Tempo Workout

Last night I completed what might have been my first true tempo workout. I'm pretty sure I've talked about doing them before, but never really pushed myself in the middle miles to need the cooldown mile. How did it go? Firmly okay.

The planned workout:

TODAY'S WORKOUT

Run a total distance of 6 Mi. Your run should include:

- a warm up of about 1 mile at an easy pace
- 4 Mi at a pace of 9:54 per mile --- for a total time of 39:38.
- a cool down of about 1 mile at an easy pace

Note: Warm ups and cool downs are generally 1 mile each. But on some days, you'll need to make them longer to reach the total distance for your run.

And here's reality:

I'm guessing my warmup and cooldown miles were a little fast. The SmartCoach program has my easy runs at 11:26, so I'm guessing those w/u and c/d should be similarly paced. I didn't hit the pace on the first mile, but after that, I was under the goal pace. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm okay with it.

I also can see why it was hard for me. I don't normally carry that quick of a pace for that long because I am a snail (scared by a giant ant?).

picture from 2010 trip to Las Vegas