Slo Jo: Running--a Procrastinator's Best Friend

I'm getting a little obsessive.

Work has become secondary to running. I plan work around the training runs. For example, yesterday I needed to do an eight-mile tempo run...but it was already getting late. I needed to go to the office, but I needed to run....

According to coach Tony Tanser, quoted in Runner's World:

"There's no beating the long run for pure endurance," says Tanser. "But tempo running is crucial to racing success because it trains your body to sustain speed over distance." So crucial, in fact, that it trumps track sessions in the longer distances. 

And:

"Tempo training is more important than speedwork for the half and full marathon," says Loveland, Colorado, coach Gale Bernhardt, author of Training Plans for Multisport Athletes. "Everyone who does tempo runs diligently improves." 

Clearly, work can wait until I get this "crucial to racing success" run in. But what's going on in the body? Runner's World explains:

During tempo runs, lactate and hydrogen ions--by-products of metabolism--are released into the muscles, says 2:46 marathoner Carwyn Sharp, Ph.D., an exercise scientist who works with NASA. The ions make the muscles acidic, eventually leading to fatigue. The better trained you become, the higher you push your "threshold," meaning your muscles become better at using these byproducts. The result is less-acidic muscles (that is, muscles that haven't reached their new "threshold"), so they keep on contracting, letting you run farther and faster.

Okay. Sounds good. I think that means I need my muscles to be less acidic. I think.

(An acid muscle shirt. Apparently not sold with pants.)

So--gotta get this tempo run in, and work be damned. I live just over a mile from work, though, and guilt dictated a genius plan: I would run around the neighborhoods around the office and end up at the office. So I trotted around the neighborhood, listening to my audio book, until I got to eight miles. Tempo run pace was around 11-minute miles. I thought that was pretty good until I read this:

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.

Um, maybe I could have taken it up a notch. I probably could have had a conversation. I was probably at a 6 or 7 most of the time. I did, however, go far enough:

Runners tackling longer distances should do longer tempo runs during their peak training weeks: four to six miles for the 10-K, six to eight for the half-marathon, and eight to 10 for 26.2.

Sweet. Eight miles crucial to race day success: check. Then I arrived at work. Two related problems:

(1) I was wearing running clothes at the office. I work in a professional office. They are business casual, but I had taken that to a whole new level.

(It's a good look. Just not a good work look.)

(2) My running clothes were sweaty, and as I cooled down, I began to freeze.

(This just speaks for itself.)

I decided I needed to go home and shower more than I needed to work. I mean, I was already the master of procrastination at this point. But first, I had to get home. No car. Another mile. Great plan, Slo Jo. A cold front had moved in, and suddenly it looked like winter. An arctic blast was whipping the trees, and the sky had turned dark gray. My friend L called as I was leaving the office building.

L: What are you doing?
SJ: Are you in your car?
L: Yes.
SJ: PICK ME UP!
L: What?

He couldn't, so I had to just get home. So I ran. Cold, wet, sweaty, eight miles in ... well, one more won't hurt. I booked it for home. And logged one of my faster miles this training season, with a 9:45 for my ninth mile time.

True, I still hadn't done any work. But I got my tempo run in!