First visit to the track
Today's run: 5.5 miles of General Aerobic at 8:05 pace and VO2 Max workout of 5 x 600 m
As first described when I was worrying about the heart rate monitor, there is one type of run I had yet to do: the speed workout. This workout is designed to push my heart to the near maximum, getting my breathing going pretty darn hard.
First, the miles. In total, it was to be 8 miles, so I needed to just figure out how much of that was devoted to the speed-part with the jogging in between, and how much to do first. I took a route down part of the length of the park along MLK drive, during wish I wished that I had worn a long sleeve shirt, since fog and wind were the mode of the day. It was largely innocuous, though at certain points I didn't feel like I had much energy and was worrying that I wouldn't have it in me to do the speed workout.
The track: Kezar Stadium. At one point, the San
Francisco 49ers played there. They moved to Candlestick Park, and later, Kezar was remodelled. (Incidentally, the K in K-Stars comes from Kezar.) It is now the place to go in the City if you want to run on a track (a public one, at least).
I reached the track early enough such that there were only a few people running around it. By the time I left, there were about 20 or so people. What others had said was true: the slower runners often do not observe the ettiquette of sticking to the outer lanes (or at least, not creeping along in lane #1 – it's like going 45 in the fast lane of a freeway).
My pace: my target for these is supposed to be my 5k pace, but again, I've never really run a 5k for time, so I had to use a calculator. Based upon McMillian's, I should be able to do a 5k in 20:03, which translates to 96 seconds a lap, or 2:24 for 1.5 laps (600 m).
I started at the West end of the track, marking my point at where I could see the two goal-posts from the football field line up. I quickly discovered that I was a) running a bit fast as I rounded the first 200 m in 4 seconds ahead of pace, and b) had a strong tailwind which turned into a strong headwind in the second 200m. Nonetheless, it seemed to balance out in my favor, as all five of my splits were well under the target time:
A another point: the heart rate range that is prescribed for these workouts is 94%-98% of my maximum heart rate. I've been using a hypothetical 200 bpm for a while, with some success, and I only spent 42 seconds of these runs in that VO2 max prescribed range. Just something to think about.
On to Hawaii!
As first described when I was worrying about the heart rate monitor, there is one type of run I had yet to do: the speed workout. This workout is designed to push my heart to the near maximum, getting my breathing going pretty darn hard.
First, the miles. In total, it was to be 8 miles, so I needed to just figure out how much of that was devoted to the speed-part with the jogging in between, and how much to do first. I took a route down part of the length of the park along MLK drive, during wish I wished that I had worn a long sleeve shirt, since fog and wind were the mode of the day. It was largely innocuous, though at certain points I didn't feel like I had much energy and was worrying that I wouldn't have it in me to do the speed workout.
The track: Kezar Stadium. At one point, the San
Francisco 49ers played there. They moved to Candlestick Park, and later, Kezar was remodelled. (Incidentally, the K in K-Stars comes from Kezar.) It is now the place to go in the City if you want to run on a track (a public one, at least).I reached the track early enough such that there were only a few people running around it. By the time I left, there were about 20 or so people. What others had said was true: the slower runners often do not observe the ettiquette of sticking to the outer lanes (or at least, not creeping along in lane #1 – it's like going 45 in the fast lane of a freeway).
My pace: my target for these is supposed to be my 5k pace, but again, I've never really run a 5k for time, so I had to use a calculator. Based upon McMillian's, I should be able to do a 5k in 20:03, which translates to 96 seconds a lap, or 2:24 for 1.5 laps (600 m).
I started at the West end of the track, marking my point at where I could see the two goal-posts from the football field line up. I quickly discovered that I was a) running a bit fast as I rounded the first 200 m in 4 seconds ahead of pace, and b) had a strong tailwind which turned into a strong headwind in the second 200m. Nonetheless, it seemed to balance out in my favor, as all five of my splits were well under the target time:
- 2:19
- 2:17
- 2:18
- 2:15
- 2:11
A another point: the heart rate range that is prescribed for these workouts is 94%-98% of my maximum heart rate. I've been using a hypothetical 200 bpm for a while, with some success, and I only spent 42 seconds of these runs in that VO2 max prescribed range. Just something to think about.
On to Hawaii!
posted by Brent at
9:34 PM
1 Comments:
In my opinion track workouts for marathoners are a lot like 'The Price is Right'. You want to get as close to, without going over, the limit that you're training.
For example, the 'Lactate Threshold' workouts are not as effective when you do them harder than you should. Likewise, I'd say your vO2max workouts you should be aiming for as close to without going over. I've read that this pace is somewhere between 3K and 5K race pace, so the fact that you're a little under your projection is probably fine.
The difficulty with track workouts for marathoners is that often we're more than capable of exceeding the velocity recommended for the length of the repeat. Again, sweet discipline is our only hope. :)
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Anonymous, at 7:48 AM
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