Treadmill Tempo Run

The past week has been challenging for me to get out for a run. The only run I'd done since my last long run was speed work on Tuesday. Because I was organizing the St. Patricks Eve celebrations for the Lucan District Lions Club, my time has been at a premium this past weekend. And other days -- such as the scheduled tempo run last Thursday -- didn't happen because the weather was crappy.

But, finally, I knew I had to get out and get a "toning" run in. I'm sort of tapering for the Around the Bay race this coming Sunday, so I didn't feel like I needed to get a long run in. But because I missed my tempo run last Thursday, I felt that getting something in today would be a good idea. The only problem is that the weather today wasn't just crappy -- it was _really_ crappy: snow, sleet, wind -- just not fun running weather.

So I went to the treadmill -- and it wasn't awful. The plan was to do 60 minutes of tempo -- 30 minutes "out" (slowly) and 30 minutes "back" (faster than marathon pace). Now, I'm still not comfortable with what the treadmill says is my speed. 5.0 should be 5 miles per hour (12 minute miles), but because I know that the treadmill needs calibration by 13.1%, it would actually be 10:36 minute miles. Definitely slow for those 2.76 (calibrated) miles. And while I was sweating by the time I was done the 30 mintutes, but nothing like I would be sweating on the way "back".

On the way back, I stepped it up to 7.0 on the treadmill (7:34/mile calibrated) for the first 2.9 miles. I was breathing hard, but relatively comfortably. For the final "1.0" miles (1.13 calibrated), I stepped it up to 7.5 (7:04/mile calibrated). I was breathing very hard and wondered if I'd get through the whole mile at that pace. Now that I look at that pace, its no wonder: I was basically doing a "speed work" pace.

All told, I did 6.0 "miles" (6.78 calibrated) in 1:00:33, or 8.9 minutes per mile. But those last 4 miles (roughly 6.4 kilometres) I was going at a pretty good clip.

I have hockey tomorrow night -- and that is very much like speed work in that you're into short bursts of all-out speed. And then maybe a couple of easy runs for the rest of the week. And then its showtime.

The weather on Sunday is currently forecast to be cool (1 or 2 degrees C as the high) with anywhere from 0 to 76% chance of precipitation, depending on who you believe. I'm good with that temperature. Definitely shorts weather and likely my orange Boston jacket or maybe my black Boston jacket that I can remove the sleeves from. As long as the wind isn't too strong, I should be okay.