Okay - the plan is all in the training plans here so you can all go look at my slight organizational obsession.

the plan for tomorrow is 5 x 800 at 7:30 min/km (or thereabouts - somewhere between half and 10k pace but, as MT pointed out I'll gauge by feel more than by my watch).

There is a track in the park across the street. I can't find anywhere official that says the distance of the track so I'm gonna work from the premise that 1 lap = 400 metres. But I mean seriously, how can I not use the track that's almost within spitting distance?!

Let us know how that goes, it will be a good test of your current fitness.

Note the actual times and the details of the warm up so you can compare future efforts and see your progress.

Anyway, working from the 7:30 min/km pace I figured if I could be around 3 minutes per lap for the running part that'd be perfect. And I was. By the end of the second lap I was usually looking forward to the recovery portion. By 1 minute into the 3 minute recovery I was looking forward to the run. Does that sound about right? Ran by feel and was remarkably consistent I think. 
 

Hmmm....sounds about right. I've been schooled that you generally want to get to the recovery just as your legs and lungs are starting to complain, and then start to get antsy to start the next fast section about 30 sec before it starts.

You're early in this training cycle, so the consistency of the repeats is good to see -- it means you didn't run then harder than your current fitness. You'll want to see them decrease in time without the effort going up as you get into the plan.

By the way, thought of you the other night as I did this tempo workout. I think this is the type of structure you want in your upcoming tempo workouts -- warmup, glide into tempo, cool down.

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By the way, thought of you the other night as I did this tempo workout. I think this is the type of structure you want in your upcoming tempo workouts -- warmup, glide into tempo, cool down.

Sometimes I really think I only have one pace. First official tempo run here.

MTA: I hit 200 on the scale this morning. Down from a high earlier this year of 224. I am THISCLOSE to being <90 kg

A couple of questions about throwing some races into my training plan.

I am running a 15k race on August 17, 2013. The Ryan Hall plan I modified and posted here has that as a race sim day - running about 17-18 km split between easy kms and half-marathon race pace plus a bit. I figure "racing" a 15 km is probably an okay substitute as my 15km PR isn't that much faster.  (just looking to see if anyone thinks this would be dumb)

BUT I also want to do another 5km to try and better the June PR. Thoughts on throwing one in 3 weeks before the goal half-marathon? Stupid or okay? Torn between what's billed as a fast flat course close to home, smallish (1000 tops) (and looks pretty snazzy too - the post race food is provided by some very high end restaurants) and waiting until the half is over.

thanks

I agree with HappyFeat on the 5K race.  Do it.  Use it to test your legs.  Pick a target pace per mile (or km) about 10% harder than your target HM pace and run each split rock solid on that pace.  It will show you that your planned HM pace is comfortable and well within reach.

(After re-reading...I think this is really my attempt at being polite and not saying -- don't do what you did in your last 5K which was jog, jog, jog, jog, sprint like holly hell...finish!)

Hi Lisa, I should be stretching or housecleaning, but my coffee cup and I have gotten sucked into computer-land....on the pretext of trying out the new desk chair...which I think I hate...boy is it uncomfortable! OK that's not what this is about.  I wanted to refer back to one of your log/blog notes

"Friday – tempo run – So the idea was a bit of a warm up (1.6km easy) 6.5km at 1/2 marathon pace, and then a bit of a cool down (1.6km easy). Ended up doing the 6.5km at 7:36 minutes per km. That’s a bit fast for me for 1/2 marathon pace (my PR is 7:57 minutes per km). There’s no way I can run a 1/2 at 7:36…"

To my mind, the tempo pace is supposed to be faster than what you can run in an event, but it will increase your current race pace. It will make your running form more efficient. It will make you more comfortable with running fast. It will make your EZ pace feel easier! It will develop your heart, lungs, and muscle capabilities more quickly than with just EZ running.

IMO, your tempo pace is not too fast and you will want to increase in the future as you get more comfortable.  When I do a run such as that, I now do the fast intervals at about 30 seconds faster  (in mpm) than my HM pace. When I very first started tempos sometime in the last year or so, I started out running them at my HM pace and over time, dropped the pace of the workouts down to where they are at now.

I started with only a couple of 1/4 mile interval sets since that's all I could do at that pace.  Eventually I worked up to the six sets of 1/2 mile intervals.  Then  I increased the interval to 3/4 mile tempo pace with 1/4 mile recoveries.  Then I got injured, but not from the tempo runs - want to make that clear.

Right now my ham has recovered enough for me to start resuming tempos.  Last Wednesday,  I started up again with six 1/2 mile (800 meters) intervals with 1/2 mile recoveries. The recovery time seemed way too long. I prefer 1/4 mile recoveries; but for my first set last week it seemed like a good idea until I could see how my hamstring reacted in the following days.  Since the leg did alright, I'll switch to the 1/2 mile / 1 /4 mile sequence next Wednesday.  Hopefully that will go OK too. My lungs burned after last week's run and were irritated for about 24 hours after; so  I've lost ground there with the setback in April.

My long term plan is to keep extending the length of the tempo intervals until I'm doing full mile intervals with recoveries, and then to start incrementally stringing them together. Whether this is ever achievable remains to be seen!  My distant goals are to someday run a new 10K PB and another 2-hour HM. My immediate goal with the tempo running is to increase my EZ pace.

One final important note: Be sure you  are completely warmed up (heart rate, breathing, muscles) before beginning your tempo intervals. For me, this takes about 20 minutes.  You might need less, but I can't believe that 5 minutes is sufficient.   Without proper warmup, you risk injury.

I look forward to hearing how your running week goes. Have fun with it!

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