Today's a tempo run, which means a sustained effort above race pace. This was to be a 15 min warm-up, 4 miles at sub 6.50 pace and then a 15 minute warm down.
We've had so much rain that anything off road was gonna wreck my new go-flash Asics, so I decided to use the Lower Lea Valley walk for the bulk of the 4 miles. I made my way to the bottom of Cooters End Lane and from there decided the 4miles would be a loop over to Cherry Tree Lane and then back along the Wheathampstead Road. The advantage in my head was that it would be flat and not too muddy. Well it turned out to be dry but much tougher than I envisaged.
The run along from Cooters End Lane to Westfield Road is tarmac. It was flat until the end where there's an incline reminiscent of the locks on the GU canal. From there to Station Road is a slight uphill incline and with the added danger of pit bull terriers out for a walk with their hoody owners, that wasn't a pleasant part of the run.
From Station Road to Cherry Tree Lane is one of my regular sections but again has a good incline at both Crabtree and Cherry Tree Lane. The latter was 2.5 miles into the 4 and I was having to dig deep to maintain the pace.
From Cherry Tree Lane back to the main road was another tough incline, as was most of the section back towards Batford. Fortunately the last 800 yards included the downhill towards the mini roundabout and I let gravity do the work and increase my cadence. I was gasping by this point and glanced at the Garmin to see I had 400 yards to go. I put my head down and accelarated to end on the bridge over the River Lea.
I was pretty pleased with the effort averaging 6.47 min/mile over the 4 which is faster over a longer distance than normal. And my new trainers are still shiny.
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