Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Day 5: Legs, you are lucky you decided to be quick today!!

So.  Effing.  Tired.  Seriously.  I need to learn to go to bed earlier on Monday night so the whole rest of my week isn't spent playing "catch up."  Grr.  When the alarm went off this morning at 4:30 am, I told Taylor I was going to sleep until he left for work (usually 5:15-5:20 when I'm heading out also to run).  Since I had SO MUCH TIME after my run yesterday, I figured I had 45 min. to spare.  Oh glorious 45 minutes.  You were amazing.  When I finally got up, I was grumbling that I did not want to go run.  Sweet sweet loverboy said, "It'll be nice and cool after work...why don't you just go back to bed and run later?"  Mmmm....blissful idea my love.  Guarenteed though, if I decided to do that, I would spend the next 2 hours tossing and turning, and then it'd magically be 90 degrees with 90% humidity at 5pm.  PLUS, it's only Day 5.  I can't quit on day 5.  I just need to pretend that running later is NOT an option until this morning crap becomes habit.  Because very very soon, running later in the day won't be an option.

Speaking of, I'm not sure HOW it's still cool.  It's June.  Usually I'm sweating my booty off.  This morning, I was cold.  Brr.  I haven't worn shorts on a run since.... umm.... pre-morning running?  It's summer for goodness sakes.

Blabber blabber blabber, on with the run.  I had a 40 minute tempo run to do.  Started off shivering and took the first mile eeeeeeeasy at 9:45.  Stopped to stretch out my sleeping muscles.  

My tempo miles I wanted to run 8:20-8:30 mm, giving myself a lil leeway because of the headwind for the first tempo mile.  First tempo run mile 8:41.  Lame.  I swear every time I looked at my Garmin it said 8:00 pace.  Apparently that wasn't the case.

Tempo mile #2 8:19, technically a fail, but average the two together and boom, 8:30, perfection.  :)  I decided if I could do mile 3 under 8:30 I could use the last 1/2 mile-ish for a cool down instead of continued tempo.  That's the motivation the leggos needed 7:56.

I finished the .55 cool down in 4:56 for a pace of 9:02.  Overall warm up/cool down pace was 9:31.  Average pace for tempo miles (3) was 8:18.

During my cool down, I was doing some reflection as to why my splits were so off.  I think it might have something to do with my warm up.  I try to start off slow to actually warm up my legs, but I think it's hard for my legs to gauge the difference from 9:45-10 mm to 8:20-8:30.  After that first tempo mile, I always seem to hit at my pace or even below it, I always just struggle with that first one.  Hopefully I'll remember this gem of insight on my next tempo.  :)

Softball tonight and saying good bye to Tay as he leaves for Chi-town insanely early tomorrow morning for his bro's bachelor party.  Jealous.  Not of the bach party, but I love me some Chi-town.  :D

Ooooh.....stay tuned for an upcoming race announcement....EEEEEEE!

12 comments:

J said...

Great job!! SO glad you got up! It was hard for me to get up early this morning too but now that it is done I feel better. I had two cups of coffee now too and things are better!!

Amy said...

Glad you got up and ran! I got up early, too...it was TOUGH! Although, I didn't run because it's POURING and storming here. I'm kinda jealous you got your workout done. Nice job on the tempo....I find tempos are all about trying and learning.

Glenn Jones said...

Great tempo run! Sounds like you got it down.

I find tempos are the most difficult runs for me to do. I seem to always *start* my warmup pretty close to tempo pace and end up fading in the end. My legs (and brain) don't understand that the way to run faster longer is to *conserve* energy early on.

Kim said...

I need to try a tempo run - I wonder if there are any in my marathon training (starts Monday!). I have such a hard time with pacing.

Kim said...

Oops, I entered my comment too soon!

How often do you do tempo training? Once or twice a week? I bet you'll nail it the next time!

Jeri said...

@kilax, for my current 5k plan, I do a tempo run every other Wed. Every other Saturday calls for a "fast" run of 3-5 miles, so I usually treat those as a tempo run, but without the warm up mile, since I clearly fail when that's included. :)

@Glenn Jones, I think I have the opposite problem as you, I conserve too much in the beginning and then have WAY TOO MUCH left for the end. We should combine ourselves to be SUPER TEMPO RUNNER. :)

Anonymous said...

way to get up and GO!!! after a week or two the morning run becomes Much easier :) I just remind myself that after work (afternoon/evening) I'm always so tired and if I spend allll day wondering if I'll actually go or not, I usually don't. or it takes a LOT to motivate myself. in the morning you just GO and then you're done :)

Marisa said...

Wow - early morning running AND tempo run! Impressive. I struggle with tempo runs by myself, I feel like I have no reason to keep up the faster pace (I am such a headcase of a runner) - any tips?

Heather said...

That was a good tempo run!

And, by the way, Green Bay was AWESOME. I definitely recommend it for your first. Especially being a Packers fan . . . running around Lambeau was such a thrill. I really could go on and on about how great it was. Good luck with all the training!

X-Country2 said...

They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, but I can't make it 2 days when I try running in the morning. Great work on your 5!

Jamie said...

I am so with XC2. Great job on getting out there on day 5! And nice tempo run :)

Aron said...

great job on the tempo run!! you are so awesome for getting out there in the mornings too :) i am trying to get myself back in the habit and its not working so far. its so hard at first but its the best once its a habit and the runs are done in the morning!