am) Met up with Jeff for a MAF run. After 7 days of no real running my HR was through the roof- I averaged 154 for 9 miles. We ran the first 3 in 21:00.. then ended up overall at 58:47. Our last 6 were at 6:17 pace. Not too bad for me.. Jeff I think averaged HR 137. The boy is fit.
Part of the reason for the higher HR after the break is due to several factors. Being rested will always yield a higher HR because the muscles are more fresh (fatigue can cause your HR to be depressed) and are able to "push" your heart. This is a pretty basic explanation. Fatigued muscles aren't as capable of pushing your cardiovascular system which doesn't fatigue in the same way.
Loss of blood volume. Capillary shrinkage. Loss of efficiency in muscle coordination which causes a need for more oxygen at similar paces before the break (this is more noticeable in swimming which requires much more efficiency). After 7 days I am also less fit, plain and simple. The basic endurance is still there but I have lost a few aspects of my fitness from strength and Vo2 to lactate threshold. All of these things will come back quickly though as I start a period of harder running.
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So I think I just read on AC's blog something sorta kinda related to this but different. :)
And it is about the taper (something I am thinking about) ... meaning that you can still realize that low HR, fitness AND have unfatigued muscles for up to four weeks if you do the quality workouts in the taper but drop the mileage / volume minutes.
Makes me wonder ... if you had say done a tempo on your vacation ... say once every three days ... would you have still been in shape?
Yeah, you probably can only ride that curve for so long though.
Hi Tim, would you mind sharing your thoughts on pace training for the Ironman marathon. The final run is by no means fast paced, but more about survival/who slows the least. The top pros run around 2.48 (4 min/km) on tired legs, but that pace is far too slow, to improve fitness, for their training pace, except for the long race specific workouts. Targeting the HR would probably present the same problem. I´m a firm believer in good biomechanics, which means avoiding running on tired legs, too much. What was your approach, back in the good ol' days of training three disciplines? Claus Bech, Denmark
Hey now... I'm STILL in shape! ;)
Intensity is very effective at holding on to fitness when you aren't going to be training as much.. as in a taper. There is another approach now though- the I am a firm believer in- and that is to not drop your volume so much (only 20%-30% the week of the race)and focus on race pace intensity only. To answer your question- if I had done 3 tempo runs last week I would not have lost a thing. If you are on vacation and can only run 1-2 times in a week then make it hard!
Claus- I want to answer that question in more depth so tomorrow I will make that the subject of a post. You asked the hardest question in regards to Ironman (in my opinion).. It comes down to solid brick work and long runs with lots of hills. I ran 2:50 in my first pro race, 2:55 at Kona, and 2:53 at Lake Placid so I'll try to convey the approach I took and then explain some of the approaches used by Dave Scott, who I think is one of the best Ironman coaches out there and whom I have read everything and listened to everything he has put out. Great question, thanks!
oops. Crappy for me to say it that way. I know you are in shape. Just not your monster fitness where you run six minute pace at a HR of 120 while pushing a baby jogger. :)
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