Treadmill Tempo & How To Determine Your Tempo Pace

This past weekend I ran 16 miles for the first time since last March.  After a successful and inspirational 14 miles on the treadmill last week, I didn’t fear 2 more miles.  I’d like to say that every run I go on is fun, that every run inspires me, but it’s simply not true.  I push through the hard not-so-fun runs to get to the next run in hopes that it will be an amazing one.  Needless to say the 16 was hard, discouraging, and at times I was not even sure if I was going to be able to finish.

My husband has been working crazy hard lately and I thought it would be nice for him to come home to a clean house and a wife who did not need to dash out to run.  I wanted him to be able to relax.

Instead he arrived home to a wife who was yelling and almost in tears.  I had not run and the house was a mess, yet in my running clothes I remained.  Do you care if I run? I mean, I don’t have to if it’s too much.  In that moment he could have deterred me from running and I would have easily given up.  In my head I would have blamed it on him and the kids, not in a negative way, but in a rationalizing to myself that it wasn’t my fault that I didn’t get to run today kind of way.  He said no, it’s fine, run.

I hopped on the treadmill to do a tempo, but didn’t have high expectations. 

For every bad run, there is a good run on the other side waiting for you.

6 miles in less than 48 minutes.  2 mile warm up followed by 3 miles at a tempo pace of 7:03 followed by 1 cool down mile.  I felt amazing. I will dwell on this run rather than my 16 miler.

Tip:
If you are new to tempos, try one out on a treadmill first.  A treadmill will help you maintain an even speed on the tempo part.  Warm up for a minimum of a mile, preferably two.  The first mile is an easy pace.  Gradually increase your speed during your second mile, aiming to hit your tempo speed at the very end.  Hitting your speed before the tempo mile begins ensures that your third mile is indeed the pace on the screen.  Be sure to cool down for at least a mile.  You can cool down 2 miles if you have the time and energy.

On my posting about my first tempo back post baby #3 Elizabeth asked:
Just curious, after all this time off, how do you determine your tempo pace? By feel? Or are you using previous training paces?

I’m doing it a variety of ways and allot of it is on feel. It’s hard to determine your training zones so soon after a baby.

I use the McMillan Calculator and plug in various different times:

Based on my marathon PR last year, which is the last race I have done while not pregnant, my tempo pace would be:  6:59 to 7:17

Based on my goal marathon time of sub 3:40 for National my tempo pace should be: 7:38 to 7:58  Knowing that I am already capable of running 3 tempo miles at a consistent 7:03 pace, shows me that this pace is too slow to be effective for me right now.

Based on my bi-weekly where-is-my-fitness-at mile of 6:23 my tempo pace is: 7:29 to 7:48 Again I feel this pace is too slow to reap the benefits of the tempo run.  A note also on my where-am-I-at mile.  I don’t recommend under normal circumstances running a mile all out every week or even every other week.  The reason I keep doing this is because it is very hard when you are coming back from pregnancy to determine what paces you should be training it and how quickly or slowly you will get your fitness back.  I do this to see how my fitness is progressing and if I should be altering the paces of my workouts! 

So that being said for tempo workouts as this point in time I’m going on feel and using my tempo pace based off my marathon PR.  Hope that helps!