Friday Floods and a Tempo Run

It was a bit of a shock to find Harpenden completely flooded this morning. The drainage system couldn't cope and the water was a foot deep in places. Scary stuff but fortunately most of the yummy mummies have 4x4's for just these sort of conditions!

I had to brave the damp conditions and drop a hire car over at the Airport and then the plan was a warm-up followed by  5 miles at Tempo Pace.

The 5 mile section was along the Lea Valley from Airport Parkway back to Harpenden. The weather had brightened and the rain had stopped which made it quite pleasant. I tried to ease into it rather than go off like a train. That didn't really work and I was off at 6:45 pace when I was to hold 7:20's. I eased off and tried to steady the ship but it took a while to get the rhythm of a steady pace.

The route is a quite undulating so I was up and down in pace and effort all the way. Eventually I stopped looking at the Garmin and went by my perceived effort. I didn't want to be eye-popping but neither did I want it to be too easy.

By the time the last mile came I was relieved. I was feeling tired and didn't want to kill myself before a big weekend.

At the end of the day I was happy to average 7:24 pace over the 5miles. There was a fair spread in pace over the distance but that was mainly due to the undulating route. I just need to remember to ease into these efforts rather than flying out and hanging on!