recovery after a tempo type run

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I would skip the race. It's definitely too soon after your tempo run. You probably shouldn't run a race within five days of a tempo run. Racing on Sunday might even NEGATE the training effect of the tempo run on Friday since you'll be tearing your body down before it has a chance to rebuild from the tempo run.

problem is I gotta do the race, I thought that 2 days (well, 36 hrs) would be enough rest.

OK. Just don't do it again. A tempo run is hard, so you might as well get the benefit of the training effect, which you probably won't if you race 36 hours later. At least not the full effect, since a race will tear you down before you recover from the tempo run.

thanks for the advice. just a thought though, this tempo stuff is new to me so I may not have been going at tempo pace.

I estimate I was doing about 10 to 12 km pace, and for 20 of the 25 mins. So maybe not a true tempo run.

Also, your post seems to stress the "negate the tempo run's effectiveness" if I do the race as opposed to "you will run a poor race as you are not fully rested". So may I still be able to pull off a decent 10km if I rest tonight, although I may mess up the work the I did in the tempo run?

Thanks

Your duration is ideal: 20-25 mins. But your pace should be 10-15 secs. per mile slower than 10k race pace (or equal to 10-mile race pace). So you were going a bit fast.

The idea is to push yourself just to the point at which you begin to secrete lactic acid and not much beyond it. This will raise your anaerobic threshold. The effort in a tempo run should be hard, but not to the point of tying up.

As for your race, the tempo run probably won't slow you down much since it was only for 20-25 mins; although by running at 10-12 km race pace, you were pushing harder than you needed to to get the training effect.

thank you very much for your help.

running sure has changed. 10 years ago I just ran hard all the time, but low mileage. Didnt have a clue about what pace to go, and didnt know anything about HR. A bit different this time around.

Mir - I was under the impression that a fit person can run a marathon 87% of max heart rate - give or take. Therefore, you might not have done the tempo run all that hard (84%). But you indicated it was like 10k-12k pace so I'm confused - something is not adding up. Regardless, maybe do a 20min shake-out at a crawl pace tonight and just try to make the best of it. In the future, leave more time as others have said.

Good luck.

If you can't go hard(vo2 or race) 2 days after a tempo, you either went to hard, or aren't in great shape. I tempo run has specific parameters. Terms used to describe these efforts, "Comfortably Hard" "Controlled Effort". If you are feeling anything short of "stimulated after a tempo run, it wasn't a tempo run.

Talk to your coach.

thanks for the help so far,

I guess I should be fine for tomorrow. re fitness I am still a bit off top fitness, and I dont have a coach. i think the run was "comfortably hard" and as mentioned it was 84% for most of it, peaking at 90% going up the one hill.

To be honest, I dont think Ive ever been 100% fit due to low mileage training. But I know I'm not as fit as I used to be. I'll give tomorrow a good pelt, luckily its quite flat.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

A well-trained person can run a marathon at 88-90% HRmax, but it requires optimal training and is not a given. Without the good training, it is very possible for LT to be lower than this, in which case mir was running harder than advisable 2 days before a 10k race.

It could be he is not fit (which he admitted) or he is mistaken about his HRmax value (which is lower than he thinks).

oopsy wrote:

A well-trained person can run a marathon at 88-90% HRmax, but it requires optimal training and is not a given. Without the good training, it is very possible for LT to be lower than this, in which case mir was running harder than advisable 2 days before a 10k race.

It could be he is not fit (which he admitted) or he is mistaken about his HRmax value (which is lower than he thinks).

I'm not at my fittest but have taken about 2 mins off my 5km time in the last year, so I am fitter. But not 100% fit. re my Max HR, I did a 3 min flat out run with a HR monitor and it hit 198 which I've taken to be my max.

okay so i did it in 38:47. I was hoping for sub 38:00 after my 18:00 5km, but I faded between 6th and 8th km. Finished better over last 2 kms. It was quite hot, 28 C, but a flat course. A PR for my "Second Running Life", I'm restarting after a 9 year layoff. So fastest time in last year since I started, but I was hoping for sub 38:00. Cant say if my tempo run screwed things up, theres a case for either side of the coin.