Forums >General Running>Why I'm not a "real" runner...
Beware, batbear...
Tempo runs...
...and I am a wimp.
Will I ever pull a Dr. Tempolove (i.e. learn to stop worrying and love the tempo run)?
2014 Goal -- Run 5X per week, pain-free (relatively) by end of summer.
Why is it sideways?
Looks like you did just fine last night. Maybe the tempo run was a little quick. Looking at your PRs, that seems like a reasonable pace, but in comparison to your normal easy pace, it seems like it was a little too fast. That cold and dry air will also make your lungs ache after you breathe a bunch of it.
One way to think of tempo running is that it's a trick--you are trying to run faster paces with the effort of easy running. So, you kinda want to work from inside "easy" pace slowly out to a quicker pace. You want to boil the frog without the frog jumping out of the pot.
So, if your easy pace is 10 min/mile, give or take, on a tempo day you might start out at 9:15 per mile, a steady clip, then slowly work down, as you warm up, to something like HM pace--8:45 for you. Hopefully the effort doesn't seem to be increasing too much.
If tempo pace feels hard and intense from the go, then really you aren't accomplishing the point of the workout, which is to "make fast easy."
But mainly -- keep at it! (Oh, and real runners fret about their workouts pretty much all the time.)
I like how you worded this, especially, the analogy at the end.
Life Goals:
#1: Do what I can do
#2: Enjoy life
Hmmm... Maybe I misunderstood tempo runs. I thought they were supposed to be run at "about as fast a pace as you can imagine yourself holding for an hour" so I figured that I was supposed to run it faster than HM pace (since my HM race is longer than an hour). I hear you saying that tempo runs should be slower than HM race pace.
I definitely hit it too hard early on my run last night - just felt really great out the door and over-estimated how long that would last. At about 5 minutes into the run I had the "uh-oh...this is not going to be pleasant" and I sort of suffered through the rest of it.
My actual pace was probably faster than the 8:30 as that takes into account about a 3 minute run/walk cool down so my actual tempo pace was probably closer to 8:20.
As always, I appreciate the feedback. I do want to "get faster with easy effort."
Will Crew for Beer
I've been told tempo runs should be "comfortably fast." Like Jeff described, I like to do my tempo runs as a progression. I start on the faster end of easy and slowly speed up as I warm up and find my rhythm.
Rule number one of a gunfight, bring a gun. Rule number two of a gunfight, bring friends with guns.
Something like HM pace or a little faster is normal for tempo runs.
The normal thing for a tempo run is to run easily for 15 mins to get warmed up, then do 20 mins or so at your tempo pace, then another 15 mins easy to warm down. If you're having trouble with this kind of thing then you could try to gradually work up to the 20 mins at tempo pace - start at maybe 5 mins and increase by a couple of mins each time you do the workout?
Batensmak, I think its cool that you got out the door all excited. It's a positive to me. Build on it.
And yeah, whenever I'm doing any kind of faster running, the key thing I'm thinking is "relax, relax." Today, in honor of Shalane's win, I repeated "Cold execution, cold execution."
The tempo run is practice making fast easy--convincing the body and the mind not to be frightened of fast paces, and not to convert that fear into wasted energy, exaggerated effort.
"If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus
McMillian calculator paces for a 1:54 HM time
Endurance Workouts
Pace/Mi
Recovery Jogs
10:43 to 11:13
Long Runs
9:43 to 10:43
Easy Runs
9:43 to 10:13
Stamina Workouts
Steady-State Runs
8:44 to 9:00
Tempo Runs
8:23 to 8:44
Tempo Intervals
8:16 to 8:33
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
2014 Goals:
Stay healthy
Enjoy life
Batensmack
I try to use the "pace you can hold for an hour" guide. I think that's a pretty good rule of thumb but depending on your training goals it may be faster or it may be slower.
My problem in doing Tempos is I start out to hard. The frog jumps out of the pot. After 800 to 1000m I'm breathing hard and beyond that comfortably hard feeling. What I've learned to do is break into a recovery jog after my fast start for about 2 mins and then start my real tempo. This way I'm slightly winded from my "interval pace" and go into my tempo pace where it actually feels comfortably hard.
Cold air is somethng I don't have a problem with but a buddy of mine has to run with his inhaler on the fridgid days.
Keep working at the tempos. You'll catch on and maybe even learn to like them. for some of us though it remains a love - hate relationship.
I just did my first tempo run Tuesday, with my fiance. He is fast. So, this was his slow run, and my fast run. It was about 4 1/2 miles, and I didn't think I could make it, but I did. It was funny, I was out of breath, and he never ever broke a sweat.
Oh, and my legs were sore the next day. Well, they're still sore a bit today.
I'm so used to just chugging at my same slow pace. This year I'm really going to start working on my intervals, tempo runs, and stairs/hills.
I just need to run with him more often. I always feel bad, since he's so fast. A lot of times, he'll run off and meet back up with me.
March, in Central Park, will be our next chance to run together. We've done Hyde, Regent's, now Central. I'm going to be in better shape this year!
- Anya
Hmmm... Maybe I misunderstood tempo runs. I thought they were supposed to be run at "about as fast a pace as you can imagine yourself holding for an hour" so I figured that I was supposed to run it faster than HM pace (since my HM race is longer than an hour). I hear you saying that tempo runs should be slower than HM race pace. I definitely hit it too hard early on my run last night - just felt really great out the door and over-estimated how long that would last. At about 5 minutes into the run I had the "uh-oh...this is not going to be pleasant" and I sort of suffered through the rest of it. My actual pace was probably faster than the 8:30 as that takes into account about a 3 minute run/walk cool down so my actual tempo pace was probably closer to 8:20. As always, I appreciate the feedback. I do want to "get faster with easy effort."
This is early in your training cycle. At this point, you should be introducing yourself to the workout. 6 weeks down the road, you will be hammering your tempo runs and enjoying them. Now, it's better to be conservative and "ease into them." So, even if the ideal is to run at your "one hour race pace," [this is controversial] you should keep in mind that you learning a new skill and not yet really proficient so unfortunately you can't hit the ideal. And since you can't, it's not really ideal for you.
Now, at this point, you shouldn't be looking to maximize the workout or get the absolute ideal training effect, but moving yourself towards the point where some time down the line you will be able to execute.
Training wheels, my friend. They are kinda humbling, but if you want to be able to ride the bike, you've got to strap them on for a few weeks.
This stuff is really hard to figure out on your own--it's why almost everyone could use the advice of a coach.
MTA: one more thing that other posters have hinted at. Tempo runs are the workouts that I most frequently "bail" on. If you are tired or are having an off day, you just can't do a good tempo run. Give yourself a mile or two to get into it, but if it ain't happening, it ain't happening. Back in the day, before training schedules and all that, the old skool guys just did their tempo runs spontaneously because they felt good. Later, this act got formalized and defined, which is fine, but just remember that you can't force a tempo run; it's got to come to you. So, if you are forcing it, just bail and try it again later.
You'll ruin your knees!
To paraphrase Jeff, you can schedule a Tempo Run, but you cannot schedule a "feel good"!
If my memory serves me correctly, my most successful "tempo-type" runs started slow and built steam very slowly. I used to try to knock 15 sec off each consecutive mile (no looking at watch... just by feel), start slow, build steam, rip up pavement! I would end some runs with a pretty quick final mile before cool-down. At least that's the way I remember some of my best pavement runs...
""...the truth that someday, you will go for your last run. But not today—today you got to run." - Matt Crownover (after Western States)
not bad for mile 25
My most successful races have been like that, too.
To paraphrase Jeff, you can schedule a Tempo Run, but you cannot schedule a "feel good"! If my memory serves me correctly, my most successful "tempo-type" runs started slow and built steam very slowly. I used to try to knock 15 sec off each consecutive mile (no looking at watch... just by feel), start slow, build steam, rip up pavement! I would end some runs with a pretty quick final mile before cool-down. At least that's the way I remember some of my best pavement runs...
Yes, yes, yes. I always do at least a mile of "burn-in" on a tempo run to get my groove and ease into the effort. Then I start to dial up the effort until I'm where I want to be in terms of difficulty. I know that I nailed it when I run the final couple of miles hard and fast but still feel like I'm working a groove -- finishing stronger than I started.
And I'm making less of an effort to be a slave to my stopwatch -- except on interval days. Otherwise I try to run by feel, timing myself just occasionally to see if I'm judging effort/pace accurately.
+1, wind, cold, rain, make them even tougher and easy to cut short.
Comfortably hard pace is what I target. The first couple of weeks, they don't come that easily. As the weeks go by the pace picks up, the distance gets longer and they feel right. I really like to run them with a group, easier for me to chase another runner or be chased. But, most of them are solo efforts.
Probably one of my favorite workouts when they are "on", but easy to get discouraged on some of the efforts as well.
Get off my porch