Today, my scheduled run was 10 miles, 6 at tempo for 7:08 pace. As I have gotten deeper into the training though, I have realized I can run these tempos much quicker and still feel in control.

Most of my tempo runs have turned into tempo/progression runs. I’ve done almost all of these runs on the treadmill and like everyone else, I get bored sometimes and a little bit ansy on the mill. The idea of running 6 tempo miles at the exact same speed just drives me crazy. I understand it’s good training for pacing reasons on race day, but I just hate it.

Last night, I told Glenn my workout and he warned me I shouldn’t do the progression thing like I always do, that I should hold true to the tempo workout. I told him I couldn’t stand the thought of running 6 boring 7:08 miles sandwiched in between 2 boring warm up and 2 boring cool down miles. He told me to do the 6 at 6:50 then, but keep it consistent. I liked the sound of that, I liked the challenge.

Marshall woke me up at 4:30am to eat and my plan was to get to the gym right after. I was wide awake when I got up, but there is something about once I put him down and I walk back into our dark room, fan on with the white noise and it’s just so cozy. I crawled back in and debated for 10 minutes, deciding I’d let the bed win, I wanted more sleep. So, I went with Marshall in tow at 8:00am instead of by myself at 5:00am. The sleep was worth it.

When I warmed up today, I got in my head that I wanted my total 10 to be sub 7, which would mean I needed to warm up at a quicker pace. I don’t usually warm up quicker than 8 minutes for my first mile, but started around 7:40 today. I picked up the second mile to 7:10, about the pace for what the original tempo was.

The one thing that will throw off your tempo run, is going from a very easy pace, full speed to the tempo pace. Easing in to the speed is my key to success. 

I’ve been pretty comfortable running around 6:50 pace recently, so I figured I’d go for holding it for 6 miles. At mile 2, I decided to mentally split the 6 miles up in to two sets of 3. The second set of 3 would be faster. When I started the second set of 3, I decided I’d run the last mile at mile repeat pace and then slowly bring the next mile down to the original tempo pace of 6:49.

I kept a quickish cool down pace, so I’l hit my sub 7 for 10 miles goal.

So, yet again, I broke the rule and didn’t stick to the same pace, but really I didn’t come of it much and I only came off of it running faster, and seeing as how this is my kick my butt as hard as I can week, why not. It feels good to work hard.

Splits:

Mile 1- 7:30 (warm up)
Mile 2- 7:10 (warm up)
Mile 3- 6:49
Mile 4– 6:49
Mile 5– 6:49
Mile 6– 6:44
Mile 7– 6:44
Mile 8– 6:22
Mile 9– 6:49
Mile 10– 7:30 (cool down)

Side note- apparently Marshall had a meltdown in kids club and I was paged four times. I guess my music was too loud. The kids club girl finally hunted me down- I was just getting my stretch on post run at that point. This was all my fault because we were way past nap time number one, I thought he could hang on an extra hour… wrong. It’s true, kids thrive on schedules.

On Friday, I have a really tough 20 miles on the schedule, I’m ready for it, but a little nervous… of course. This will be my last BIG workout closing out the last big week before Shamrock. I’ll officially be 3 weeks out. At this point, I’m more nervous about my mental battles than my physical battles on race day.

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The fog was thick and kind of cold. The roads were pretty busy, but thankfully in Carmel- there are sidewalks and paths everywhere, so we didn’t have to run on the road much. I understand the advantage of running on the marathon course but I don’t think I’ll do it again more than once or twice. It was inconvenient to drive up and added time to the whole process, which is already long. These days I’m in the game of making the most of my time more than ever and this process won’t cut it.
  
Glenn had a bad run, I had a whatever run. We both needed a bathroom break 1.5 miles in and creeped around in an elementary school that was having a little kids basketball tournament to find one. I guess we didn’t look too shady in our running gear and sweat. For some reason I thought the parents would be more cautious about randos walking into the school, but they welcomed these runners with open arms.

We ended up averaging 7:45 pace, (splits here on daily mile) running pretty consistently the whole time. By mile 11, we were both over it though and  looking at our watches every 2 minutes. We were both thankful to be done. My legs started feeling tired around mile 8… which is kind of discouraging. It always freaks me out when I feel tired early on in a long run at a pace much slower than my projected race pace. I know we aren’t tapered and there will be days like this, it is what it is.

Post 16

About running in Carmel- drivers weren’t very nice about sharing the road… maybe the just didn’t see us?.  lot’s of round-a-bouts, I still hate round-a-bouts, lot’s of nice parks and pathways, lot’s of active people out and about (although I think that was mostly the weather), and lot’s of fancy SUV’s.

Regardless of how much I want to or how much I don’t want to do my Saturday long run when I wake up- it’s a guarantee that the rest of the day/weekend will feel more productive and in general BETTER once it’s done.

The rest of the day was filled with babysitting our niece Giovanna, watching Hoosier basketball with my dad, a walk on the monon, drinks on the patio at Mo & Johnny’s, (in January, 50 degrees… what?!) some reading, a couple of gossip girl episodes and a little Miss America before bed. (well Miss America for me, Football for Glenn)

Heading to the monon

First ride in the new wagon. She loved it.

Cadence being a good girl on the patio.

Don’t be fooled, entertaining himself didn’t last long…

Marshall’s first time in the big boy bath. Probably could have done this sooner.  This video is even cuter than the picture.

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