I took advantage of my day off from work to get in a dress rehearsal for Chicago. It included 4 x 5k at "MP" with a 400 meter jog in between, plus a 2 mile warm-up and cool-down for a total of 17 miles.
This workout was run on the dirt track near my house. I tried to simulate race day as much as possible; same shoes, socks, shorts and (maybe) singlet. I also set up a table with Dixie cups of Gatorade that I drank every 2 miles.
I wasn't as concerned about hitting my goal MP of 6:40 as I was about starting out like I want to in Chicago, running controlled and staying relaxed. I did that for the first 2. On the 3rd I focused on goal MP and came pretty close. For the last one I didn't worry about time at all. I just tried to stay relaxed as possible.
Here are my splits, pace and HR;
21:39, 6:58, HR 170-172
21:21, 6:52, HR 170-172
20:50, 6:42, HR 176-178
21:59, 7:05, HR 172-174
Although the weather was pretty nice; 65 degrees, sunny with a dew point around 60, I "know" it'll be nicer on October 22nd. That combined with the fact this workout came at the end of an 85 mile week - my highest since April - I consider it to be a solid workout.
So, throw in a taper, nicer weather, better footing and 40,000 other runners and I should be in for a great race.
At the end of this workout there were some junior high kids in the middle of the track for gym class. One girl asked me how many laps I had run. Not knowing the answer I said "100." Afterwards I thought about it some more and figured out I ran 54 laps on the track (my warm-up and cool-down were done on the roads). Good thing I didn't think about that before the workout.
Today's quote of the day is one of my favorites when it comes to athletics;
"It doesn't get easier. You just go faster." - Greg LeMond
9 comments:
Great workout and preparation. I love the table with gatorade.
Hey Zeke,
Do you know where your goal pace HR of 176-178 is in relation to your AT HR? Just wondering how much "cushion" you have before going anaerobic. Looks like your AT & max HR must be up there based on those numbers.
It looks like great weather for an IM in Madison finally eh?!
54 laps! Were you bored?
Thanks Lawrence and Susan. I believe the table idea came from "Double" who comments here once in awhile.
Mike, a few years ago I did a VO2 max test and I believe my max was like 196 with an AT around 180-182.
Actually Madison was pretty brutal; cold, rain, wind. Not sure if that's worse than 90 and sunny or not.
RR, I wasn't bored - just trying to hone in on my marathon pace. For me, the track is the best place to do that.
I like that quote too. It's simple and it's true.
54 laps is a lot, but after a short while I'm not thinking about that.
If you're not concerned with getting standard distances, but still want to hit the right pace for a certain time, this calculator will help you adjust your pace for running in the outer lanes.
Ryan, it's not really scary. I just focused on each repeat, not each lap.
Evan, interesting site. However, this is a dirt track, not a nice rubberized track. Besides, how the heck would I be able to judge my pace if I didn't know where things like 400, 800 & 1600 meters were located?
The key thing is not so much having lanes, but knowing the total width of the track minus about 1 metre/3 feet and running that far in from the edge.
Worked example.
Assume the track is 8 metres wide.
Take off 1 metre as you won't be running on the exact edge of the track, you'll be just inside the outer edge.
This gives you a "lane 1" width of 7 metres, and you are running in lane 2.
The calculator then gives you an option of converting "pace to lap time" so plugging 6:45 into the pace field (which would be about 1:41 in lane 1) you would need to be running 1:51.7 just in from the edge.
Using the same assumptions you can then use the "distance to laps" calculator to find that you'd "only" need to do 11.262 laps on the outside of the track for your 5km. In other words you could stop just past the start of the back straight (if you started at the common finish line) and be pretty satisfied you'd done your 5km.
I knew that math degree would come in handy one day :)
So with all that knowledge and calculations I could have run 49 laps instead of 54?
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