I'm sure everybody is tired of hearing about how my tempo runs suck, but what can I do?

On Wednesday, in cold (33 F), light snow, I ran my worst tempo since the LSC half. 4 miles fast with splits of 6:22, 6:31, 6:27, 6:36. As you can see, by mile 4, I was done for. Average of 6:29/mile. It's time to admit that I can't run 6:20 paced tempos just now. So next week, I'll slow it down to run the first two miles at 6:30, and only accelerate if I can in the last two miles.

There are many plausible explanations why I'm slowing. For one, I'm increasing mileage. Also, it is getting colder, darker, and it is hard to run in the winter due to seasonal changes in human metabolism. It could also be partly mental. I can run mile 1 in 6:20 and feel fine, but then when fatigue starts to take over, I may lack the mental strength to push through it. Anyway, considering that a year ago I had trouble running sub-7 miles at this phase of my training, I think I'm OK.

Sorry for the changed appearance. Google essentially forced this out of me. With my old template the website started to throw error messages at me every time I tried to post.

I ran my weekly tempo today. It didn't go very well. I think I'm not ready to run this fast. I tried 6:20-6:25 pace, and at the end, I did finish 4 miles at average of 6:24 or so, but my paces were all over the place, and for mile four I felt like crap. Oh, well. I guess the same was true last winter. Reading back my blog I see myself complaining that I can't run faster than 6:50 pace for the 4-mile tempos. Maybe next winter I would complain that I can't run sub-6 tempos. :)

I will keep trying for 6:20-6:25. I should be running the 6:20 by January.

OK, here is how today went: I went to the group trail run, but nobody was there (I was 5 minutes late, so maybe they left, though that would be surprising given that they knew I was coming). I decided to do my 4 mile tempo. But I was sort of unprepared, it was dark and cold, and I just didn't have the will to run fast beyond mile 2. And my right shoelace was kind of loose. So I stopped, tied my shoe, ran 3:30 recovery and then 2 more miles fast. Even in the intervals I wasn't very fast, and the worse is that I was gradually slowing during both of my intervals. So I'm officially in a rut.

It does look like I hit this place every November-December. It may be seasonal. I'm not too worried still. My splits were still OK, I still ran some decent LT workout today. My ankle is not really better, but at least it's also not worse.

Mon, ~6 miles in my bricks.

It looks like I'm getting slower every week. Today it took me 22:27 to run the 3.5 miles, which is 6:24.85 pace. It is still not terrible, and I did *not* go over 6:25, so by my statement of last week, I can't be upset. But I'm very close to being upset... Why am I getting slower every week is a puzzle. Is it the winter slump? Too much stress in real life? We'll see... next week I'll try 4 miles.