Encouraging Tempo

My tempo run this morning was encouraging. It just took me a while to realize that it was.

A tempo run (for those who don't know it)is a fairly vigorous workout in which a portion (say 3 miles like today's)is run at a speed just a little slower than 10 kilometer race pace. Since I ran a 10K only 9 days ago at an average of 7:20 per mile (pretty disappointing, frankly), my tempo pace today should be 7:30 or even a little slower.

But I'll have nothing to do with that pace!

I want to see if I've stopped being slow. And running a tempo at a pace determined by my recent slow 10K would not do it for me. I want to know if I can run it faster than my other tempo workouts.

So that's what I set out to do. But things immediately got tricky. I run on a course way over on the West Side of Manhattan called Henry Hudson Park. It is an up and back course along the Hudson River and surrounded by new development of parks and play areas. Usually I run against the wind for the first part of the tempo miles then turn around and run with it. As tired as I am in the second half, I appreciate the late help.

Today it was the opposite. Running with the wind at the start my times were good for the first mile and a half (I record splits every half mile...one of the things I like about this course), but, of course, it was wind aided. I struggled on the final part but still knew I did fairly well thru the end of mile two and for the half mile after that. The final half mile, however, was very difficult and I felt myself slow up. I pushed myself to increase the pace then slowed again. It was tough maintaining to the end and I was very disappointed when I looked at my watch for that last half mile split!

I slowly jogged the mile and a half home feeling a bit deflated. Usually I pick up the pace for that last half mile of tempo no matter how tired I'm feeling. Today I couldn't, just when I was hoping to prove that I was again fast! How disappointing! But then I thought that my miles 1 and 2 times were probably quicker than my corresponding miles in earlier tempo runs. Maybe that would balance out my slower third mile. Maybe it would end up pretty much even which, while disappointing since I want to be faster, would at least not be so bad.

At home with my bagel, coffee, chocolate soy milk and fruit breakfast I began writing down my half mile splits: 3:35 and 3:42 for a 7:17 first mile;
3:41 and 3:41 for a 7:21 second mile.

These were fine and better than my last few runs. But now my lousy last half mile will take away all the good: 3:41 and 3:32 for a 7:13 third mile.

3:31? My final half mile was 3:31? But that was my fastest. Why did I think it was my slowest? The 7:13 final mile was also my fastest, and it had been run into the wind. Why did I think it had been my slowest?

Somehow my muddled mind, fearful of seeing a time that confirmed my slowness, had seen the 3:32, computed it to a just over 7:00 per mile pace and concluded that was slow which it would have been had I been trying to run 5K instead of roughly 10K pace. Wow! I think I made myself see what I feared would be there rather than what actually was!

My times average out to 7:17, my fastest tempo run in months. Last week I'd averaged 8 seconds per mile slower, and THAT had been my quickest in months! And, to top it all off, my average heart rate of 151 was the same as it was last time so I hadn't expended more energy (at least by this measure) to run faster.

So maybe I'm not so slow??