I'm wet! I'm hysterical, and I'm wet!
Tuesday's run: 4 miles of General Aerobic at 7:57 pace and a Lactate Threshold run of 4.2 miles at 7:22 pace.
It rained all day.
I worked downtown, so I took the same route as last Tuesday, just heading out a handful of additional blocks along the Marina Green to get in the appropriate distance.
I started out in the rain, but it was a light rain. I had left the heart rate zones a bit loose, but in retrospect I would have liked to have gone slower on the way out. I got to the 4 mile mark and re-set the heart rate zones, then picked up the pace. As soon as I turned around to head back, however, I was confronted by winds that you would not believe unless you had experience facing them yourself. As I mentioned in my last post, I was trying for a pace of 7:15. I came in at 7:22, and I knew it most of the way. Can a 15 mph headwind slow you down 2%? I think so. I know I was working hard the whole way back, feeling relief (and speed gain) whenever the wind let up. The one thing I had in my mind was Thomas' description of how the Lactate Threshold runs were hard runs. This may not have been the most scientific way to figure it out, but it was certainly hard.
Oh, and did I mention? I was soaked at the end of the run. Absolutely soaked.
I averaged 174 bpm with a max of 181 for the run, but was never so out of breath that I couldn't have pushed harder. This confirms to me my suspicions that my previously recorded Max HR of 185 is not correct, since that would have made this run more of a VO2 Max run, which I shouldn't be able to do over four miles. Right?
It rained all day.
I worked downtown, so I took the same route as last Tuesday, just heading out a handful of additional blocks along the Marina Green to get in the appropriate distance. I started out in the rain, but it was a light rain. I had left the heart rate zones a bit loose, but in retrospect I would have liked to have gone slower on the way out. I got to the 4 mile mark and re-set the heart rate zones, then picked up the pace. As soon as I turned around to head back, however, I was confronted by winds that you would not believe unless you had experience facing them yourself. As I mentioned in my last post, I was trying for a pace of 7:15. I came in at 7:22, and I knew it most of the way. Can a 15 mph headwind slow you down 2%? I think so. I know I was working hard the whole way back, feeling relief (and speed gain) whenever the wind let up. The one thing I had in my mind was Thomas' description of how the Lactate Threshold runs were hard runs. This may not have been the most scientific way to figure it out, but it was certainly hard.
Oh, and did I mention? I was soaked at the end of the run. Absolutely soaked.
I averaged 174 bpm with a max of 181 for the run, but was never so out of breath that I couldn't have pushed harder. This confirms to me my suspicions that my previously recorded Max HR of 185 is not correct, since that would have made this run more of a VO2 Max run, which I shouldn't be able to do over four miles. Right?
posted by Brent at
11:04 PM
2 Comments:
Wind resistance is proportional to the (surface area exposed) X (velocity squared). So yes, if you're running ~8mph into a ~15mph headwind, creating an effective windspeed of ~23mph, um, yeah, that's a lot of resistance. :)
As far as what pace you should be running, perhaps you should try racing a 10k or at least time-trialing for 10k. After that, I'd said run by feel.
By
Anonymous, at 10:14 AM
Half marathon race pace is a great equivalent for LT pace. If you can race 13 miles at 7:15/mile, then there is no way your LT pace is slower than this. I don't have the math handy, but I believe an 8-15mph headwind should slow you by more than 2% when running 8-9 MPH. So your LT pace is probably around 7:10/mile, which is about what I'd expect based on my runs with you.
V02Max pace is sustainable for no more than 1/4 mile, so I'd agree that something went wrong with your max heart rate calculation.
I second Mike's recommendation that you race a 10k some time soon. This will give you a better idea of your LT pace and also a progress measure as you proceed in your training and run additional 10k races.
By
Anonymous, at 1:25 PM
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