Sunday, June 07, 2015

Tough going but ticking over

The holiday in Portugal continues:

Mon - Vilamoura 13.2kms out of zone 57:06 (4:20's)

Tue - 6 x 1.34kms threshold reps plus up/down - all up 14.2kms

Wed - Rest (went to the theme park)

Thu - 6 x 1.34kms threshold reps plus up/down - all up 14.9kms

Fri - 6 x 1.34kms threshold reps plus up/down - all up 14.9kms

Sat - Vilamoura 11.6kms out of zone 50:02 (4:19's)

Sun - Treadmill recovery run 10km 35:52 (3:35's)

78.8kms for the week

Too hot for proper training in Portugal. Was going through the motions to be honest. Hitting the zones out there just about impossible for me - some token threshold reps so hopefully I've at least maintained my fitness. Beer consumption was the real winner...

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Matt,

Interesting blog and great race reports, cheers for sharing! I've noticed that since you've been doing 3-4 weekly threshold sessions, you've done no VO2max work or long slow runs, and this system is clearly working for you over 10K.

This might be something I'd try myself so a couple of questions...

From what I can see you've been doing this for about a year, right? - have you found the improvement tapering off somewhat and do you think you'll eventually add in some VO2max or long slow runs in order to keep improving?

What's your average %max HR (or better, %HRR) for these sessions and what race pace would it correspond to...10 mile pace?

Also, what was the rationale...did you already have a strong VO2max training background? Any do you do ANY running over threshold pace in training these days?

Lastly, all this threshold work should be good prep for a marathon training block. Are you going to have a crack at 2.25?!

Cheers,

Sean.

BeerMatt said...

Sean, good to hear from you. Just over a year - I do feel like I am improving but I will certainly do some more intense speed work in the second half of the year. Not sure about long slow runs as I don't seem to get any benefit from these!

My threshold HR is 140 to 149. My max HR is probably around 165 but I find it very hard to get up above 157/158. My resting HR is 32/33. Yes my threshold pace (top of zone) is close to 10 mile race pace.

No I don't have a strong VO2 max training background. As for runs above threshold - the odd race and a handful of speed sessions. The core of the training is the threshold running!

Yes I am considering another marathon. The goal would be around 2:25. It all depends on whether the knees could take the pounding! I will make a call next month....

Unknown said...

Cheers for the info Matt. I'm going to phase 3 threshold sessions into my training for 6 weeks and see how it goes.

I reckon you should take a crack at another marathon alright, and maybe a flat one to get the most out of your improvement.

BeerMatt said...

Sean - drop me an email using my Fitness Analytics email address and I'll send you a few pointers. Good luck with it. Matt