The Tempo That Wasn't

My favorite runs are long runs. I love being out on the road or trail for hours. They make me feel like Wander Woman (not a typo :) ). And they make me feel like I had a productive morning.

My second favorite run is a tempo run. I love a good hard run that makes me focus. But today’s run? Today’s run was not so good. I didn't have a lot of focus and I had no speed! I ran 8.62 miles with 3 miles at tempo. My “tempo miles” were 8:50, 8:55, & 8:49 which is only slightly quicker than the miles of some of my fast finish long runs! What the hell?

Maybe I talked myself into a bad run. First, I didn't eat anything before it. I remembered as I started that I'd planned to have a banana or a Gu before going but forgot. Then it seemed to take forever to really warm up even though I did a Standard Warm Up before heading out. Maybe because it was so cold this morning? Anyway, I wasn't feeling it but decided to try.

I ran 4 miles to get some really warm and then started the tempo miles. The first one started off okay. I glanced at my watch and saw 8:35 pace on there. Not what I wanted but kept going. At the end of the mile, my garmin beeped and flashed my time/pace and it was 8:50. Crap! I have to admit I stopped and may have said a bad word. :( I thought about bagging the other two tempo miles for a few seconds. Why not just finish the run at an easy pace? It was so tempting.

But it was only 2 more miles so I hit the button on my garmin and went for it. The second mile was 8:55. Double crap. In for a penny, in for a pound though so did the last mile and at least I was able to pick it up a little and finish in 8:49.

I thought about how slow I feel lately on the cool down home. Could my injury have really affected me that much? I know that I missed 11 days of running. And when I started back it was all easy. And it has only been 3 weeks since I started back…

Then I remembered that it's actually been a lot longer that I've done some serious tempo/speed work. I ran my last marathon on 8/28 and I had the taper before that and recover after. I had my first speed session after the marathon on 9/29 and then crashed my bike on 10/1.

So I guess 2+ months of “easy” running is not conducive to maintaining speed, eh? I need to relax and just let it come back in its own time.

Patience, however, is not one of my virtues. I want to do a 10K on 11/26 and you know I want to PR! I sure hope Jason can help me get faster by then. I'm ready to work my a$$ off for that goal. My legs are feeling good and I think they are ready to work too.

Please, please let me get some speed back by the 10K. That’s all I want for Christmas! :) I've been a good runner girl. Mostly.