Coach Kate decided to take us off the track and on the West Side running path for a 3 mile tempo run. A bunch of people, myself included, in the group were disappointed because Yves-Marc said last week that we would be doing 400s this week. Brad was once again pacing the 7:00/mile group, except this time he said he wanted us to lead and he would come along for the ride. Since our 5k pace is around 7:00/mile our target pace for the tempo should have been around 7:15 One of the runners who calls herself "The Machine" took the lead and set a very fast pace, around 6:45. I have to admit that the pace didn't feel that hard. The run got harder when we turned around at 57th St. Now we were running into the wind. Our pace slowed but we were able to average 6:59 for the run. What was supposed to be a tempo run turned into a 5k race run. Run details can be found here (lap 7 is the tempo run).
When we got back to Paragon there was a treat waiting for us. TK treated the group to some yummy homemade sour cream fudge drop cookies in celebration of her birthday.
1 comment:
I find that group tempo runs often turn out that way. Yes, it depends on other factors, like the length of the workout and who is leading, but it often becomes 'how fast can we run this thing' rather than slowing the pace down a little for a true tempo run. Nothing wrong with that, per se, but, like you said, then they are not tempo runs, they are races!
In these speed sessions, I definitely prefer the shorter repeats better.
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