Terrible tempos

I've always had a love-hate relationship with tempo runs. Heavy on the hate, actually. I like interval runs just fine--running hard for a few minutes, maybe a mile, tops. And long, slow runs are great. But tempos? They just hurt.

I've been using the FIRST plan to prepare for the Tinkerbell Half. This is my third time on this plan, and I really like it and have had good success with it. You only run three days a week, which I've found works much better for me, both physically and mentally (Though it definitely works better if, unlike this time around, you get that cross training in). But that also means all of my runs are supposed to be "quality"--no junk miles. So it's one interval workout, one tempo and one long slow run.

This time around, the intervals have been going well--I'm consistently hitting my time goals and feeling good. Long runs have been fine, too--I've done a couple 10-milers so far, and they've felt good. But the tempos? They've been rough. My goal pace has been about 8:35, a pace that should be tough but doable for me, but honestly, I'm not sure I've maintained it once in the past several weeks.

Tired of listening to my Garmin beep at me, flashing "speed up!" all the way through my tempo runs, this week I just gave in and changed the goal pace to 8:40, which is what I've been averaging. I also cut the run short--I was late getting out of the house, and besides, it was my first week back after a week off at Christmas--but what should have been an 8-mile run with 6 miles @ 8:35 became a 5-mile run with 3 miles @ 8:42.

Not quite what the plan called for ...

 

 

 

Next week, the plan calls for an 8-mile tempo. I'm going to be honest here--it's probably not going to happen. Confession time: In the three times I've used this plan, I've yet to actually run the 8-mile tempo (to be clear, that's 8 miles at tempo pace, plus a mile each warm up and cool down, so 10 total). I have no good excuse. It's hard to fit a 10-mile run into a weekday, but I could do it. I just honestly don't want to run 8 miles that hard.

In any case, I'm just 3 Terrible Tempos away from the Tinkerbell half. And since my No. 1 goal for this particular race is just to have a fantastic time, I'll run them, but I'm not going to let them get me down.