Tuesday, June 19, 2012

A stroll through the park...

Yes, it's Tuesday, and that means the dreaded hard workout.

We repeated last week's chase exercise, except this time we extended it to two loops. For that reason, the time differential was extended to two minutes between groups. Lauren and Diana lead out, followed by Shelby, and Summer, who were chased by Danielle, Carrie, and Bret.

The goal of the workout is not to run all-out. It is to put in an 85-90% effort, but be conscious of the people running in front or behind you. Runners have to learn how to conduct a controlled chase, and not spike the heart rate unnecessarily. Likewise, if you're on the front, you have to learn how to put enough pressure on those behind so they lose the desire to catch. Mental games are a huge portion of racing at a high level.

The course is almost 2.25 miles (if you run the loop twice). The results are:

Danielle - 15:45
Carrie - 17:13
Shelby - 17:28
Brett - 18:02
Summer - 19:55
Lauren - 20:36
Diana - 21:47

Total workout distance was a bit over four miles, with a one-mile warm-up and a one-mile cool-down. Everyone went full distance.

I let Danielle wear my beloved Garmin 910 (the envy of all Wendys), and it recorded some good pieces of data. Check it out here.

By clicking on it, you get one of the most essential pieces of information - pace per mile. A very close second place would go to the individual mile splits. Taken together, you can get a clear picture of the type of effort put forth. How?

Let's look at the information. Mile one was 7:18, and mile two was 7:18. Obviously the average was therefore 7:18, which is an even, sustainable effort, exactly what is desired.

On the other hand, let's take that 7:18 average, but this time mile one 6:58 and mile two was 7:38. Which run would result in the faster time if the run had been extended to 5k?

This is an easy one - the first run. If you analyze the trend, run one is steady, but run two shows a marked deceleration. It is easy to extrapolate another 20-40 second drop in pace in the third mile, taking the pace out to something in the neighborhood of 8:08-8:18, which means a full minute added to the overall time! This is not good at all, and completely unnecessary. Pace is obviously very important, and learning our own personal limits is key to running the perfect pace.

Tomorrow's run is at Parkview, Thursday at the Hatchery. Friday - trails?

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