First Tempo Run W/ Gazelle

Workout: Tempo Run
(1 mile warm-up, 20 minute tempo, 1 mile cool down)

To night was my first “Speed” workout with the Gazelle Group. They meet at Western’s Track every Tuesday. I am really looking forward to these workouts because I hate speedwork, as I have stated here 1000 times, but I think having the group support will be good.

When I arrived there were about 30 people there which was great. And evidently the Half Marathoners program does not include speedwork yet, so the group will get larger later in the season. Anyway we were all grouped by our “VDOT”. Not entirely sure what this is, other than it has to do with training pace. So being grouped by our VDOT means everyone in any particular group will run about the same pace. This is good!

So we started out with a warm-up run through Western’s Campus. This was great. It was an easy pace so there was a lot of chatting and getting to know each other. Also there were a lot of students out and about even though it’s summer break so that was fun.

After we got back to the track we grouped by VDOT’s and then started our track workout. The idea behind a Tempo Run is to run at just below your Lactic Threshold. Based on my 10K time mine is a 7:57/m pace or 1:57/lap. I ran with the J’s… Jim Jeff & Julie. They were great. All training for Chicago as well so that’s all good.

Here were my splits….

Warm-up: 8:59 (1 mile)

400meter laps
Lap 1 1:56
Lap 2 1:56
Lap 3 1:59
Lap 4 2:00
Lap 5 2:00
Lap 6 2:00
Lap 7 1:57
Lap 8 1:56
Lap 9 1:55
Lap 10 1:56

Cool Down: 8:19 (1 mile)

4.5 miles/36:54/avg 8:07