How to Ruin a Tempo Run

Time: 98:58
Distance: 16.13 miles

W/u: 18:24 for 2.41 miles
W/o: 15 mile tempo run at MP or faster
C/d: 21:27 for 2.72 miles

You read that right. A 15 mile tempo run was supposed to take place out at McAlpine this afternoon. I spent the morning working at home before dipping out to get in this major workout. I had high hopes of nailing the pace and effort, but at the same time didn't want to put too much stock in one effort. I felt fine on the warm up from Old Bell. After leaving a water bottle filled with Gatorade Endurance at the mile mark, I turned and headed back to the parking lot. I slipped into a pair of racing flats and tried to picture the workout in my mind.

I estimated that I would be out for about 80-82 minutes if all went according to plan. The trail wasn't in great shape and I figured it would be running a little slow due to the recent rains. If I hit 5:30s early on then I just had to keep the focus on and not get too discouraged over slow splits.

Here's how you ruin a tempo run...

Splits:
5:11.0, 5:11.9, 5:25.4, 5:23.8, 5:17.5, 5:14.0, 5:23.6, 5:26.0, 5:28.0, 5:28.7, 5:37.7 for 59:07 and 11 miles.

Yea, that was a little aggressive at the start. During mile 1, I looked down and saw that I was running 5:08 pace. It felt relaxed and I had a slight wind at my back, but that's way too fast for the surface and duration of this workout. I relaxed a bit and hit the mile in 5:11. I grabbed the water bottled that I stashed and continued on my way to the start of the Footlocker Course. It felt liked I had backed off and I wasn't too worried about the pace for this mile because I was carry about 20 oz. of Gatorade. I told myself that a 5:25 split would be perfect. It was good to see that I dropped another 5:11, but I knew I might have just ruined the workout.

The route took me out to the greenway across the bridge near the half mile mark on the Footlocker Course. The pace slowed as there is a slight incline. A crosswind also helped slow the pace, but I was still feeling relatively strong. I turned at 4 miles and headed back to the start of the Footlocker Course dropping two sub-5:20 miles. Again, it was good to see a 5:14 split, but I knew it was still early to be running that fast.

I planned to run 3 laps of the Footlocker Course to get in the final 9 miles. Mentally this was going to be the easiest part of the workout because I am most familiar with the miles. In hindsight I think I made a miscalculation as physically these were probably the toughest miles. I ran mile 8 in 5:26 which included the hill. The wheels started falling off during mile 9 where I dropped a 5:28. The back woods section was muddy and as I was tiring making the terrain less efficient started the downward spiral. I ran another 5:28 on the section with the wind at my back (first mile of the course) and then I was tapped as I went up over the hill (5:38).

The hamstrings were finished and the early pace caught up to me. I wasn't going to be able to get things back on track in the last 4 miles and, frankly, I didn't want to see 5:40s. I stopped at 11 miles and took my workout of 1 hour of hard running. Obviously, it's never fun to stop a workout short, but sometimes you have to realize when the last 25 minutes of a workout are going to do more harm than good.