Tempo Run?

Yesterday was my first tempo run since returning to Austin on Tuesday night.  It was pathetic!!  I ran 7 miles and 5 miles at tempo.  I don't know if it was the awful wind or just my dog tired body, but the tempo run was not easy and it was not fast.  Very frustrating after running so well in California.

My overall pace for the entire run was 8:43.  My tempo intervals were all over the place.  They were 8:33, 8:23, 8:15, 8:45 and 7:59.  What gives?!  I'm blaming it on the wind, hills, and poor nutritional intake of the last week.  I'm telling you my tempo runs are starting to give me a bit of anxiety.  Last year I was running very steady tempos at paces between 7:30 and 7:11; a far cry from these 8:40's I've been running.  What gives?

One thing I do know, is that when my pace is on and steady, I can typically hold it for awhile.  I think my tempo runs have just been bad timing.  I'm going to toss this run from my memory bank and hold onto the awesome runs I had in California.  All of those runs were at a steady 8:36 pace over 10, 7, 6 and 5 miles.  My long 14 mile run, which was very comfortable pace was 9:06; a little faster than I realized, kind of shocked since I was solo on that run.

Oh well, we'll see how it goes.  This week I am focusing on my nutritional training and strength training.  I'll go back and look at the runs in two weeks.

Tracy