Ten Mile Run and the Tempo of Doom

The Tempo of Doom was Friday’s run, followed by a day off on Saturday and a 10 miler this morning.

The tempo run was a ‘moderate’ one, 5 miles with a mile warm up / cool down either side. I had no idea how to gauge the ‘moderate’, I’m still struggling with the ‘tempo’. The best definition I can find is here.

It says that a tempo run should be “Comfortably hard; you know you’re working, but you’re not racing. At the same time, you’d be happy if you could slow down.”

Helpful.

To be honest, I think I do get it, I’m just struggling with it because it’s bloody hard. On Friday I happened to run my 5 miles at my goal half marathon pace (7mins 12s/mile), which is either good or worrying. Could I run 8.1 more miles at that pace? That is indeed the question.

I worked hard on the tempo run and it went pretty well, despite feeling like death on every incline. In comparison, today’s 10 miler was a shocker. I felt like an old lady with thighs made out of Edinburgh rock that could crumble at any time. Still managed 8 minute miles so hardly a write-off, but I’m going to have to get a whole lot faster over the next 7 weeks.