Tempo Run

Well, the thing I like about this "new" schedule is its flexibility. I used to trap myself into a fairly rigid routine (tempo or long efforts Tuesday, track Thursday and long run Sunday). Maybe there is such a thing as over training after all...

This time with one scheduled effort plus the Sunday long run I can shift the efforts to fit work, weather etc and still build in another session if I want. So with meetings booked for Thursday lunchtime (plus apocalyptic weather predicted for the east of England...) it made sense to do my effort on Wednesday. The schedule called for 6 miles with 4 miles effort. So I went for a 7 1/2 mile route with 10 min warm up and 30 minutes at approximate half marathon pace / effort - for me that's about 165 to 175 bpm on the heart rate monitor.

After an easy warm up it took about 3 mins to get the heart rate up to 165 and for about 20 mins this was OK, even into a stiffish cold wind. But this was the longest sustained effort I've run for about 9 months and it told. I slowed at the end and the cool down at a slow pace didn't get my heart rate below 165 - active recovery wasn't an option. I still had a bit of a cough, but I think that cutting edge fitness has departed and needs sustained work to get back. But I have a benchmark to re-run over the coming weeks to see how I perform. However allowing for 10 min warm up and 15 cool down I'm fairly happy with 7.5 in 55:30.

On to the next run hopefully....