Monday, March 21, 2011

7.5 Tempo with 650'.

After my run yesterday I took my bike to some very gently rolling dirt roads and measured out a 7.5 mile route so I could work on some faster runs. Other than the 10k Tempo I did a few weeks ago and a little of the 1h/1e stuff I do my legs rarely see anything faster than a 9:00 pace and frequently see 12:00-18:00 paces daily.
I was hoping to go about 52:30(7:00) on this Tempo while concentrating on an even effort and finishing strong. Although 650' isn't much climbing in 7.5 miles there is not a flat spot on these dirt roads. It's always up or down which makes the even effort a challenge for me. The HR data I gathered did not necessarily show an even effort, but more of a controlled progression which I think may have been better training than what I had intended ;-) The first mile is all downhill and the final mile is all uphill. 141,147,148,151,152,154,157,161. I finished 53:30(7:08) and happy with feeling strong the last 1.5 miles.
There's a trail 12k this weekend and if my schedule allows for it I think I'll head over and get in another progression run.

5 comments:

  1. Seeing the word "tempo" juxtaposed with those HRs makes me go hmmmmmmm. What's your max HR?

    Tempo should put you in more hurt aka higher avg. HR, no?

    Keep mashing that dirt!

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  2. Yea, I've always had kind of a low max, just about 170bpm's. Not sure what kind of percentage a tempo should be done at, but the average HR for the entire run was 150, so that's about 88% and the last mile I was holding around 160 which is about 94% of my max.

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  3. 'Tempo' is a feeling or a rhythm, there usually isn't (or shouldn't be) a HR correlation. A general rule though would be a Z3 effort or ~8-12 beats below lactate threshold.
    A 'Threshold' run however is specific to LT and falls ~0-8 beats below LT.

    Tempo is by feel.

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  4. Yeah, there's a general rule. Feel > HR > Data.

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  5. I probably use the word tempo a little loosely. I don't put any HR limits on these runs that I've been calling tempo and I do go by feel, but I usually change my mind during the last 3rd of the run as too what I want to feel. I have no idea what my LT is so I never plan any runs around LT, atleast not on purpose. Today was more about holding a solid effort for a while then finishing strong, finding that spot that I can hold for about 10:00 without collapsing when I'm finished. Perhaps I should call it a progression run that starts 8 beats below LT and finishes 8 beats above LT ;-)

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