Monday tempo

There are over 40 main muscles in your leg. I know this for a fact as every single one of them was aching this morning when I woke up. That means 80 muscles were crying out in agony when I woke up and pulled on my running kit.

We runners are masochists. Some days are still harder than others though. There are times when the flesh is weak and the will wavers. Temptation lingers, ever present, and the thought of just lying in bed and waiting for the moment to pass is huge. Luckily I'm very determined and single-minded and probably just plain stupid. I headed out of the door and went for a run first thing this morning.

The programme called for an hour long run at 80-85% max HR. In fact, when I looked in detail at the plan, every Monday was around 80% max HR. Hold on a second; 80% max HR is marathon speed and 85% is half-marathon speed. No way was I going to go out in my state this morning and try and attempt marathon speed, let alone half-marathon speed for an hour. Having made this monumental decision, I set off at my usual pace and usual route and just took it easy(ish).

13.4km later and I arrived back home, satisfied with a job well done. 1:01 to complete the circuit and an average pace of 4:36 per km. I couldn't have gone any faster today. Lord knows how I'll achieve 8x800m tomorrow morning - the flesh is weak !