Category Archives: Tempo Runs

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Training: A Reluctant 5.5 Miles

After a really hard, fast and hilly 5k on Tues my legs were feeling unusually empty – I don’t usually feel tired the day after a training run (hill session excepted!) But as I’m not going to be able to run much over the next week I forced myself out the front door!

Having just borrowed a Garmin heart monitor I was tempted to do some zonal training but figured that’s an entirely different post/experiment! I’d maxed out my heart rate the previous night and for now all I know is my resting rate is 53bpm and my rasping for breath rate is 188bpm!

Back to last nights run… It should have been nice; a lovely spring evening, country lanes and a gentle pace. However the whole way round was agony. Thinking I must be going really fast, I glanced at my watch to see I was only doing just under 7minute miles for less than 10k! By the end the nice sunny weather was making me rue not taking a drink (note to self: take drink on hot days over 5k).

Miles in the bag though!

Next Training
Parkrun on Saturday…from a surprise location. Watch this space!

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Training: The Tempo Run

What’s A Tempo Run Anyway?

I’m never quite sure exactly what each type of training run is. Some people call it a threshold run as it means really pushing yourself for the middle part of your run. This has the same reasoning behind it as speed work in that you’re essentially teaching your body how to run faster. As they say, “if you want to run faster…you need to run faster!”

Last Night’s Training

So last night I went to the course that I have lovingly named ‘The Boring Corfe Mullen Run’. This is my winter course and involves starting at the bottom of a hill and running the entire length of the town and back again, equaling 5 miles.

As the run begins on a hill I take the first 5- 10 minutes slowly anyway, as you should do in a tempo run. After 10 minutes however, I upped my pace to my 5k pace of 6 minute miles, ran this for 15 minutes and then back down to my 10 mile pace for the last 10 minutes.

The below is what the start point of this run looks like in the middle of the day in summer. When I run it, it’s dark and invariably raining and cold!

Starting point for my Boring Corfe Mullen Run

Next Training

Same again tonight! Boring Corfe Mullen run but this time at just a gentle 7 minute mile pace all the way, after all I have a half-marathon on Sunday!