Friday, August 8, 2008

Interval 5x2k

Hong Kong, 5.30am, 27C, 95% Rh, light rain (well, in the last 15 minutes was a serious rainstorm...)

warm-up 25 min
5x2km , recovery 3' jog, targeting the 87%-88% of my HRmax (LT zone) (175-178bpm), for me now around 3'37"-3'35"/k pace (slightly less than 6'00"/mile)

1. 7'04" , average HR 162, close at 172, good feeling, no wind
2. 7'05", HRavg 170, close at 175, tailwind, felt ok
3. 7'01", avg HR 172, close at 177, tailwind
4. 7'11", avg HR 174, close at 180, headwind
5. 7'07", avg HR 175, close at 181, headwind, felt tired

good workout, I need more sleep to feel more fresh.
These kind of workouts are really the "gold" standard for a runner: not too tiring, improve the LT, useful for all distances from 5k to Marathon. Very important is to avoid "overspeeding" because the optimal stimulation of the lactate threshold is hitting a HR that is slightly less than the threshold itself. Just few beats more and you can fall into an anaerobic workout, completely a different story ...

6 comments:

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Did you use the Conconi test to find the correct zone to train at?
dispite all the political crap the Games are still an amazing sporting event, wish i could be there to watch them unfold, ENJOY the making of sporting history!

by7 said...

Alien,

I normally use the comparison tables from Jack Daniels' book. I am using using my last 10k as reference.

I am actually planning to make experiments with the Conconi test. In some previous post, I wrote about my first try, right after coming back from injury.
Later the weather got so crazy (either heavy rain, either hot hot) that was difficult to set a comparable base.
My idea is to try in 2 directions:
a. classical test on the track (as soon as the latest typhoon is gone)
b. on my treadmill, to have stable environment.
I will make a try next week and post the result

About the Games: unfortunately Hong Kong got this "horse" events, pretty not interesting...
but is really cool to run on a bike path with Olympic banners everywhere
Lastly, this time it will be easier to watch on TV ... right on my time zone

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Thanks for your reply, back in the days i use to cycle race, i followed PETER JANNSEN's book LACTATE PULSE RATE, i use to do the conconi test using my bike on a turbo trainer,
I found my deflection point to be 169 bpm [ max pulse 185bpm]
i followed his advice and rode my 25 mile time trials at just over the deflection point 170=172 and ended up setting new p.b.s of 57 mins for 25 miles and 22.18 for 10.

by7 said...

I also had that book and was very interesting (I was a cyclist too back then...).
Another interesting book on cycling training is the series from the author MASSAGRANDE, which we were using at the coaching school (when I was getting my coaching certificates).
It was emphasized in several way that the most productive workouts are those interval training with HR +/-2% from the deflection point (aka anaerobic threshold).
Next weeks I will put in schedule a good test Conconi both on track and treadmill to see if the results match in terms of HR deflection point (actually on treadmill should be slightly higher HR because of the effect of lack of convection cooling, etc)

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Thats very interesting, I had my best year running when i included 2 long tempo interval sessions per week leading up to the London marathon.
not only did i run a great marathon but went on to set p.b.s at 4 and 5 and 10 miles as well.
Yeah, it seems that the biggest improvement comes from these longer intervals at around L4.
AND IT SEEMS LIKE YOU CAN TRAIN AT THIS LEVEL WITH OUT PEAKING OUT EARLY WHICH HAPPENS IF YOU DO LOTS OF SHORT ANAEROBIC EFFORTS!

RICK'S RUNNING said...

hi,
thanks for the comment on my blog 8th aug, just read it!
yeah your right 3 tempo runs and a long race each week did seem a bit impossible, unless one was taking drugs or something ! my friend whispered EPO , growth hormones and testosterone!
Two l4 long interval days and either a race or hard interval session was possible and i used this training to good effect during my best year running!