I Hate Tempo Runs

by Bryan on 9/11/2008 at 2:19 PM in Health and Fitness

…or…

I Quit

…or…

I’m Questioning Everything About My Training

This morning I had a 4 mile tempo run, with a mile warm up and a mile warm down, for a total of 6 miles. As you might be able to guess, it didn’t go so well. Actually, it went well for 3.5 miles out of the 4 miles at tempo pace. But the last .5 mile removed any feeling of satisfaction.

I typically do not look forward to my tempo runs, especially as I move up to a longer distance. Two weeks ago, I ran my first 4-mile tempo run, and it went ok. I was happy to have finished it, yet there was room for improvement as my 4th mile was 9 seconds of my target pace, and my average for the 4 miles was 2 seconds higher than my target pace. With two additional weeks of training, including longer long runs, and mile repeats at a pace much faster than my tempo pace, I was hopeful that this morning’s tempo run would at least be as good as the tempo run two weeks ago. It wasn’t.

I stopped. Twice. Both times, were in the last .5 mile. It wasn’t enough, evidently, to just slow down some. No, I had to stop. Twice. Did I mention that I stopped twice? The good feeling I had from slowing down a bit two weeks ago, rather than stopping—gone. The positive vibes from a good 3 x 1 mile repeat workout—gone. The feeling like I was making good progress in my training—gone.

Seriously, why does this affect me so hard? It’s just a run. At least I got up early and got my butt out there in the first place, right? And I did finish it, I just stopped. Twice.

How can I race a 10K next week, if I can’t hold my tempo pace for 4 miles?

I’ve got to get past this mental block that allows me to stop when something starts feeling too hard—that seems to keep me from pushing myself further.

All right…enough “poor me.” Looking at the data, contrary to how I was feeling when I stopped the first time, I was not redlining—I was getting close, but I was closer two weeks ago, when I finished out my run. Here’s a comparison of the first 3 miles from two weeks ago, and from this morning:

* Stopped twice during the final .5 mile. Stopped watch, too.

As you can see, through the first 3 miles, my heart rate was a little lower on this morning’s run, compared to the run two weeks ago. This trend continued in the 4th mile, up to the point where I stopped. So if my heart rate wasn’t quite as high this morning as it was two weeks ago, and I was able to finish the run two weeks ago without stopping, then why did I have to stop this morning? Of course it could be a number of things—weather, nutrition, rest, just to name a few. It was over 20% more humid this morning, than it was two weeks ago, perhaps that’s got something to do with it:

• Weather from Tempo Run Two Weeks Ago
  • Avg Temp: 78.8°F
  • Humidity: 67.5%
• Weather from Tempo Run This Morning
  • Avg Temp: 75.2°F
  • Humidity: 88.6%

I think what it boils down to is that I either need to HTFU, or I need to slow my pace down just a touch.

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