Monday, January 21, 2008

Monday 19 miles & answering a comment..

am) Treadmill-(snowing outside). 5 mile warm-up with the last 3 miles at 5:45-5:55 pace.
Then:
1 mi 5:23/ 400 in 1:28
1 mi 5:21/ 400 in 1:28
1 mi 5:21/ 400 in 1:28
1 mi 5:23/ 400 in 1:28
1200 in 4:01/ 400 in 1:45- 1:55 (?)
1200 in 4:01/ 400 in 1:45-1:55 (?)
1 mi in 5:33..
8 miles in 44:40. Average pace 5:35. Average HR 168. Max HR 174.
1 mile cool-down.
Phenomenal run for me. The structure for this was aimed at running 2-8 heart beats below my LT (or 103% of goal pace)- just enough to start to accumulate a little lactate.. I think I should have run the first couple a little faster as my HR never broke 169 until the third mile. The recoveries are not supposed to fully recover me, only allow slight buffering of lactate. This happened to be 5:52 pace, my HR was dropping significantly at this pace. As the workout progressed my HR was not dropping enough so I took more rest. My HR on the last mile never went above 170 showing strong lactate buffering capability (for me).
My 5k split was 16:59..

pm) 5 miles easy jogging for recovery. It is f-ing COLD out right now. The wind chill has to be in the negative teens. Tomorrow morning is going to sting.

I received a comment below- from Charles Manson!! It could be him or OJ Simpson.
The whole anonymous posting thing gets me every time. Sort of a throw back (or UP) to the bull (and chicken) shit forum posters on letsrun.com. The question, asking for me to take a bit of time and explain the specifics of what I have been writing about for months, is coming from someone who will not even tell me their name? Affable or not- I'll answer it because it's a good question.

Anonymous asks: I'm not sure if I missed it or not somewhere in your entries, but how do you plan on pacing yourself at Austin? Will you go by feel, % of MHR, or my some other means? If you are going on a % of MHR, what percentage of your MHR is going to be your goal marathon pace? Maybe this is a stupid question, but I don't claim to be a HR guru...

First off, basing your fitness (which is always changing) on Max HR (which is not changing (but every year you age)) is not effective- it's lazy. I think most people that don't require a quick and easy "shortcut" should take the time and energy to figure out their LT.. or buck up and buy Jack Daniel's Running Formula and start extrapolating the HR numbers. Or go to a lab and use science to determine this pace. I have no reason at all to ever go to max HR unless I am being chased by something above me on the food chain.
So, now that we have the pleasantries out of the way.. to answer the question.. I will be using everything I can to help me judge my effort. I will use HR for the first 13-15 miles in order to keep myself from going too hard. With the adrenaline of the race start I am notorious for starting too fast. I also have a fairly good idea as to what pace per mile I am going to be capable of running, but this can be a pitfall. The self fulfilling prophecy concept is true and I don't want to limit my performance by thinking that I can't do something. My goal pace is somewhere close to 4%-5% slower than my LT pace per mile/ or ~10-12 beats below LT for the first 13 miles.. then it should climb gradually. So even though I have a set pace in mind I will watch my HR and I will also use perceived exertion. But- I have very little experience with this race distance (only 3 marathons) so my perception of what is too hard may be off. I know at Phoenix I ran way too easy (2:30).. and Denver was just a crappy race, I didn't learn much there except that I can jog with hypothermia to a 2:30 at altitude in 34 degree rain!
So, HR/ pace/ PE for the first 13-15 miles.. Then PE and pace for the next 5-7 miles.. Then just mental strength for the last 6.2 miles.. if my nutrition and pacing were spot on then the last 10k is all going to be in my head.
All in all this an experiment for me and this is just my opinion.. I don't claim to be a HR guru either.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if I missed it or not somewhere in your entries, but how do you plan on pacing yourself at Austin? Will you go by feel, % of MHR, or my some other means? If you are going on a % of MHR, what percentage of your MHR is going to be your goal marathon pace? Maybe this is a stupid question, but I don't claim to be a HR guru...

Chuckie V said...

F*ck that sh!t Lucho; I have a better plan for you...

Start as fast as you can possibly go and gradually speed up.

Knowing you as well as I believe I do, it comes down to embracing the pain a little more (caress it, covet it) and worrying only about YOUR race. Pretend you're the only one out there that day, because in all actuality, you are.

Lucho said...

"Those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is felt."
Dr Samuel Johnson

Or a variation of a quote by Mother Teresa.. "Love (running) until it hurts. Then there can not be pain, only more love."

I need to nail my taper right now and then I think I'll be able to suffer on Feb 17th. If I can get all of my physical aspects of the training program nailed as best as possible then it will only come down to how much I can hurt... and I think I can hurt.

GZ said...

It is cold. That ain't chinsulation, that is a snotsickle. Even my furry tail (yeah, the one that wears shorts alot) stayed in on my gerbil machine (treadmill).

It ain't the cold (7 degrees right now), it's that damn humidity (70 percent!).

GZ

Matt said...

Tim what does your wife think of the beard?

Lucho said...

Matt- my wife doesn't mind the beard. We've been together for 10 years. At this point the change in scenery is good I think ;)
No pics on your blog!? I want to see some beach pictures as I suffer the Colorado Winter! You guys are in Summer there?
Cheers

scott said...

Hey Lucho
one of the local runners here in Cologne Germany has just put up a web page with his typical training
http://www.mariokroeckert.de/content/training.htm
he has run 2:16 for the marathon last year.....
typical german school training ala dieterbaumann herbert steffny etc with mainly very slow(relative)runs and not too much volume for some of the year and then a real rampup for about 6-8 weeks
may be interesting for you..if you need anything translating just give me a shout

Lucho said...

Awesome link, thanks Scott! I appreciate it.
Are those your boys on your blog? I can't imagine a couple of the little guys running around! Ben can kick my butt by himself!
Cheers