No altimeter but this route has maybe 1300-1400ft of climbing which makes it a moderately hilly course for where I live (ya, I know. But if you've been up here you might agree that a moderate hilly route up here is still pretty damn hilly)... and with all the downhills it was impossible to hold a steady, high HR with out destroying my knees. I also wanted to keep my max HR down so I capped it at ~170 and tried for just a moderate effort. It was kind of chilly (43 degrees) after last nights rains which helped keep my HR down.
This was a fairly bad ass run for me in regards to pace and HR considering the altitude and elevation change. I may be finally shaking off the endochrine system fatigue (?) from Jemez.
A point of possible interest for some people is that this workout could serve very effectively as a 'field test' for lactate threshold. Rather than go to a lab and pay $100 to pin point a moving target (our LT changes daily) one could do this session weekly as a workout and also learn how to estimate lactate threshold. You certainly wouldn't want to perform this on a hilly route like I did today, the flatter the better for this because you need a steady and consistent pace/ effort. I would also recommend you do this more as a progression run. Often times an athlete will start too hard and end up dropping off near the end. By simply holding HR ~5 beats lower (for the first ~30:00-40:00) than you think you can average, you will have a more even effort. Then make the last ~20:00 at a best effort. After the run, add about 5 beats to the average HR to get an estimate of lactate threshold HR/ pace. This can help a ton in determining appropriate training intensities if you aren't racing often.
And I do not see how it is possible that people are overlooking the fact that three of the top 4 guys at Western States yesterday HAD BEARDS! And it was damn near top 3... Nick was a minute off of 3rd place. I don't see how any level headed ultra guy would not include a beard in to his training regime after this. And I have no doubt that Mr Jornet would have won had he been able to grow a beard.
11 comments:
I am guessing a pedophile mustache doesn't count? Sigh....successful ultras are likely not in my future.
Anyway, totally awesome tempo! I still need to get used to 1400 ft of elevation gain being 'moderately' hilly. I did bike repeats on Eldora today, and promised myself I would never do another one at about the 2 mile point of each. Your mental toughness takes my mental toughness's lunch money.
If you ever see me with a beard, you'll understand why I don't have one. I look like a rabid squirrel with mange.
It's taking me over a year to finally be able to drill sessions like this up here. And even then it is still hit and miss. Sleeping at 8200ft makes for lingering fatigue which means training is less predictable. Adaptation will be a life long thing but runs like today show that it's happening. I feel more better about this run than I did after my back to back 30 milers.
Tim- Squirrels can be pretty vicious. And they go straight for the nuts in a fight. Harharhar
That's awesome. I'm going to start growing mine out now, see you in October.
What do you think about actually dropping down in elevation leading up to a big event (sleep high, train low)?
I think for a shorter event it's effective simply so quality sessions can truly be quality. Muscles just don't work as well up here and LT and Vo2 max are much lower too. In terms of stress it's important to not run yourself in to the ground too! Hard work is of course important, but so is racing fresh. As the race goes up in distance then one could argue that quality becomes less important (although I would completely disagree!) so you could do more training at high elevations. Probably just another way to skin the cat though. For an ultra either way is probably ok. For a high level marathon or shorter though then quality runs become far more important and then you would need to train low.
I could use a dose of red blood cells, a big dose.
So move up here and rent out that apartment by me. It's probably cheaper than EPO.
I'd have to hide daily from you for fear of having to do those masochistic workouts you conjure up. I'm giving them a call tomorrow to see what the rent is.
Cool! I have many routes that I have on paper but am scared to try.
Hmmm ... then again, Clark did have a pacer who shaves more than his face.
There could be a graduate research project in all of this.
G- Funny! That's definitely worth checking in to.
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