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

800m repeats

Today was the 2nd workout of the week and I had 5 x 800m w/ 2.5-minute rests on the schedule.  Target pace was about 2:35.

A lot going on wrapping up the year work-wise and w/ a lot of other things on my mind, I felt lucky just to get through this workout.  In all honesty I didn't even think about this one at all beforehand:  just one of those show up - run - go home deals.  I never do all that well on these kinds of workouts when I don't give them any thought and just go through the motions, but I made it through this one OK.

Times were:  2:37-2:34-2:35-2:34-2:35.  We're supposed to get a lot of wind and rain later today carrying on for a good week straight, so I'll have to see how it goes for the next few days.

Training:

Wed, 12/10:  5-miles easy

lifting (upper-B, abs) stretching, rolling

Thurs, 12/11:  8-miles easy

Fri, 12/12:  Off (unscheduled)

Sat, 12/13:  4-miles including 5 x 800m w/ 2.5-min rests.  (2:37-2:34-2:35-2:34-2:35)

Six by Eight

Wednesday means up-tempo, so I headed for the track to get in my 6 x 800m workout.  But before getting to that, here's an interesting little story about a college kid that apparently isn't all that bright.  As I pulled into a nearly full parking lot at the community college and started looking for a space, I was nearly clipped by some kid backing out without looking behind him.  After narrowly escaping the accident, I decided to go around him and look for another spot.  As luck would have it, I circled the small lot and there were no spaces available, "damn, I guess I'll have to go back and see if the spot where the kid pulled out is still open".  So I swing back around heading towards that spot and what do I see. . . . . the same kid standing behind his car next to another car.  Yeah that's right - this genius had just backed into someone else!! 

Now, I can see getting into an small accident in a parking lot - it happens.  What I CAN'T see is how someone who isn't looking and "almost" gets into an accident can make the same mistake a whopping 5-seconds later and hit someone else.  That takes real intelligence!  In fact, shouldn't there be a Bud Light commercial about this guy?  "Real Men of Genius" - Today we salute YOU, Mr. No-Look-Backer-Upper!  (I could go on here and write the whole commercial, but my posts have been long enough as it is)

On to the workout.  The plan was six 800m repeats w/ 2.5-min breaks.  The pace was to start around 2:52 (5:45 mile pace) and ramp down to about 2:40 (5:20 pace).  I was thinking something like this:  2:52, 2:50, 2:47, 2:45, 2:42, 2:40.  However, I knew there was a good chance that the reps would be a bit faster.  Here's the actual workout:

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 2nd to last column shows how long it took for my HR to get back down to 128.  (No specific reason why 128 is chosen other than that it's a point where I feel fully recovered, and I've been using this number to check recovery of many other workouts)  The last column shows the HR at the end of the 2.5-minute recovery period.

You can see from the data that the first 3-reps were pretty easy and I was able to recover down to a 117 HR or better for each.  The 4th rep maxed out at 170 HR which is what I believe to be close to the max of my Threshold zone  (using 92% of max HR for this calculation)  The recovery after rep #5 was substantially slower than the rest, so things were certainly changing by this time, but I still had no trouble running a 2:32 for the final rep. 

If I were to have kept the reps between 2:41 - 2:46 I feel I could have done 8 or 9 of these w/ no issue.  The workout never felt hard, on the contrary it was quite enjoyable the whole way, but that may be in large part because I simply love these types of workouts.  I came away feeling really good, and this morning there is no soreness or fatigue to speak of.  It was nice to throw a 2:32 up there after the 5 previous reps w/o really going ahead and "gunning it" - I could easily have run 2:20s here, but that wasn't the point of the workout.  Interested to see what coach makes of the data.

Training:

10/15:  5-miles including 6 x 800m @ 2:49, 2:48, 2:44, 2:41, 2:38, 2:32