Some Good Data

For today's track workout I decided to do a "transition" type session where I'd start at a slightly faster than threshold pace and ramp down to interval pace - the vehicle for this - 800m repeats w/ 2.5-min rests.

I had done this workout before back in October in the build leading up to the winter season.  Here are the results of that session:

Rep #	Time	Ave HR	Max HR	HR- 128	HR Min
1	2:49	146	157	1:00	114
2	2:48	152	163	1:05	117
3	2:44	155	169	1:10	117
4	2:41	159	170	1:35	121
5	2:38	162	172	1:45	128
6	2:32	165	174	1:52

The idea is to get the body prepared for the faster paces (i.e. long interval sessions) that are coming.  The post from that workout can be seen here.  BTW - HR-128 and HR-Min are the time it took for the HR to get back to 128 and the min-HR during the subsequent rest period.   

I did today's workout a couple weeks earlier in the build than last time, but knowing I'm in considerably better shape than I was in October I penciled in the target paces as follows:  2:42-2:40-2:38-2:37-2:36.  (I was leaving a 6th rep as optional depending on how the session went)

The first rep came in as planned at 2:42, but the second rep started a bit quicker and stayed that way throughout.  I hit the watch and saw a 2:36 on rep #2 and immediately said, "damn, too fast".  I didn't figure I'd be able to maintain that pace, but that's in fact what happened:   2:36-2:37-2:36.  I was quite surprised - aside from rep #1 these were all very close to long interval paces.

But a quick look at the data shows that clearly this was not long interval effort:

Rep #	Time	Ave HR	Max HR	HR- 128	HR Min
1	2:42	150	159	0:48	105
2	2:36	155	164	1:00	112
3	2:36	157	167	1:17	118
4	2:37	158	167	1:27	118
5	2:36	158	168	1:31	121

In fact, the HR data is quite a bit better than the October data even though the paces here are faster.  I was again surprised to see that the HR never exceeded 168 the entire workout.  However, I will state that the last two reps felt more difficult than that HR data would suggest, but I think this is likely due to my legs being tired.  I did not expect to be hitting these paces today - if I had, I'd have made sure my legs were a little more rested coming into the workout.  Nine sub-7 minute miles yesterday on the heels of the 7-miler @ 6:44 pace the day before did not set me up well for a fast workout today, but again I wasn't expecting this workout to go as well as it did.  If I thought I'd need to go low 2:30s in order to get the HR up to 170-173 I'd have made sure the legs were rested coming in.  

Also, for comparison - here's what a 5 x 800m long interval session looked like back in December:

Rep #	Time	Ave HR	Max HR	HR- 128	HR Min
1	2:37	155	167	1:08	114
2	2:34	160	172	1:25	118
3	2:35	162	172	1:37	121
4	2:34	162	173	1:52	122
5	2:35	163	174

The paces of reps 2-5 are about 2-seconds faster than today, but at the cost of considerably higher HRs.  

In short, today I was able to hit close to interval paces (without that ever being the intention) at HRs that were lower than what I'd expect from a transition workout.  Maybe this will kick start the motivation again - hell, after the 5th rep today I even threw in a 400m.  

Training:

Fri, 2/27:  AM  5-miles @ 6:58 pace

PM 4-miles @ 6:56 pace

Sat, 2/28:  5-miles, including 5 x 800m (2:42-2:36-2:36-2:37-2:36) plus 400m (74):  2.5-min rests