Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Tempo Run On Not Enough Sleep

The day started for me at 4:40am. That's when my younger son entered the room - awake and full of energy. Perhaps it was full of anxiety - his first day of Nursery School is today. My wife brought him back to his room, but he started to shout and cry - like only a 2 year old can - and woke up my older son. So the entire Fox household has been up since 4:45am.

There were feeble attempts to get the kids back to sleep, but it just wasn't happening.

At about 5:45am I decided to put my running clothes on. My wife said to me, "you're just going to leave me here with all of this???". I reminded her that I was already planning to get up and run at this time anyhow - and since the kids aren't going to get back to sleep we may as well start the day, right?

I really had no concrete plan. I knew I was going to do a Tempo Run - I was thinking somewhere in the 6 or 7 mile range. With the lack of sleep, I knew off the bat it was going to be shorter.

The weather was great. Clear skies (although still dark at 6am - I was wearing my reflective vest), 59 degrees. Awesome for running!

The first mile - at an easy pace - was done in 10:24 at 137 bpm average HR. I felt really good. Time to bump up the pace!!!

I got through the first two miles of my Tempo Run just fine - with HR in the low 170s - however then I started to tire out. I decided to stop the fast running after 3 miles. The three miles took 26:29 - an 8:50/mile pace. Average HR was 174.

I decided to do my 5.5 mile loop - instead of 6 or 7 miles - and I'll do an easy jog the rest of the way. That was my intent. However, when Eminem's Lose Yourself came on the iPod, I couldn't control myself from running faster. I'm not sure what it is with that song, but it makes me want to pick up the pace... The last 1.5 miles in 15:15 - just over a 10 minute mile.

It was a great run to brighten up a perfectly horrible start to the morning.

BTW, my son never made it to his first day of Nursery School. He fell asleep on the car ride to school at 9am :-)
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One more tidbit - the photos from the Kentlands/Lakelands 5K were posted today. Here's me gutting it out at the end!

1 comment:

Rick said...

What a great race shot, Mike. You look good. You look like you've leaned out quite a bit. Keep up the great work!