Ahhhhh tempo miles. How I’ve missed you.
Not really. But also kind of.
My main issue with tempo miles is the mental stress of knowing you have to hit certain paces, and to be honest they just end up looming over your head all day. Or they do for me, at least. The weird thing is that I don’t actually have that hard a time hitting my paces- the battle is entirely mental for me.
Halfway through I’m just like… can we not?
But then once I’m done I feel an overwhelming sense of satisfaction at having achieved something I really didn’t want to do. I’m trying to follow a Run Less, Run Faster -type training programme, and whilst I’m noticing the benefits, I guess i’m still getting used to having to put in 100% at every training session- no junk or easy miles here!
The point is, tempo miles are an important part of training, and let’s be honest I just need to put my big girl pants on and deal with it.
How do you get through tempo miles?
Lots of love,
Pippa
Pip in Motion 
I am not yet sure how i deal with tempo runs as this is my first training cycle even attempting them hahahahaha. My first few races that i trained for i just had the mentality of get to the finish line injury free, while that is still a goal i am now working in speed workouts and tempo runs and long slow runs, its a whole new ball game for me hahaha. ask me again next year maybe ill have a better answer LOL
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Haha yes pace adds another level of pressure to a race goal! I always become hugely productive whenever I have to go and do tempo miles- hours of procrastination!
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On a side note, would you be interested in a doing a guest post on my blog? I thought it would be a fun way to mix things up a bit 🙂
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Yes, that sounds great!
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My last training cycle I did all my tempo runs on the treadmill and loved it (sounds crazy, eh!).
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How did you get through that? I’d really struggle as my tempo runs are relatively long (I think…) and I can’t do the treadmill for more than like half an hour!
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Yup half the battle is just getting out there. Switching my brain off and going through the motions sometimes helps. Being a bloke I don’t have big girl panties I have an idiot switch as in ‘what kind of idiot would do that to themselves.’
To be fair it’s the same switch that led me to come off my motorbike but there has got to be something positive to come out of it too.
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Haha the idiot switch sounds good too! I can legitimately sort my life out in the hour leading up to a tempo run…because I want to do absolutely everything except go and run!
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I have a love/hate relationship with tempo miles. Find the best thing is to get up early and get them out of the way otherwise they hang over me all day stressing me out. They always end up being a lot better than I imagine
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Yeah I really should give morning tempo runs a go!
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I’d rather put on big girl pants than do speed work. But if you speak to someone who’s carved a half hour of their marathon time with speed work, then that can add some encouragement. Plus, I would never do miles… I’m more of a fartlek person. I need to be able to see the end of the speedy bit…
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Well I’m hoping to knock some time off my PBs so sadly that’s my only option. (And trust me, I did my fair share of bargaining with the running gods…!)
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