Tempo Tuesday

Many of the miles I've logged lately seem much SLOWER than I feel like I'm capable of...  I look back at the 15K that I did in May and just don't understand how I was able to keep almost a 9 minute mile pace the whole time when I feel like it's a pretty strenuous effort to maintain that for just 3 miles during a tempo run.  According to several articles from Runner's World (including this one) my tempo pace should be 20-30 seconds slower than my latest 5K, which would mean I should run them at 8:36-46.   On Monday, after an easy mile warm up, I was able to do one mile at 8:45, but could only do 9:00 for the second.  Granted, it was one of the warmest days I've run in so far this year.  I was pretty glad of getting at least two 'comfortably hard' miles in, so I did another 1.5 miles for a cool down and called it a day. 

The See Jane Run Half Marathon on Sunday should be interesting, seeing as how this is the first time I haven't strictly followed any kind of training plan.  If I was, I probably should have done a tempo of 4-6 miles by now...  Guess I'll be relying heavily on my old pal adrenaline.  I was curious about the particulars of what adrenaline does to the body and found this tidbit on ehow.com, it's rather fascinating stuff:

Read more: What Body Parts Does Adrenaline Affect? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_6864054_body-parts-adrenaline-affect_.html#ixzz20Fsy79zU

It always truly ASTOUNDS me how much faster I go during an actual race and how much easier and faster the miles seem, but I suppose the adrenaline is masking the pain.  At least in the longer distances it does, because every mile of a 5K suuuuuucks in my book!  Which reminds me, I came across this article also from Runner's World that asks the question: what kind of runner are you?  I think it's quite safe to say that I'm a 'long hauler.'  What kind of runner are YOU?