Thursday, September 30, 2010

Tempo, Sweet Tempo

Another day of late running. Hubby had a 7 am tee time, so I waited to run until he returned home. It was a gorgeous sunny day although warmer than I would have liked for a tempo run. After a mile warm up, I set into my pace. Or, oops, a little faster than planned. Yet the first mile has a bit of downhill, so I let it ride. It felt good, more than good. I was running faster than my 5k pace and felt almost easy. I kept reminding myself that it was downhill. Yet the uphill came and the pace stayed easy. Then down and up and down and up. My legs felt great even when my breathing was labored from the humidity. By the end of the fourth mile, fatigue had set in.

I love tempo runs. And this one is at the top of the list of all time favorites! I love the effort of pushing myself just to the edge. There is such a fine line between the balance of the comfortable with the hard. Finding that balance and using it to strengthen oneself is an amazing feeling of accomplishment!

8:26, 8:29, 8:23, 8:20

1 comment:

Nathan said...

I can't wait to see how you do on your marathon! But now...we really must plan a post-marathon 5K!!
I tend to run the tempos without any real idea about my pace. I like to say I run by feel, but once I couldn't run the next day becasue of DOMS :)