Ladies,
The luck had to run out. It's July, and it's always hot in July. Boy, has it been July this week!
Yesterday was an outstanding workout. We had very good quality efforts from everyone, top to bottom. It was a great way to come back from dead week and hit the quality.
That leaves us with a discussion of the meaning of the words "quality" and "hard". Sometimes you can quantify both with numbers, such as minutes per mile, heart rate, or distance. The trick is knowing when to use a particular measure.
Yesterday was effort. I was looking for an 85% effort day. The easiest (and most accurate) way to do this is through heart rate. Since we don't have team heart rate monitors, we have to use a less scientific measure - conversational pace. An 85% effort usually lands a bit above the ability to talk. Once you are running hard enough you have to gather breath to speak, you're there.
What that does is change how you position yourself in the run. In a race, things would appear to be greatly simplified... be the first across the line and you win. However, that ignores the obvious - that there can only be one winner. A more reasonable goal then is to have the best time on the run you can. That comes from understanding your limits and pushing them just hard enough to not quite go over.
So, back to the effort... You don't all have the same level of conditioning, talent, or experience. You cannot and should not all be running together on a quality day. The odds of all of you being in perfect sync are beyond remote. There will be girls in the front, there will be girls in the back. That's as it should be. This is the part that's hard to accept... everyone, front to back, as long as they run the 85% effort, are getting the same workout.
Would I want to see someone come in first running 95% effort on this type of workout? No. It's not the goal of the workout. The most important part of the workout is the proper stress level for your VO2. We'll worry about who's first when we do actual speed work. What we are doing now is setting the stage for that later.
The other part of controlling your effort is race control. It's easy to get caught up in what's going on at the front of the race. Danielle asked if I could run 18 minutes in a 5k. The answer is yes, I can run in the 18's. Why did I bother telling you this? Because you can't. That sounds mean, but sometimes things have to be put bluntly to make the point.
I ran off the front of the workout because I wanted to see how you would react to me leaving you. Some of you had the discipline to not follow, but some of you didn't. You almost buried your run by chasing something you could not catch. That's why I told you at State there will be girls who can run 17 and 18 minutes. We don't have anyone that can do that today. So why would you try to catch someone who can? See what I mean? It would only destroy your time to try.
Your best time only comes when you stay at the level you can sustain. Find that level, and you find your best time. Then we can work on pushing that level up in a more methodical nature. I am not saying I don't want you to work hard - far from it! I want you to work smart. That's an incredibly important distinction.
A word about heart rate and the theoretical maximum... generally, the formula goes 220 - [age] = max heart rate. You then multiply your max times the percent of the workout requirement. So, on Tuesday it should have gone something like this:
Danielle: 220 - 17 = 203, 203 x 0.85 = 172.5
I promise, after the first mile you were above that. Control, control, control.
Today was supposed to be an easy recovery day. It wasn't. How can I tell you (besides the obvious)? Easy. I took some pulses from about a half dozen of you. Everyone was 180 and above. On a rest day. When it should have been 65% effort. Do the math. If you wonder why I cut the miles, that's why. What you wound up with, because of the weather, was back-to-back hard efforts.
We will swim at BNL tomorrow. We have to rest and recover. Spring Mill on Friday!
The luck had to run out. It's July, and it's always hot in July. Boy, has it been July this week!
Yesterday was an outstanding workout. We had very good quality efforts from everyone, top to bottom. It was a great way to come back from dead week and hit the quality.
That leaves us with a discussion of the meaning of the words "quality" and "hard". Sometimes you can quantify both with numbers, such as minutes per mile, heart rate, or distance. The trick is knowing when to use a particular measure.
Yesterday was effort. I was looking for an 85% effort day. The easiest (and most accurate) way to do this is through heart rate. Since we don't have team heart rate monitors, we have to use a less scientific measure - conversational pace. An 85% effort usually lands a bit above the ability to talk. Once you are running hard enough you have to gather breath to speak, you're there.
What that does is change how you position yourself in the run. In a race, things would appear to be greatly simplified... be the first across the line and you win. However, that ignores the obvious - that there can only be one winner. A more reasonable goal then is to have the best time on the run you can. That comes from understanding your limits and pushing them just hard enough to not quite go over.
So, back to the effort... You don't all have the same level of conditioning, talent, or experience. You cannot and should not all be running together on a quality day. The odds of all of you being in perfect sync are beyond remote. There will be girls in the front, there will be girls in the back. That's as it should be. This is the part that's hard to accept... everyone, front to back, as long as they run the 85% effort, are getting the same workout.
Would I want to see someone come in first running 95% effort on this type of workout? No. It's not the goal of the workout. The most important part of the workout is the proper stress level for your VO2. We'll worry about who's first when we do actual speed work. What we are doing now is setting the stage for that later.
The other part of controlling your effort is race control. It's easy to get caught up in what's going on at the front of the race. Danielle asked if I could run 18 minutes in a 5k. The answer is yes, I can run in the 18's. Why did I bother telling you this? Because you can't. That sounds mean, but sometimes things have to be put bluntly to make the point.
I ran off the front of the workout because I wanted to see how you would react to me leaving you. Some of you had the discipline to not follow, but some of you didn't. You almost buried your run by chasing something you could not catch. That's why I told you at State there will be girls who can run 17 and 18 minutes. We don't have anyone that can do that today. So why would you try to catch someone who can? See what I mean? It would only destroy your time to try.
Your best time only comes when you stay at the level you can sustain. Find that level, and you find your best time. Then we can work on pushing that level up in a more methodical nature. I am not saying I don't want you to work hard - far from it! I want you to work smart. That's an incredibly important distinction.
A word about heart rate and the theoretical maximum... generally, the formula goes 220 - [age] = max heart rate. You then multiply your max times the percent of the workout requirement. So, on Tuesday it should have gone something like this:
Danielle: 220 - 17 = 203, 203 x 0.85 = 172.5
I promise, after the first mile you were above that. Control, control, control.
Today was supposed to be an easy recovery day. It wasn't. How can I tell you (besides the obvious)? Easy. I took some pulses from about a half dozen of you. Everyone was 180 and above. On a rest day. When it should have been 65% effort. Do the math. If you wonder why I cut the miles, that's why. What you wound up with, because of the weather, was back-to-back hard efforts.
We will swim at BNL tomorrow. We have to rest and recover. Spring Mill on Friday!
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