The BIG Tempo Run

There are workouts, and there are the BIG workouts. Everything has a purpose, whether its a quick set of 200s on the track, mile repeats at Liberty Park, long runs on the Jeremy Ranch road, etc.

We've done a mix of all kinds of things this fall... a bunch of building blocks, sort of like puzzle pieces, that hopefully come together perfectly and set us up to run 26.2 miles as fast as possible.

After the Long Beach 1/2 Marathon, our focus shifted to very specific marathon-paced tempo runs. Our "signature" workout is a 13.1 mile tempo run at marathon pace. I figure that if you can run that workout on tired legs (you do it during your highest mileage weeks), and at altitude, then you can run twice the distance at that pace when tapered, rested, and at sea-level.

Last night we did the BIG tempo. I ran 1:09:16, Andrea ran 1:22:48. Both right on the pace we need to hit in just over 3 weeks.

Here's a video I shot... once you get through the first minute of my rambling, there's some good footage of Andrea running strong and smooth...