That selfie photo after my tempo run this evening, perfectly sums up how I was feeling.  I was too tired to even smile.

As you know, almost all of my running is done at an easy pace.  Consistent, easy pace running, is essential to building the base of fitness, required for endurance sports.  It is important however, to mix in some harder effort runs too.  Tonight was one of those harder runs.

The workout prescribed by my coach was as follows:

• 30 minutes Zone 2 warm up
• 30 minute Tempo interval – Gradually increasing from low Zone 3, up to high Zone 4
• 10 minutes cool down run

I felt really good after the warm up interval, and as my watch inched past 30 minutes, I up my effort slightly.  My thinking was to increase my effort every five minutes. I wanted end up going really hard for the last five minutes of the tempo interval.  I chose to increase by effort and not by pace, because my route was not flat. My pace would be impacted by either ascending or descending the hills on my route, so it wouldn’t be a good metric to use.

Everything went well, except for one thing.  I increased my effort in increments that were too big.  This meant that, with ten minutes of the interval left to do, I was going pretty much all out.  I had no option, but to try and push through.

The last few minutes were really tough.  I was having major GI issues and I also felt like I was going to be sick.  I was worried that I would either puke or poop before the interval was over… LOL.  Fortunately, I survived and neither happened. I finished the tempo interval gasping for air, but really pleased with my effort.

Looking at the data from my workout this evening, it was obvious that I put in a good effort.  I had hit peak 2020 heart rates in both the 1 minute average and 5 minute average categories.  I also hit several top pace intervals.

Hard runs play a part in training too.  The key is to go hard, when you need to go hard.  This evening, I did just that.