Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Wednesday Track. 21 miles.

am) Tough day-
8 mile warm-up. This was not only a warm-up but I also wanted mileage (I won't lie) and I wanted to fatigue my slow twitch fibers just a bit.
Then: These are rounded to the nearest second.
200-200-400 in 34"/ 34"/ 66"
200-200-400 in 33"/ 33"/ 66"
200-200-400 in 31"/ 31"/ 63"
200-200-400 in 31"/ 30"/ 64"
All of these were on full recovery- usually 100m walk/ 100m jog for the 200's and 100m walk/ 300m jog for the 400's.
The 33" 200's were relaxed and quite comfortable. Each 400 was a negative or equal split with a slight push over the last 100. Over-all a fairly easy workout.. maybe 7 of 10?

pm) 8 miles simple jogging. Went through 4 miles at 6:30 pace then backed way off to keep it a true recovery run. 7:00 pace felt awkwardly slow.

4 comments:

GZ said...

so you did the 400s faster than the 200s (pace wise). Was that all really coming just in the last 100?

Lucho said...

Good question GZ- I was trying to stay comfortable during the first few 200's. Because of the physiology of 'speed' I was not really feeling fatigue in an interval that was ~30" long, this length of interval is more for neuromuscular stimulation and elicits only a slight bump in HR. Hardly much metabolic stimulation here.
Now, the 400's are long enough that if I simply held my pace- my muscle will respond with lactate build up and a much higher HR.
Basically- there is little need to change paces as the 32" 200's are fast enough to teach my legs the movement of faster running. Running them faster at this point may actually be counter productive by increasing my risk of injury. Holding 32" pace for the 400's is also plenty fast and will spill adequate amounts lactate in to my blood stream and also touches on my Vo2 max.
There are also some strength benefits that are brought on by the 400's but not the 200's.
I could certainly have run faster- but I am looking for gradual progression here, not carnage. I am ~18 weeks from my marathon and simply want to make my goal pace feel relatively slow.. It's not always about how fast you are capable of running, rather how fast is fast enough to bring about the response you want.

Anonymous said...

Tim,

Do you do much in the terms of streching or core excercises?

I try, but man I am not consistent. Especially when my weekly miles get above 60 (a lot for me) I sort of loose motivation to do those extra things.

Lucho said...

runcolo- Lately I have been incorporating some stretching during my runs. I'll stop briefly and stretch my hamstrings and calves. The thing with stretching is that I don't think I need to stretch beyond my running range of motion (no need to put my foot behind my head). I tried Yoga once and knew that it was an injury waiting to happen. I think it's too aggressive. In the evenings I do a lot of massage with "The Stick" which loosens up my legs nicely.
I am diligent with the core work. I enjoy strength training so a 1 hour core session to me is fun. I also have a physio ball and stretch cords at home that I use several times a week.