Tempo run at -5C

Hi there, thank you for checking in on my running blog! After Christmas dinner last night, I really felt like running today. While my inlaws are coming over later today for dinner and I promised my wife to make family time in the morning, I did find a small window to do a short tempo run.

It was cold today, in fact when I went outside it was -5 C

In order to prepare myself I had multiple layers of clothing (3 shirts, from which 2 long sleeve + running thights + running shorts). I decided not to use any gloves, as with a tempo run I would be warm within a few km.

My goal today was twofold, I wanted to beat my 5km PR (20:16) and I wanted to run a sub 20 min 5km.

My setup was:

• warmup 10 min (zone 2 - 3)

• steady pace 19 min

• 1 min all out push

• cooling down

I picked the wrong pacing plan for my sub 20 attempt as speeding up in the last minute proved to be a little too late.

I started the first 2 km perfectly paced, in km 3 and 4 I faced some headwind. Here I made a small pacing error by not trying to force the pace (thinking the last strong minute would be enough to make up for the lost time).

My 5k attemped ended at 20:10 / which was 6 seconds faster than my old PR - but just not fast enough for sub 20. I felt strong enough and now know how to do next attempt (steady pace 2.5km then gradually speeding up).

In the end, PR improved and a very fun (but cold) run!