I did 3 hill sessions after the customary 4x30 seconds (where I felt a bit sluggish), namely high knees (very tough again), thigh drive (ok) and ankles (easy). The average pace on these runs is completely meaningless, of course. At one stage during one of the workouts I was moving so slowly up the hill that the pace display on the Garmin went ---. The quads felt trashed as I got home, but I survived.
As the schedule has changed a bit since moving into the transition phase, there was a 3-week gap between the last and today’s evaluation. The coach had warned me in advance not to be disappointed, 10 days into a new phase the body is trying to adapt to the new stresses and the evaluation numbers are bound to suffer a bit.
The weather conditions were by far the bigger problem. The wind kept howling outside all night, which did not help my sleep (neither did Maia getting out of bed at 4:30 and 5:30). Luckily I woke up right on time because the first thing I noticed was that I had forgotten to set the alarm. The second thing I noticed was the wind still going outside and when I left the house I realised it was raining as well. Just lovely.
I made my way to the stretch of road that I had been using for the last few evaluations and started to go back- and forwards 4 times each. Apparently the wind was blowing at 50kph/31mph at times and I’m inclined to believe it. Normally I don’t look at the Garmin when doing the evaluation to keep my concentration entirely on the workout, but curiosity got the better of me and I sneaked a few glances. Going with the wind the pace was close to 6:00, coming back it was slower than 8:00 at times. This must have had an effect on the numbers, I have no doubt, but running is an outdoors sport, what can you do.
Mile 1 7:05 (HR 162)
Mile 2 6:56 (HR 161)
Mile 3 7:02 (HR 161)
Mile 4 7:11 (HR 161)
Time to 130: 39 seconds
Given the conditions I’m not even disappointed with those numbers, but I’m not sure how much information can be gleaned from them. I have no idea how the second and third mile can be faster than the first one, that never happened before.
The weather is going to get even worse over the next few days, I hope the moaners who complained about the cold temperatures are happy now. You got what you asked for.
- 1 Feb
- 9.6 miles, 1:23:34, 8:42 pace, HR 142
4x30 sec; high knees; thigh drive; ankles - 2 Feb
- 11.8 miles, 1:26:00, 7:17 pace, HR 153
Glad to see that you're back to your old familiar training weather ;).
ReplyDeleteI assume each mile was over the exact same route with the same amount of time running with/against the wind. I had assumed that these evaluation runs would cease after the aerobic basebuilding phase. It'll will be interesting to see the next few evaluations and the level of improvement with speedwork thrown into the mix.
Yes, each mile was over the same stretch of road, half a mile each way. The wind strength wasn't always the same, though.
ReplyDeleteYou're half right about the evaluations, they will stop once I get into the next phase. According to the schedule there is only one more evaluation workout left.
There is still some kind of evaluation in the peaking phase, but it works differently, and MC hasn't told me yet how.
Conditions like that make a useful evaluation difficult.
ReplyDeleteI've been moaning about our high heat (38C) and humidity, but our weather girl refuses to do the right thing.