The Return of the Tempo Run

You might remember from my last post that a bird shit on my arm on my ride Saturday...

 

Today after work I was getting ready for a nice, easy recovery ride when I noticed this....

 

Seriously?  Right on top of my head?  

*sigh*

Still better than another flat tire.

So I cleaned up my helmet and headed out for an easy recovery ride, my shortest ride of the year actually.  Just 90 minutes, and what a great day for an easy ride.  I couldn't wait to go out and just enjoy being on a bicycle without goals and intervals and all that jazz...

 

This picture was an accident, but I kind of like it.

 

Someone thinks roadies need to be more friendly.

 

What a beautiful evening for a ride.

 

Heading out toward Paoli, Madison's #1 cycling destination.

The reason I did such a short easy ride on a Tuesday, a night I typically do about 60 miles, is because I did my first tempo run in many months at lunch today and I didn't want to do too much today and risk injuring myself.  I was a little nervous about my tempo run.  It had a lot of potential for disaster, but I figured at some point you need to get out there and find out if your body can hold up to faster running.  

I started out with a 5 minute warm up, then finished up with 40 minutes of tempo.  I do my tempo runs by heart rate, so my goal was to keep my heart rate in the upper 150s - about 85% of max heart rate.  I had a tailwind on the way out, which meant a headwind coming back.  That made things tough because I was getting tired.  But I managed a 6:59 pace, which I'm happy with.  The last time I ran tempo was February 15 and I ran a 6:38 pace so I'm quite a bit slower but that's to be expected coming off injury.  

The best news is that my knee and hip held up.  I had a few small twinges of pain in my hip flexor throughout the day, just enough to let me know I'm not out of the woods yet.  But tons better than a month ago so I'm making progress and finally gaining confidence that I might be able to put together a good month of run training in July.  My run fitness will be low going into the month, but I should finish out June with about 85 running miles so things are picking up.

I've also been working hard trying to eat well.  It's not always easy, especially when things get busy in the summertime.  I tend to gravitate toward quick, easy foods when I'm busy and I eat way too many sandwiches and bagels.  So I'm working on cutting that out and finding time to cook.  Courtney and I enjoy cooking, but it's tough to find time to make quality meals sometimes.  One thing that helps a lot is taking the time to pack healthy food for work.  Since all I have to eat there is what I take for the day, if I pack nothing but healthy food I'm forced to eat healthy all day.  It works out.

 

Spinach, cauliflower, carrots, celery, pumpkin seeds and blueberries.

I've been working more and more veggies into my workday meals, which really helps me clean up my diet overall.  I start my lunch with cucumbers everyday, which I'm learning to love.  I started eating them only because they have a mineral called silica which is good for your connective tissues.  I didn't really like them at first, and now I look forward to them.  It's amazing how your tastes can change.  I'm also hooked on celery, another food I didn't really like at first.  And the past week or so I've been taking the time to make a salad every morning to eat as a snack in the afternoon.  I figure, this way, if I get lazy in the evening and don't eat well at least I ate some fruits and veggies earlier in the day.