Saturday, October 20, 2007

4 week hard training block



Above is my tentatively planned 4 week block of training that have coming up starting Monday. I think if you click on the pic. then it will blow up and you can read it.
A few things to help read it: E) means easy run.. not recovery. Recovery runs are any runs that are 6 miles or less. E) runs are with my HR above 145. If I'm too tired to get my HR there then I will do a shorter recovery effort instead. HR 145-155 for me is just at the edge of being useful in terms of intensity and building fitness. You'll see runs that have designated HR values of 153-163 (0r 165)and these runs are fairly difficult yet still not what I would call hard. Friel would call this intensity a "grey" zone or Zone 3. I would heavily disagree on the idea that this zone is not of use. My pace per mile at this HR is ~5:45-6:00 pace and after a 14 mile run at this effort I can guarantee you that I got something out of it. This pace per mile is within 10% of my goal marathon pace and it does have specific benefits in building my metabolism to spare glycogen. My maximum fat burning values will not be reached until I reach 5:30-5:35 pace (at altitude). These numbers are based on my marathon on Sunday. There is a margin of error with this though as I do not feel that I raced to my ability.
You will also see a few track sessions of 1000 repeats. The actual pace for each interval is important, but you will also see a few paces for the recovery between each... this could be argued to be the more important of the two in regards to my goal this workout. The 1000's will be run at slightly faster than goal marathon (sea level) pace and the rest interval will be run at a pace that does not allow full recovery and is still forcing my body to balance on that edge between fat metabolism and anaerobic metabolism. This is perhaps the best way to truly stimulate one's AeT or aerobic threshold which is also defined as 2.0-2.5 mmol of lactate accumulation or marathon pace. The idea is go slightly beyond that balance point, then tip it back just slightly... criss crossing back and forth over that threshold.
More later.. my boy is wanting to play.

2 comments:

Matt said...

Tim,

I'm not sure if you wore a HR on marathon day, but can you give me some idea on pacing and the HR response to it (your values). e.g. ave. HR over last 13.1mi

Brett said...

Thanks for sharing. I noticed you have some days at the gym on your schedule. I would be curious to know what exercises you do, etc., if you get the time to share that.

Also, do you have a race you are targeting? Hope it's going well. Tell Ben hello from Bree and Zane. :)