Progressive tempo run

I am still very sore from the sprint that I did with my brother the day before yesterday. So I had decided just to run easy to cap off an easy week. But when I started running I felt better, still tired, but wanted to run harder than easy. So I ran easy till getting in the conservatory, then I decided to do 6 laps slower than my tempo pace, but much faster than my easy pace,  I was thinking about 5:20 per lap. I decided not to look at the watch during my tempo  and definitely will do it in future tempo runs, you takes a lot of pressure off an the body find the right pace itself.

An elite american athlete that I e-mail every now and then for a bit of advice told me that tempo runs should off effort and thinking about it, its true. Its pointless to hit certain splits during tempo runs, because tempo runs should be confortably hard, sometimes it will be a " fast" pace, other days will be much " slower", but the effort is what really matters, as He stated, body only know effort and duration, not pace or distance. The same for easy runs, effort should be easy, if you see pushing the pace too fast, the best is to hold yourself back, use that energy when you are being a pussy in your stress workouts.

I tried that in today's tempo run, I had tried that during my workouts years ago with great success, but some reason stopped doing it so from now on I ll just incorporate that, that is how you learn to race by effort, by training off effort.

Did 6 laps in 5:35,5:22,5:12,5:12,5:09,5:03. As you might know already the conservatory is much harder than the mirador because it contains a couple of hills and a lot of turns. In the mirador you just start and run on auto pilot because its a straight line till the turn around, then its another straight line to home. In the conservatory, you cant let your mind wander, because of the turns and hills.

I felt good today, felt under control, but the last 1.5 laps today really hurted, not pacewise, but the effort was getting very hard.  Looking at the splits, I now understand why it felt hard in the last couple of laps. Those types of workouts give you a lot of confidence in long races, and its good to let the pace come to you, instead of puttng an arbitrary pace.

Cooled down 1.2k to home for a total of 8.5k in around 48 mins or a bit  less, dont know because I stopped the watch when I finished the tempo.

A good finish to a good easy week! This week I ll resume intervals, the fat loss continues!

Have a great weekend!