Today's plan was to do 5 trips up and down the road with the first one being a warm up and the next 4 being hard efforts on the ascent portions. With feeling some fatigue in my legs and an average grade of almost 14% I wasn't concerned about speed - especially since a 12:00 pace isn't going to make me fast anyway. I just wanted to run strong for all 4. After about a 12:30 first run up I thought it'd be reasonable to try for 10:30 for each of the next 4 uphill reps. I felt pretty comfortable going 10:25 on the first one and thought my 10:30 assesment was right on. That was until the wheels fell off halfway up the 2nd rep and I ended up with an 11:03. I was seriously wondering how I was going to be able to do 2 more of these at any effort. Then, about halfway down on the recovery the wheels where put back on and I felt better. I accepted that 11:00 would be reasonable. The 3rd and 4th reps were much better and had a strong feeling about them going 10:51 and 10:47. This was a good day for working on the PT, Pain Threshold.
Awesome find! Sounds excellent.
ReplyDeleteYeah - for what it is worth, I have learned, although sometimes I need to learn again, that I can feel very comfortable on the first hill repeat - and that same pace or slower feels deadly on subsequent repeats.
Having a horrible 2nd rep seems to be a trend with me. I usually bounce back for the rest though. If I went any easier on the 1st ones I wouldn't feel like I was working hard enough. Not sure if it's actually better to go 10:45 on all 4 or just go with the flow of how my body seems to cope.
ReplyDeleteI think it is better to be a bit easier on the first one. It trains what you should feel like on a mountain. If you feel like you are working the first ten minutes of Pikes or Evans, chances are you will be over the top 30 minutes later. So I look it as training a bit of what to expect in the race.
ReplyDeleteI used to feel the same way in 5ks and workouts. The first mile of a 5k always felt easy, surprisingly so. The second mile was a workout. The third mile was about making my teeth sweat.
I can work the Ws ... but if I do, I am gonna be worked.
Good point GZ.
ReplyDeleteThe next time I head over to this hill I think I'll try for 4 x 10:45 and see how I feel on reps 3&4.
Well, it might be nice to rip the last couple at 10:15.
ReplyDeleteIf you can.
Then the next time start at 10:38.
Right on, I'm always up for that kind of work.
ReplyDelete