tempo tempo tempo

Lots of tempo runs, it feels like!
The weather has turned a bit from the super hot two-ish week stretch in July, but the highs are still getting close to 30C, not taking into account that the weather station is probably somewhere in a field on the edge of the city and I'm in the middle of downtown with lots of concrete and glass and car exhaust. It's probably a few degrees hotter here but I purposefully remain ignorant of the exact true temp.

I'm near the end of my marathon training, and am pushing my lactate threshhold quite a bit these days. This means doing tempo runs, my least favourite type of speedwork, especially in summer. However, I've actually gotten used to them, not faster, but better at shutting off the negative thoughts and going into robot mode. I've had six tempo workouts in the past 3 weeks and a half, and there are three more to go. My pace supposedly should be around 7:50/mile, which it has been. It used to be faster (heck, my 1/2 marathon pb was faster), but considering that I haven't done much tempo running in the summer, if any (I can't find any examples in my log because summer tempo runs used to feel horrendous), progress has been made. In general, I'm quite happy with how I've acclimatized and I've actually enjoyed many of my hotter temp runs. Helps not having inflammation!

Of course, I had another tempo run this evening, and I waited until 8 pm and 25C (30ish humidex) to start:

20 min T: 2.55 miles, 7:51/mile
4 min recovery
10 min T: 1.28 miles, 7:49/mile
2 min recovery
10 min T: 1.28 miles, 7:49/mile

Successful! I like consistency. then I did weights. Talk about lack of consistency! I'm hoping that, after the marathon, I'll be more strict with weights and cross-training again.

I haven't actually signed up for the marathon yet but the main thing holding me back is no longer a factor, so I have no excuse. My guts feel fine now. I've been taking iron pills and it feels like my iron is fine too. The main obstacle, apart from tapering effectively, will be avoiding gluten. I will try to avoid eating out for the next 2.5 weeks. We mostly cook from scratch anyway and my husband is doing a diet challenge so we're already laying low when it comes to going out.