First Tempo Run

Wow so last night I did my four mile tempo run.

The tempo run is a long-ish run that is fast than the normal pace. So since my goal is to run the half marathon in under 2 hours, then my goal time per mile is 9:12. The tempo runs are 15 seconds off the per mile so I ran 4 miles last night at a pace of 8:57 per mile. So all in all with warm up and cool down I ran for 55 minutes, which is longer than I've ever run for possibly. By the end I was exhausted.

Note to self:  do not do a long work out if you're hungry in the beginning. I ate a banana because I was hungry, figuring it would hold me off until dinner, but after the run I was just so exhausted that I was just sitting there in a trance until my boyfriend dragged me off my feet and we went to dinner. It also might have been because I have a slight cold. You know the usual sneezing, sore throat, congestion, exhaustion. All that fun stuff. I figure it's ok to run with a cold as long as you feel ok, but as soon as it becomes a chest cold running is probably not the best idea. You don't want to aggravate your lungs even more so, that would just be awful.

So I'm thinking that the tempo runs are going to be hardest for me, because the speed work outs have variety and the endurance work outs I can do outside where it's pretty, but the tempo runs are on the treadmill, and they're long and hard... yiiikkkeeessss!

So here is how I was feeling -

Mile 1: FANTASTIC
Mile 2: "                    "
Mile 3: ouch, k i'm done
MIle 4: one... more... it's going to kill me but keep running

And yea, I think i'm going to need an ipod/upbeat (read: pop music) lineup so that I can survive the last few miles of all the runs. It's a mental thing that makes me tired at the end (well, and I guess my legs hurt too) but I even tried to trick myself last night and tell myself I had to run 5 miles instead so I could keep going. Funny how difficult it is to trick yourself...

Anyways, I'm looking forward to this endurance run on Saturday. I might skip the cross train today because I'm feeling this illness and do something on Sunday. That would still be sufficient.

Thanks for reading! Until next time...