And a little something to add. I've been doing MAF work since I had an ice cream with Mike Pigg after my first triathlon, the St. Croix International triathlon back in 1996. He told me to just train at HR 145-155 as much as possible and I would do anything I wanted. I listened and was the #1 amateur in the world at Ironman by 2000. I pretty much trained exclusively in that HR range. If you're patient enough to do the correct work you will see big gains. I posted a video on here in November where I was gasping for breath and walking up a hill to keep my HR down. Even jogging down a hill my HR would hit 150 with no effort. But I walked every hill and paid attention and I did the right thing. Today's run, just ~7 weeks after that video, illustrates what happens. I am a responder to this kind of training now because of the years I spent patiently building my economy. I was running sub 5:20 pace on the downhills today and my HR was holding right at ~155. Just sayin.
12 comments:
That is pretty crazy.
Flying the down hills?
Ya, I saw lots of 5:10-5:20's in there. I think, and I would love your opinion, that the ability to switch often from climbing straight in to blazing downhill leg turnover will be one key to running fast at Pikes. There's ~1000ft of descent on that course right?
There is not a 1000 feet of drop in the climb if that is what you mean. Course description: http://www.skyrunner.com/ppcourse.htm
That said, there are sections that have TINY drops. There are also some sections that feel outright flat because their grade is only like 5%.
So - the principle of what your saying - yes, I agree. Pikes is not a grind and climb say like Mount Washington. So the ability to be able to shift gears and go from uphill grinding to rolling is necessary.
If you meant the RT, yeah ... there is some downhill in that. :)
If you meant Mount Evans, there is a lot more drop in that course (not quite a 1000 but definitely some longer downhill sections).
Oops. Yes, I did mean Evans. It says -948 feet total drop.
I could do 7:38 running downhill the whole way :)
Impressive.
Yah ... http://www.racingunderground.com/mtevans/Evans_Map_Profile.jpg
The big drop is toward Summit Lake.
You can also poke around on Garmin Connect or Mapmyrun and get folks data from when they have run it.
I don't think it drops a 1000 though. At least it did not seem that way when I ran it (I think this supports that - http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route?r=390287314).
The views in that race are pretty epic - if you get a clear day and can see straight.
I am game for getting up there with you some time before June (damn race is on Father's Day though if I recall right).
mtnrunner- Downhill for 9 miles at 7:38 pace doesn't sound easy to me!
GZ- Father's Day... it will be a nice gift to myself then. I'll definitely be running it a few times. I'll just have to wait and see the course and make do with my Evans sim route which is quite solid itself. You should come up and run that with me. You could park at the bottom of the canyon on 93 where it starts then I'll drive you back down. I also have a portable lactate analyzer coming next week... could be bloody fun.
Sounds eerily familiar to workouts I've been doing... I am being patient. And I'll be the first to tell you, it's hard to keep these workouts under 155. Yesterday did 4 x 20 seconds uphill all out and I felt refreshingly strong. I know it's early but I'm a believer.
Such quick progress is pretty amazing! Did you do any speedwork or only running within that heart rate range?
Scott- You already have a huge amount of base so you'll only touch on this type of work briefly, but you'll see a big benefit still.
R&L- No speed work outside of strides. That would have only inhibited my progress and made me slower now, and later. I want to be fast 20 weeks from now and it only takes ~8 weeks to peak for 'speed'. That is if the base period is done right.
Hey Time, quick question, just wanna know what you mean by your Rules of JogHard... #10 "Heart Rate isn't important", with the results of training and racing with it? (Cause I'd like to start running naturaly aka HR watchless)
-Chris C from NJ
Chris- That is sort of a joke. I am too HR centered sometimes and see the value in simply running/ racing by feel. We learn what certain HR's should feel like so it triggers sensations that might not have been there had we not seen the HR data (or the pace data).
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