I swear. I didn't mean to do a tempo run this morning, but I think I did. Up until a few months ago, the term 'tempo' as it related to running was pretty foreign to me. I figured it meant kind of fast. Later I learned that tempo pace is about 1/2 marathon pace.
I met Ashley again at Lloyd Hall for an early morning six miles. We both wondered somewhere around mile 1 when Day Light Savings begins... or ends... or whatever. (1st Sunday of November, I just checked). At that point it was still before 6:30am and quite dark. I have a feeling in a few months, we'll be hating life - with the dark, cold mornings. I wonder how soon I'll hibernate in the confines of LA Fitness. But for today, it felt more like summer... an Indian summer morning, with temperatures in the mid to upper 60s and high humidity.
We set out at a good pace, the first mile came in at 8:50. My watch isn't snazzy enough to save splits and I'm not obsessive enough (yet) to mind them too closely, so I'm not sure exactly what the other mile splits were, but we certainly brought them down a bit. We did at least three miles well below 8:30 pace. It felt like hard work, but not impossible.
One thing that crossed my mind was that I'm starting to get to know my running style/abilities a bit more. Whereas I once believed I only had two speeds, not running and running, I'm realizing that I have at least one more... we'll call it tempo, where I'm running faster than I would normally chose to run. I've also been thinking/feeling that I don't have much more speed beyond tempo. My running has evolved over the last six to eight months. I've been running more miles and I've also been running harder, overall. So now I've reached a point where I can run at a pretty good speed (for me) over a significant distance... problem now is.. I really don't think I can go much faster than that... even if it is for just a few miles... say 3.1.
What has me thinking about this is the Parkway Run this weekend, which is a 5k. I typically don't do 5ks these days. The last one I did was an exercise in insanity - it was June... it was hot and nasty... it was in the evening... and it was hilly as all get out. Before that, I am not sure when I last did a 5k... maybe it was the Jingle Bell run almost two years ago now. Anyway... my point is that I have no idea how I'll do on Sunday. Part of me is expecting to be disappointed. I don't imagine I'll run it too much faster than my prior PR (just over 26 minutes), which is a little frustrating considering I blew my 1/2 marathon PR away by six minutes just two weekends ago. But I haven't been training for speed and I really don't even know how capable of speed I am. That didn't used to matter much to me, but that too has changed. Damn your eyes Seebo!
So I guess we'll just have to see how it goes on Sunday. I'm pleased with today's run (6 miles in 50:47)... so we'll call it a tempo workout and now I feel one half step closer to running geekdom... not sure that's a good thing.
P.S. Get well soon.
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