tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13273897.post4116452810526902614..comments2024-02-06T10:16:40.971+00:00Comments on Diary of a Rubbish Marathon Runner: EvaluationThomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07802380462713592586noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13273897.post-44451417714852143612012-10-06T23:49:16.885+01:002012-10-06T23:49:16.885+01:00I presume you do a substantial warm up, including ...I presume you do a substantial warm up, including either some stride-outs or a gradual increase to around 7 min pace, before you start the 4 miles. Otherwise it is surprising (at least to me) to see such small variation between the first and second miles. If I remember correctly, Hadd used to say that it took several Km for a runner with good aerobic fitness to reach equilibrium at marathon pace. It takes me 2 Km with pace gradually increasing to the target pace to reach approximate equilibrium at a roughly equivalent pace (though the equivalent pace for me is somewhat slower). But setting aside the question of the effect of warm up on the first mile, your stability thereafter is impressive. <br />I doubt whether the overall picture indicates over-training. I wonder if it is possible that your lactate threshold has decreased a little as a result of a lesser amount of high aerobic work during the past year. If the threshold is lower, at HR 161 you will be nearer to threshold and therefore will accumulate a bigger oxygen debt. This might result in a longer time for HR to settle to 130. However 161 clearly is not very near to threshold or you would not exhibit such stability over miles 2, 3 and 4.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13273897.post-31452740489952643002012-10-06T14:49:19.277+01:002012-10-06T14:49:19.277+01:00I have been thinking about doing a similar 4 mile ...I have been thinking about doing a similar 4 mile evaluation test myself but have never had the discipline to just pick a 1 mile loop and do with such precise HR management. I am curious about the aspect of fitness that the evaluation brings out. I'm guessing the time to recover to 30 HR below you evaluation HR is looking at the amount of oxygen debt and efficiency of your heart and lungs at bringing back your blood back to equilibrium.<br /><br />I also presume that having a more even pace through the evaluation would indicate that your body is well balanced and not going into oxygen debt and using a similar fuel carb/fat mix through the run so oxygen requirements aren't change too much.<br /><br />From this evaluation it would seem that they two would contradict each other, or perhaps they don't. I'm really just guessing so would like to know a bit more about what each part means. Did Mystery Coach go into meaning of the evaluation? <br /><br />Rather than do specific evaluations I have been trying to develop a method of continuous by looking normalizing the calories consumed per mile by computing effective efficiency based on the calories per mile reported by my HR monitor, the duration of the run and amount of elevation/descent on the run. It's still early days for the development of this method but it does seem to track my fitness quite well, and when I run the Kielder Marathon tomorrow I'll find out just how well it used to extrapolate race performance.Robert Osfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16960356368117573952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13273897.post-50054409203547475122012-10-05T11:02:58.411+01:002012-10-05T11:02:58.411+01:00Niamh, if you're reading this, does he really ...Niamh, if you're reading this, does he really get that irritable? Have you tried telling him not to run so much?<br /><br />The stable pace is a sign of excellent aerobic fitness. Not sure about the long time to recovery HR. I'd normally say it's because you're stressed/not recovering well day to day. The h/beats per km of the 10 miler on 1 October is 687 which is a little higher than your 'normal' isn't it? That could be a sign of over-reaching and the need for a number of easy days.Ewenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01093209634556111656noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13273897.post-1383966631614274832012-10-04T09:33:58.368+01:002012-10-04T09:33:58.368+01:00I have 10 days to go until Liverpool ... my first ...I have 10 days to go until Liverpool ... my first marathon since Brighton 2010 - a silly injury (which I badly mismanaged) kept me off-track for almost a year but I'm feeling relatively fit - the time will be rubbish but I have been keeping up with you all the while. Occasionally making a comment - the technical stuff does baffle me a lot too but suddenly it's starting to make sense ... which is worrying.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com