Making Tempo Work

Mondays this winter have been my tempo runs and it was more of the same last night. The winter was mild but spring so far has been a little on the cool side. A bit of a tease but I'll take a long cool spring over a quick warmup to summer any time.

I knew all day that the workout was going to be tough. For whatever reason my legs were a little sore and I just had a feeling that it was not going to be so smooth. I was right. After a 1-1.5 mile warmup, I set out on a tempo loop around Chestnut Hill, the same that I had done a few weeks back. Slightly over 5 miles on a rolling course, including one traffic light and a lot of turns. Right from the start I didn't feel smooth and I was having a difficult time getting comfortable and sensing my pace. I made up my mind that no matter what, I was completing this loop at tempo effort, if that meant things went a little more slowly then the last time, so be it.

At 1/2 mile in I pass by the Springside School, a fancy grade school in the area. They have a speed sensor out front, the same you see out on the highway or busy roads which tell you how fast you are going in an effort to get you to slow down. This one was meant to keep cars going slow as the kids are getting out of school. I noticed just as I was passing that it was picking up my speed, 9 miles an hour. I literally laughed out loud when I saw that and it gave me a slight pick me up.

The remainder of the loop was tough to push through, my lungs seemed ok but my legs did not want to turn over the way I had hoped. I just kept going. As I approached the end of the loop I realized I was still going to put in a decent time. When I got home I further realized I had actually run the loop in the same exact, to the second, amount of time I had run it a few weeks back. Holy Shit. It was ugly and felt horribly slow but I still maintained my goal pace. That really made the whole thing worth it and definitely put a positive spin on a less than ideal workout.

8 miles in 54 minutes.