Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Acceleration Tempo Training

Today I did my favorite workout, an acceleration tempo walk, or A. Tempo. An A. Tempo consists of a short warm up, then a series of miles run at increasingly faster speeds, then a short cool down. The main reasons I like this type of workout are that it simulates race conditions (slower start, gradual increase in speed), it always results in a negative split, and the later, faster miles never feel very hard. Today was a great workout--after the half mile walk from my house to the track I did five miles on the track and then a half mile cool down back home. My mile splits were 11:18, 10:49, 10:26, 10:14, 10:14 (should have pushed harder on the last mile). I actually thought the first 10:14 mile would be slower than the previous mile because these fast miles don't feel hard. If you want to add some variety to your workout, give this a try.

Distance: 6.07 miles
Time: 1:06:27
Pace: 10:56