lol but obviously not too much, we don't want to slow up that much!

way to bounce back!

Unknown said...

Nice bounce back...and you are right on about the difference between a tempo run and repeats. Sounds like Saturday really was just a blip on the radar. Great job!

Arcane said...

Even if your tired at the end, it's only the start of training so in 2 months you'll handle that 7 miler with no problem.

Michele said...

Great job putting the bad run behind you and moving on with the plan.
Awesome run and swim.