Run For Steem: Quick Tempo Run on a Chilly Sunday

This season has been quite interesting as far as running outdoors goes.  It seems every time I run, I'm in a different assemblage of layers. ;)  Normally by this time in the year it's gotten fairly consistently warm during the day, however I think our longest stretch of warmer weather may have actually been in February!  Mother Nature is definitely keeping me on my toes in my choice of running gear.  This run was done on Sunday, which was quite dreary through most of the day so I managed to drag my feet until about 4:30 in the afternoon in the hopes that it would warm up a bit.  I'm sure it will be blisteringly hot in no time, so no complaints about having to shake of the lined purple tights at least once more this season.

Since I didn't get out until later in the day, I knew I only had a short time frame to get my run in.  I haven't done a nice little tempo run in a while so I decided if it was going to be quick, it might as well be QUICK. ;)  I have been diligent about doing some longer interval and speed work, but it's been probably since my last race that I have tried to maintain a consistently speedy pace for longer than a half mile at a time.

I was not trying to bust out a 5k PR, just start out close to my half marathon pace and then speed up gradually through the run to finish out that third mile at a bit faster than race pace.  Since my next half is downhill, I may be able to keep a faster pace than a 9-minute mile so I feel good getting in a little bit of training in the 8:30 range just to get my body acclimated.

I also tried to use this as a good run to focus on my form, including my cadence.  Most of the research I've read about cadence recommends somewhere close to the 180 strides-per-minute range as the ideal.  I tend to be pretty close to that as you can see from my average above.  When I first started running I had a tendency to over-stride, causing IT band issues.  Switching to minimal shoes to encourage a better foot strike seemed to help that, as well as working on my turnover.  I don't analyze near as much as some runners, but it's fun to look at the numbers sometimes.  It can be especially helpful if you do have problems with a nagging injury or seem to be stuck in a rut and not progressing in speed.

I was planning on getting a long run in today, but I'm helping cover for a trainer on vacation and my time might be too limited.  I should be able to carve out a few hours tomorrow morning to get it in.  That's sometimes the hardest thing for me in training for longer distance races--if only I could just cook and run all day. ;)

Happy running everyone!