Day 6, Week 2: Tempo NINJA

I grabbed the dog this morning and headed out for a 5:30-ish AM tempo run.  I did surprisingly less hemming and hawing and sitting around with my coffee not wanting to do the run since I knew I was going to have to blog about it later.  Who knew posting stupid pictures of myself every day would refill my running mojo?  Not me, that's for sure.

The tempo was supposed to be run at an average 8:48 pace.  You can see below how well I met that target:

Seriously, 5th mile??  8:19?  After running 4 miles before that?  Like I've said before, I'm an idiot.  Why?  Because I'm a big believer in running training runs at the pace you're supposed to run them at, because running them faster all the time just leads to overtraining.  I blame the fact that it was dark when I did this run and couldn't obsessively stare at my watch every 3 nanoseconds to make sure I was on pace.

But after I saw my splits I have to admit I felt like a running ninja and spontaneously broke out into some crane, boys and girls.

This was also way better than doing the tempo on a treadmill.  Why?  Here's the difference for me between tempo running outside vs. treadmill:

Tempo outside: 1) Terie runs the whole time at the desired pace (or faster) while bring dragged by a dog

Tempo on the treadmill: 1) Finish warm-up mile  2) Kick treadmill up to tempo pace  3) Stop every few minutes to do something like blow my nose or get a drink as an excuse not to run so fast on the treadmill 4) Finish the run thinking, "Well, that was better than nothing."

On a completely different topic, I decided to use this blog to not only write stupid workout posts, but also to write stupid reviews of new gear that I'm trying.  The first piece of gear I'll be trying is this little beauty from Fitletic:

You see, I love Fitletic running belts...but despise hydration belts.  Those little water bottles usually cause me all sorts of trouble and I end up throwing a tantrum during the run whereby the hydration belt doesn't make it home with me and is never EVER seen again.  

But I decided to give this hydration belt a shot because as I've mentioned before carrying a water bottle in my hand during a run is, for me, akin to having a root canal just for the fun of it. And unfortunately water is just a little necessary on those 20 milers. So...I'm going to suck it up and try this belt and review it for you because hey--that's the kind of runner I am.  I'll endure the pain of potentially crappy gear so you don't gave to.

I'm also going to try it out on not just any old training run--I'm going to try it out at the Twin Cities Marathon weekend in two weeks.  Be prepared for gritty, raw reviewing right in the thick of marathon endurance....and be prepared for lots of shaky video and swear words.  But wait to prepare until, like, the day before.  Wouldn't want anyone to peak too early.

Tomorrow's workouts: Bike ridin' and weight liftin.  Yeehaw!