Woke up a bit early today (before my alarm) and got on the treadmill before 6AM. I had planned to have a bit of a workout. Initially I toyed with 2 X 2 miles at 6:40 pace. Since I always play things by ear I switched it up a bit as I worked out.
Warmed up for 2 miles starting at 6.8 mph and bumping up to 8.6 mph by the end of the 2nd mile.
Then bumped the pace up to 9 mph (6:40 pace) at 1% incline. It was a good effort but not too hard. HR was in the 160-165 range. Planned on doing 2 miles but at the end of the 2nd decided to do 3 straight miles instead for a 20 minute tempo. By the end of the 3rd mile I was feeling it. Dropped the pace to 8.0 mph (7:30 pace) and ran another 2 miles. HR dropped a tad but held in the 158-160 range.
I continued slowing the pace for the 8th mile going from 7:30 down to 8:30 pace by the last bit.
The workout was harder than I've done for a while but also different then some of my sustained hard efforts. I did a lot of long sustained efforts in the 7 min/mile range but the one thing I've lacked is the faster paced 'tempo' runs.
I've always had the intent to do more real tempo runs. Maybe 2021 will be the year. Writing now, I'm kind of excited about this idea because I think I could see some pretty significant fitness gains with some faster paced mileage.
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