Not Every Run Is A Good One

Generally people enjoy telling stories about recent PR races or satisfying training runs (myself included) but rarely mention those poor performance training days or races. In an effort to be transparent about my marathon training, I thought it would be a good idea for me to share information about a recent unsatisfying training day.

I have at least a few runs a month that leave me feeling like crap, such as those where I get a stubborn side stitch, feel like my feet are encased in cement, get slightly light headed for no good reason, or for one reason or another just cannot get into an enjoyable tempo were I can forget about the mileage and instead just zone out in the scenery and my music.

My SFM training program schedules us to do a tempo run every Wednesday. Last week was only a five mile tempo run. (See description below of tempo runs.) For starters, I didn't do five miles. Nope, I barely squeezed out four miles. How fast did I run? Well, not even close to a tempo pace. The run would be better characterized as an "easy" run, or more bluntly, a "dragging my tired butt along" run. The entire time I was running I couldn't help but look at the mileage, dearly hoping it would be over soon. I thought to myself, why am I doing this? I should have just skipped today's run. I not only ran at a snail's pace, but because I had to pee the entire time (bad planning on my part) I stopped for a few minutes at around mile three thinking I'd duck into a local restaurant to pee. After stopping, I felt so tired that I realized if I waited another five minutes to start running again I wouldn't even finish four miles! So I didn't stop to pee and just slogged through the last mile.

This past weekend I thought a little more about my training program and how to avoid repeating last week's crappy run this coming week. I don't want to skip tempo runs, but I've learned that the SFM training schedule does not always work for my schedule or my body. I am notoriously tired on Wednesdays from the Tuesday track session, which always involves speed work. By using Wednesdays for cross-training, instead of a tempo run, I can let my body rest from the speed work, and re-direct my energy toward making Thursday's marathon-pace run a worthwhile endeavor.
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Tempo Runs:

I've read about them, but mathmatically, I am not always sure how to pace out a tempo run based on my goal pace. John Hanc of Runner's World Magazine defines a classic tempo run as "a slow 15-minute warmup, followed by at least 20 minutes at a challenging but manageable pace, then a 15-minute cooldown--as often as twice a week." So what is a challenging pace? Here is how the article explains it:

To ensure you're doing tempo workouts at the right pace, use one of these four methods to gauge your intensity.

Recent Race: Add 30 to 40 seconds to your current 5-K pace or 15 to 20 seconds to your 10-K pace
Heart Rate: 85 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate
Perceived Exertion: An 8 on a 1-to-10 scale (a comfortable effort would be a 5; racing would be close to a 10)
Talk Test: A question like "Pace okay?" should be possible, but conversation won't be.