I spent much of the last 2 years nodding whenever someone talked about a tempo run. My run consists mainly of trying not to die and looking strong when I run past a neighbor, and snot rocketing off in the woods when nobody is watching. There isn’t a lot of planning. I go out and see if I feel like running fast-ish or slow-ish. It all usually depends on what and when I last ate. Sometimes I stop (don’t tell anyone, but Runkeeper knows all.) I have now broken the 26 minute mark in a 5k race. My last race was a 25:52, Nike will be calling any day now.
I have decided that it is time I work on my speed. While I am still young. I am still being beaten in races by women in their 50’s so I think there is a glimmer of hope. I am still the slowest in my family. My 10 year old daughter beats me by a minute or more, but she is a freak. My son is now running high school cross country and is hovering in the 17’s. So speed is relative, much like the speed of light.
I had to google tempo run, since my husband has been telling me about his for a few months and I have been nodding…. So my interpretation of a tempo run is probably not legit so do not take any advice from me.
I do not know what I am doing, I seem to be getting faster, I make no claims about my level of expertise.
Here is what I did today: Interval training, not a Tempo run
I ran up my steep hill, about 0.6 of a mile at a very relaxed 9:20 pace.
I stopped, looked around to make sure nobody was watching because I still feel like I look like Phoebe running.
I then ran 0.25 at the fastest pace I felt like I could run a quarter of a mile, which for me was about 7:10 (my son considers this his recovery pace, I call it my recovery room pace.) I stopped at the quarter, did some deep breathing and put my hands on my hips. Then off like a rocket I went again, this time closer to half a mile and a 7:30 pace. I stopped and ran down another very steep hill and then back up the very steep hill at a more normal 8:30 pace, at this point I had run close to 2 miles and I decided it was time to put on my inspirational music for my last mile (not 8 mile) and see what I could do.
As Eminem’s Lose Yourself played, I ran home. All the way home. I am unsure of the pace for the first quarter as the split is calculated as an 8:08 but was combined with part of my slower uphill run but my last 0.7 was a 7:16! “Feet fail me not,” indeed. Not bad for a 43 year old who never ran before she was 40!