Higdon's Traditional Tempo Run

After 14.5 weeks of heavy training, it's hard to come up with the motivation sometimes to run. Last night was one of those nights. The plan called for a 6.5 mile tempo run. I was in NO mood for my typical tempo run. I had thoughts of substituting an 8 mile run outside but the freezing rain put a damper on that idea. Since I was doing Higdon's plan, I thought that maybe I could try one of his tempo runs. Higdon's style of tempo run is described as "A tempo run is a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near 10-K race pace".

I hit the treadmill and the plan was to still try to get 6.5 miles in with a 10 minutes peak at 7:13 pace about 35 minutes into the run. I started out with a .5 mile warmup and increased my pace when I started to feel comfortable. Fortunately, I hit the 35 minute mark right where I wanted to be. I hit the speed to 8.3 and was off dor my 10 minutes at near 10K pace. I completed the workout by gradually slowing the next 10 minutes.

This workout felt good and refreshing. I'm glad I chose this workout as it broke up the tempo run monotony. This is the last of the major tempo runs. I have 1 minor (4 miles) tempo run left during the taper period.