Jude, I too have a harder time figuring out what pace to run on longer tempo runs. JD of course says tempo is to run "comfortably hard." I try to push myself, but to still feel decent after each segment, with the goal of feeling fairly fatigued by the end of the last tempo due to the sum of all the segments... I don't look too much at pace; I just go for a feel. Others may have more helpful advice.
I think next weekend's marathon pace 12 miler should be run at 6:45 to 6:50 pace? 1 mile easy warmup (8 min pace) and 1 mile easy cooldown (8 min pace). Thoughts on that?
Today, in order to reach my goal of 70 miles this week, I went for 2 runs. I started with 8.6 miles this morning, which was longer than planned due to a dog following me, and whereby I had to run through a cemetery, out a gate, then in the opposite direction of home and through a farm field in order to keep the dog from following me onto busy roads where it could have lost its life. Then I ate at the Northland cafeteria for lunch. Think Kagan, $5, all you can eat, and a stack of 7 plates from 70 minutes of grazing.
I finished the late afternoon with a 5 1/4 mile easy run, during which a fellow runner caught up to me, and we proceeded to run together. He also is running Grandma's; we exchanged numbers and we may run together in future.
Then I went to the brewery in town and was pleasantly surprised to find an all you can eat pizza buffet. I ate salad, wings, a meatball, 7 slices of pizza, a quarter of a burger, and 4 waffle fries.
Lots of running. Lots of eating.
Got a laugh out of the image of you running through cemeteries and farm fields. And good lord, that's a lot of food. Of course, it takes a lot to sustain a very large amount of muscle mass.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the dog? Did you eat it?
ReplyDeleteBy my calculations, Tim, I think you and I should aim for 6:24 pace. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteJudging by my intervals from last week, 1200 meters at 4:15 equates to a 5:44 mile (or even slower because I was tired at the end of the 1200m and couldn't have kept pace for another 400m). So let's say 5:50-5:55 and I'm tired after 1 mile, thus 6:24 for 12 seems a little fast for me at this point. Maybe the best plan will be to start at 6:45 pace and at mile 4 or 5 if things are feeling light and springy, then we gradually ratchet the pace down to 6:24 for the last 3-4 miles?
ReplyDeleteYou're probably right; 6:24 is to fast for us right now. However, I vote we start at 6:30-6:35 pace and see where that takes us. My average pace over 10 miles (that includes warm-up, cool down, and 2 minute rests) during last Wednesday's threshold workout was 6:39. My guess is you're in better shape than you know. That said, let's see how these next couple workouts go before making any final decisions.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think I am in better shape than I had thought. I had a good workout today. 6:35 pace to start and then ratchet down to 6:25 in the middle of the run will be fine, I think.
ReplyDelete