doing work

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Kelly

Not sure how it happened, but the Buffalo Marathon is only about 14 weeks away – yikes! Sure I’ve been running some decent mileage and doing workouts, but my head hasn’t really been in the game lately. Life has been weird. But! Things are looking up and it’s definitely time to get down to business training-wise.

Tuesday’s workout:

  • 3 mile tempo, 80-85% effort

Coach John doesn’t like to focus on pace, but rather the effort of a workout like this. Still, I had a particular pace in my head that I wanted to hit for each mile and (spoiler) failed semi-miserably.

Screen shot 2013-02-21 at 8.40.39 AM

I warmed up for three miles and started the tempo down West Drive and around the southern end of the park. It was significantly hilly, but definitely took more out of me than I had envisioned. Kind of a bummer, especially since the NYC Half is in less than a month and running 10.1 more miles a bit faster than the tempo seems a little daunting (Coach John says I can’t really race the NYC Half BUT I STILL WANT TO).

I cooled down on the bridle path for ~4 more miles and gave myself a pep talk. The workout was the first with consecutive sub-8 miles since the Ted Corbitt 15K in December, pre-injury. Of course it’s going to feel a little hard. But I’m healthy, motivated and 14 weeks is still a good chunk of time. There is definitely a lot of work to do before that 3:34:XX can happen in May, but I still think it’s possible, and I’m finally feeling a bit more focused to start getting shit done.

I’m also focusing on getting it done with studying and a certain pending examination, so will be spending a lot of QT in my favorite windowless room at the library.

IMG_2462

this is the library. they put these new metal things up to deter people from jumping (truth)

Question: Do you focus on pace or effort during workouts? I guess I do both, depending on the workout. Do you like tempo runs?

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  • http://twitter.com/thismouseruns Jen Schramm

    I remember before the 2003 jumper, when the library didn’t look like a jail. Le sigh.

  • runningseal

    I run by feel mostly. I am usually a pretty good judge for how far I can sustain a certain effort. Usually they are pretty in line with what “I am supposed to do.” I like tempo more than short intervals. Long runs and marathons are my favorite. They are the least painful :)

  • http://runthelongroad.com/ RunTheLongRoad

    i do like tempos. better than mile repeats (but, isn’t everything?!?!). i pretty much always have a goal time in mind but i make sure i’m connected to my effort level too. i don’t want too much disparity between the two.

  • http://www.susanruns.com/ Susan – Nurse on the Run

    14 weeks is so long, yet so short…but you still have plenty of time to regain some fitness and rock that BQ.

    For my workouts, I generally have an idea of what pace I should run, then I go by feel. It gives me an idea of where I’m supposed to be, but I’m always sure what I’m capable of so I go by what feels right. Then again, I’m still not sure I’m running the right pace! So tricky, but I spend too much time on McMillan, ha.

    Love tempo runs! I’d definitely rather do a long hard workout than any sort of repeats.

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