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January 29, 2008
riddle me this, batman
This morning's workout was 90 minutes including 16x[1min@CV pace, 1min jog]. This mythical CV pace is supposed to be a bit under 10k pace. It was a beautiful still morning, around 50F, a little humid but bright and sunny. After a 6-mile warmup, I felt good and ready to go, so off I went - shit, 5k pace. Ok, try it again: shit, too slow. And on, and on, too fast, too slow. After the 6th item, I stopped a minute and set the gps to alert me when I went under 6:30 pace (setting the alert was very hard without glasses on, btw), but I don't know how much that really helped, given the very very short repeats. The thing dutifully beeped at me about 25s into every item, and I would slow down, and 15s later it would beep again, and I'd slow down, and then whoops, time to stop. I averaged 6:26 pace for the whole thing, but my splits were all over the damn place, ranging from 6min pace to 6:50.
So my question is this: how the hell am I supposed to run 10k pace for one and only one minute at a time, when I haven't run a 10k in over a year, and it wasn't even a very good 10k, and I am used to running short repeats all-out anyway?
Posted by joe positive at January 29, 2008 9:18 AM
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Comments
By feel! Just use a clock. Don't worry about the exact pace. That's the point of the fartlek. You can micromanage it, but why when you'll be back to the track for your 1k repeats soon enough? Enjoy the lack of structure and just be happy to get the legs moving a bit for now.
For a fartlek The CV pace thing is a guide--don't run them ALL OUT. Just run them pretty hard. And the beauty of it is, as long as you complete the workout you can't really beat yourself up over not hitting this or that target. You're body will memorize CV pace soon enough, don't worry! I found it a very difficult thing to master: it is a very controlled hard pace. It is actually easier to run all out, I think. And you're right--1:00 isn't long enough to really nail a controlled pace like that anyway.
Posted by: Salty at January 29, 2008 10:12 AM
Salty: yeah, you're right.
I know it looks and sounds like I was trying to micromanage a fartlek workout (that sounds *really* funny, doesn't it?). I wasn't. Well, I kind of was. I kept thinking "the purpose of this workout is to run CV pace and stress whatever system *that* pace is supposed to stress." I was afraid that going to fast would stress some other system and completely miss the point.
Overthinking, yes. Need to stop that. And you're right - I'll be doing track workouts in a couple of weeks anyway. Plenty of time for micromanagement then :-)
Posted by: joe positive at January 29, 2008 10:27 AM
Well, we like the look of this place better than the other'n.
We suspect that 60 seconds is long enough for YOU to nail a consistent pace down after a couple of reps, but not long enough to eliminate the gross variation of your GPS device. We don't know fuckall about running, you see, but we're pretty savvy on the tech side.
You make all of those slackers who post "training" like "Sat on my fat ass; getting ready for next week's three-miler" on CH Runners look like...uh, well, slackers. We're in jail for a few more days, but might go back to that place once we're out just to see what's cookin'.
Posted by: The Royal WHEEEEEEEE! at January 29, 2008 10:31 PM
Yeah, Salty's spot on: for the fartlek, especially early-season, effort is more key than nailing an exact pace. You're just trying to get in touch with your wheels.
That said, I'm surprised Tinman's not a big Heart-Rate monitor guy, being how scientific his training methods are. But I'm not privy to his day-to-day workings, so I'm out of the loop...
Posted by: tuscaloosarunner at January 30, 2008 6:12 AM
Can't help but split hairs, can we? haha. The 10k vs. 5k pace really shouldn't be that critical in 1 minute increments. Sounds like a fun workout.A gear shifter. Remember we started the kids out with this type thing early in the season, only we called 1 "on", 1 "off" (targeting at 10k-15k pace)and played with the times until it evoloved to a continuous tempo. Kudo's to you though for trying to do your workout to the letter of the law for your coach :)
Posted by: ray at January 30, 2008 5:29 PM