thepredictor wrote:
just out of curiosity, why does my tempo pace feel much more difficult than it should? Let's say my 5k race pace is 5:00/mile - 5:30-35 for a 4 mile tempo feels like a race in itself and is rather challenging. I understand that there are a plethora of variables, but shouldn't 5:30-35 feel 'comfortably hard'? or am i just performing above expectation? It literally feels as if I am redlining at 5:30.
It means your lactate threshold is weak. Try to slow down and run at the appropriate effort level on threshold and tempo workouts to better improve your lactate threshold until you can comfortably run tempos more in line with your race results, but by then you should run faster times in races due to the improved threshold. So in theory your threshold may never completely catch up if you're more of a fast twitch guy, but by improving it you'll run faster.