tempo!

Lately, I've had it in my mind to do a tempo run. I understand this to be a shorter run than you normally do, but at a faster pace - "comfortably hard," I've heard. That sounds like an oxymoron to me. Still, I tried to reconcile this in my mind as I ran this afternoon.

There is a 1 mile loop in my neighborhood - perhaps the most boring part of my whole neighborhood - but it was useful for me today. I timed myself running the first mile at what I thought was a normal pace for me, and it ended up being 9:30. That's definitely faster than I normally run. I think of myself of more a 10-11-12 minute mile type. I think it was a bit of self imposed pressure.

So, I finished the first warm up mile and rested briefly before going all out for the tempo. It was hard, and I came in at 8:40. It wasn't especially fun, but I am strangely excited to do it again.