Best. Tempo. Run. Ever.

So I have to say that I was less than enthused about today's workout.  I did a bunch of errands and had to run all over town, which I find tiring (to give you a sense, I spent about an hour and a half driving....we do not kid about the urban sprawl around these parts).  Also, my stomach was kind of upset.  But today was tempo run day, and I know that tempo runs are important, so I dragged myself onto the treadmill.

A tempo run is a term that evidently draws numerous different definitions.  I am using the one that Hal Higdon provides as part of the training program that I am broadly following:

This is a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near 10-K race pace. A Tempo Run of 40 to 60 minutes would begin with 10-20 minutes easy running, build for 20-30 minutes near the middle, then 5-10 minutes easy toward the end. The pace buildup should be gradual, not sudden, with peak speed coming about two-thirds into the workout. Hold that peak only for a minute or two. I consider Tempo Runs to be the "Thinking Runner's Workout." A Tempo Run can be as hard or easy as you want to make it, and it has nothing to do with how long (in time) you run or how far. In fact, the times prescribed for Tempo Runs serve mainly as rough guidelines. Feel free to improvise. Improvisation is the heart of doing a Tempo Run correctly.

My basic approach has been to do a 10-minute warm-up, then divide up the tempo run into whatever interval is an even amount of 5 units, then a 10-minute cool-down.  I have been doing these on the treadmill, which makes it really easy to pace what you are doing, but really hard to cheat your speed.  Also, the weather has been very thunderstormy as of late, so the treadmill is probably the better choice anyway.

Today, I got on the treadmill to do a 40-minute run, even though I was really not enthusiastic about things.  I have been starting relatively slowly although for the past two weeks (since I started this plan), I have still not been able to get through the whole workout.  A walk break was required in the middle of the running fast section.  I would like to note, though, that I usually plan for a walk break at some point on the treadmill because otherwise I tend to overheat.  For the tempo runs, I have been limiting these considerably, but still had to take breaks.

Today, I got through my 10-minute warm-up, then concentrated really hard and got through the building up/building down section.  But I did it!  Two minutes of increasing increments for 10 minutes, then 10 minutes of decreasing increments.  And I made it all the way through!  But that was my limit.  I couldn't handle the cool-down.  I walked for a bit, then decided to stop.

So you can imagine my surprise when I looked again at the training plan and learned that today's tempo run was only supposed to be 30 minutes.  Which means I totally rocked it.  And then some.  Best tempo run ever!

It's official: I am a trail runner

I realized today that I have not posted for a while here, which is too bad because I have a lot to say about my running life.  So this entry might be kind of long.  Bear with me.  I have enclosed some photos to help.

Things that I have run since the last time I wrote here:

1) Lutz Independence Day Race: it was hot and for some unknown reason, started at 8am--which is maybe a bit too late to start running a race in July!  But I survived.  I walked in places, but survived.  What was great though was the fact that I decided to make a 'bucket list' of races that I want to do.  Races that look cool and may be elsewhere.  Races that will take some pre-planning.  But I came up with a nice assortment of things, along with the realization that right now, what I really want to be doing is running on trails.  Because almost all of the races that I selected are trail races (with a few exceptions, like the NYC Marathon, which I should be doing in either 2014 or 2015).  Even the runs that I want to do around these parts next year are primarily trail races.  So I guess that this is just where I am right now.

2) Picnic Island Run #3 (final one): Did it!  And finished the series.  So that was cool.  The race itself was less cool, particularly the part where there was a tropical-level downpour and rain was dripping into my mouth.  That part was pretty gross.

3) Watermelon Run #2 (actually #3): Did it!  And it was 100% humidity.  For real.  Not nearly as much fun as the last one.

I also found a trail race that I am excited to do.  It is the 12-mile choice for the Mystery Mountain Marathon in northern Georgia.  Why the 12 miler?  First, because I don't really have time to get in shape for a marathon right now, particularly one that looks challenging because it will be on trails.  Second, because I have realized that it is nice to do the shorter distance when you are a slow and steady runner.  It alleviates concerns about being the very final last person out there.  This may be a new policy (when possible).  Third, because this is the elevation profile:

Honest to God, this makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Notice that the thoroughly ridiculous drop happens after the 12-mile mark.

But it will still be challenging.  These are technical trails with still some elevation change.  And there could be bears.  In fact, the website warns exactly about that possibility: 'Headphones naturally impair the ability of runners to hear one another on the trail.  (They also hinder your ability to hear bears!)  Please consider leaving your headphones behind.'

So my plan to train for this is to do a challenging 1/2 marathon program, along with some tricky runs.  Such as trail runs.  I did one this morning and it was definitely a challenge--and not only because part of the run consisted of dodging from large banana spider webs (I went out with a local trail running group on Facebook if you are looking for trail runners in the Tampa area).  In fact, we didn't go on one route because there were too many spiders.  That seems like a serious statement when the trail runners are deterred because these are people who happily cavort around the woods with who knows what nature craziness in there.

The run was at Balm Boyette Park, which is mostly used for 'mountain' biking.  That term seems somewhat inappropriate for Florida:

Bright and early.  Some people even had their headlamps.

As part of my official conversion to trail-runner-dom, I did buy an official pair of trail shoes.  I figured that I will definitely need them for the Georgia race, but I was glad to have them this morning.  I meant to take a picture of them last night and share it on the blog because they are among the nicest looking ones that I have owned.  But I forgot, so allow me to share what they looked like after the trail run this morning:

Fortunately this mostly came off with a good rinse.

So that is the news.  Trail running.  It's my new thing.  Although I do also plan to do the Aching Quad in September, which is four races within around 24 hours of each other.