Putting the rule to the test

After reading the 25 Rules of Running yesterday I decided to give the tempo-pace rule a try today.  

The Tempo-Pace Rule

Lactate-threshold or tempo-run pace is about the pace you can maintain when running all-out for one hour.

This pace is about 20 seconds slower per mile than your 10-K race pace, or 30 seconds slower per mile than 5-K race pace. "The key benefit of this pace is that it's fast enough to improve your threshold for hard endurance running, yet slow enough that you don't overload your muscles," says Daniels. The ideal duration of a tempo run is 20 to 25 minutes.

The Exception: The exact pace is less than 20 seconds slower per mile than 10-K race pace for faster runners and slightly more than 30 seconds slower per mile than 10-K race pace for slower runners.

The original workout was 8 or 9 miles with 5 miles @ an 8:00 pace.  I decided to shoot for time instead of distance to see if I could do it.  So the plan was to warm up for 10 - tempo for 60 and cool down for 10. I might have missed the line that shows the ideal duration being 20-25 minutes and read this as running tempo for 60 minutes.  Oops.  

Anyway, it was a great run and very hard.  I warmed up for 10 minutes with a bit of walking then a slower paced run then ran at an 8:00 min/mile for 60 minutes (actually the last 10 minutes I sped it up and got down to a 7:00 min/mile by the very end).  Then I cooled down with a slower paced run for another 10 minutes.  My total mileage was 9.25 in 80 minutes. 

It felt great to push my body hard and then at the end to know I did it!!