Friday, July 29, 2011

Friday long tempo jog + training thoughts

 Yes... I jogged today. I think this was my 4th run in the past month. I woke up late this morning and only had 1:15 to get a workout in so I chose to run. My wife had to leave at 8:00 for work and I walked out the door at 6:45... I went for my 10 mile/ 2000ft of climbing route just to see if I could do it in under 1:15. My legs felt out of sync but strong and good and I went through 5 miles in 38:20 (1400ft of climbing/ 600ft descending) and stopped my watch back home at 1:10:06. Almost sub 7 pace. Average HR was 159 with a max of 177. I did take a few steep descents cautiously to avoid eating it.

 The goal was to push as hard as I could but finish strong. If I could only do one workout a week the long tempo effort would definitely be it. I don't see nearly enough athletes doing 1:00+ intense runs, they do more intervals but I feel there is a huge mental component to the long tempo. With mile reps you have a rest coming soon and it's not hard to stay strong, but with a long tempo run you have over an hour of hard non-stop running. This run also teaches very good pacing skill and proper perceived exertion (you learn from mistakes and this run puts a spotlight on starting too hard). If someone has a HRM addiction then doing this run with out a HRM is great for teaching how to modulate effort early. One goal today was to finish strong (I have a 150ft/ 400m climb to get home) so every mile I am thinking about that and trying to balance my effort on "redline" with out going over.
 If you want to try this workout then I would suggest starting with a long progression run. Break a 10 mile run down in to something like 1/3/3/3 miles. Start super easy and relaxed to start the aerobic metabolism correctly, then build effort on each of the 3 mile segments. I would keep it simple and use zones 2/3/4 for each. And remember that "zones" also work with PE (perceived exertion), not just HR. As you get more fit then you can flirt with starting the run harder. Also, before my run I did a 10:00 stretch cord/ plyometric warm-up (while finishing my coffee) which took me in to the run ready to gun it immediately. If you live where it's 100 degrees this wouldn't be a bad option. Do the warm-up in your house where it's cool and save your core temp and sweat for the hard work. Hit the workout hard and "trim the fat" from the workout time.  

8 comments:

Rick said...

Oh how I love the long Tempo runs, my favorite for sure. So it's good to hear that they are also quite valuable. Almost broke the 11:00 pace on mine today!

Lucho said...

Another good one is 40 X 1:00 hard/ 1:00 easy. But you can modulate the easier minutes to not be so easy. The 1:20 turns in to a long tempo with surges every minute.
11:00 pace? Damn hilly!

Brad Poppele said...

Solid run Tim! Good to hear you are doing well. Looks like Leadville will be a go! Good Luck!

GZ said...

Good simple post.

Lucho said...

Thanks Brad. Leadville is absolutely a go!

G- A simple post on something simple!

Rick said...

80 minutes of 1h/1e sounds tough, and would need a few practices to even come close to getting it right! I might give it a shot next week. Thanks for the tip.

Lucho said...

Rick- Ya, there is a learning curve. I would start with the 1:00 easy as pretty easy recovery effort and then slowly bring the pace down as the workout progresses. Always start conservative and work towards hard. And for you doing this workout on a rolling to hilly route would be awesome too. Just run hard to the tops and jog the downs. Fun stuff fartleks!

jameson said...

great post... love it. keep it simple. I love the 40 x 1:00 hard/easy.. something i have always wanted to try....