Sounds easy - but the plan was to get into my tempo zone which in my training terminology is the next level up from my threshold zone...
I did a nice warm-up of 3.5kms and tried to push the pace a bit to at least get in the threshold zone but with temps at 26 degrees it was proving a little tricky. I used my course I normally use for 5 minute efforts and I dumped the top as I lined up for the first rep. I pushed hard and it took an age for my HR to respond. By midway I was well into my threshold zone and by the last minute I was on the border of my tempo zone which starts at 153. Not a great start.
The second one was better. Perhaps the second half in the right zone. One final one and around two thirds where it should be. After that I was pretty done for and I crawled home - another 3.7kms in my recovery zone to give me 12.0kms all up.
Really tough that session - running 5 minute mile pace in 26 degrees was never going to be easy and that's how it turned out. But it's a start on doing some faster running to help drag my threshold speed up a little.
Snooker in the evening (rubbish). Then watched a bit of the darts to see Taylor hit a majestic 9 darter. That's his 10th televised 9 darter and once he got down to 144 he never looked like missing. He looks on his game this week as his darts are hitting the board at the right angle like they used to so that's a worrying sign for his rivals...
2 comments:
Hi Matt,
interesting to read your blogs recently with your "threshold" training. Quite amazed that you seem to be able to tolerate 2 hard sessions back to back. However, as I read this one about you not hitting your target heart rate, was thinking that you run by getting your cardiovascular system in the correct zone. You seem to rarely run anything, even your recovery runs, slower than 6min/mile pace. Perhaps your muscular system needs to rest and recover and running everything quite hard is tough on your legs? perhaps that's why you can't get your heart rate up? I certainly find that in my harder sessions that when my legs are trashed, I just can't get my cv system working in the right zone
John
Thanks John. It's all part of the conditioning process. Probably a sign of tiredness as you say and the upping of the intensity. Keep my water intake up and eat plenty of protein and try and stay off the booze and you will hit the heart rate zones more easily! A well know UK super vet runner put together 27 threshold runs on the trot so for me to do 2 or 3 is no big deal! As long as you don't top out of the zone you should be good to go the next day! Thanks for your comments and good luck with your training. Matt
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