Tempo Run!

I guess it's time for my "every-other week hard run" post. Here's a post that links to my first 3 "hard run" workouts since being injured: 2 workouts of fartleks, and a set of 3x1 mile intervals through my neighborhood. But this time, I was ready for something new: a tempo run.

I did my normal/boring/easy-to-social-distance run straight down my road and back. The run was 4.8 miles total, and I did the middle 3 miles hard. I did a mile warm-up in 7:22, and then I picked up the pace. Here were my half-mile splits:

3:13 (uphill - these hills aren't much, but they still affect my new-to-running-hard legs)
3:08 (downhill)
3:10
3:12 (uphill)
3:07 (downhill)
2:55

18:44 total (6:14.67/mile pace)

I didn't have any real goals, but I think I *was* hoping to have more than just that last split be sub-6:00 pace. Oh well. It was a good hurt-y run. I stopped and walked for a few minutes before trudging through a less-than-a-mile cool-down.

I looked back in my training log, and my last 2 tempo runs (in July and August of last year) were so much longer. I did 5 miles hard in the middle of 10 miles WITH THE BOYS IN THE DOUBLE STROLLER in 6:30/mile pace, and a few weeks later I did 6 hard miles in the middle of 11 in 6:22/mile pace. So yes, I was faster now, but it was so much shorter. Just a nice reminder that I'm just starting to come back, and that I have a lllllllot of work to do yet. I'm trying to take it slow.