I did complete that "pyramid" treadmill workout yesterday I had posted about earlier. The first 30 minutes was pretty comfortable, but not the latter.
I made up the term "pyramid" to describe a run profile that ramps up in intensity and then ramps down in a mirror-opposite way. This time, I thought I'd better acquaint myself with the varying training and racing paces I believe are appropriate for me, caging my brain to see if I could tell what they felt like. I also wanted to see what my heart rate was for each, especially as I recovered. It sounded like a good idea.
But I think there's a reason why recovery periods during intervals are real recoveries and not simply slight reductions in intensity.
I ran the first 5 minutes at 6.0 mph, or a 10:00 pace, which is a about as slow as I can go and still call it running. It's a good warmup, "get-the-kinks-out" pace and one I have to teach myself to maintain. This is probably what Jeff Galloway is saying my long run training pace should be, based on what my half marathon goal pace is (8:15 to 8:30). I predicted my HR would be about 65%, and it was. And that's what Galloway recommends. Wow. I'd never considered running this slow before. To me, this is warmup, interval-recovery, and cooldown pace.
The next 5 minutes I sped up to 6.5 mph. That's a 9:15 pace and I was calling it the Long Slow Distance (LSD) pace. I thought I'd be around 70% HRmax, but I was a tad higher. It was comfortable. I'd like this to be my LSD pace, but according to the Galloway guidance, it's too fast and probably should be my first marathon goal pace, even though it feels and seems bush league.
The 3rd 5 minute segment was bumped up to 6.7 (9:00 pace). Still comfortable; my heart rate was between 75-80%, just a little higher than predicted. I want to run the half marathon faster than this, so I think it's somewhere between M and HM pace. All good so far. 15 minutes total; still feeling like a warmup. Only covered 1.6 miles so far.
Next came 7.1 mph for 5 minutes: an 8:30 pace and what I'd like to average for the half marathon. I'm solidly 80% at this pace, 20 minutes into the run. I'll have to remember to run more slowly at the start of the half marathon since I don't think I could maintain that pace for 100 minutes.
Now it starts to get interesting. The next segment was 7.4 (8:00), which is my tempo training run pace. It's supposed to be "comfortably hard" and talk-test passable. Right on target, I hit 85% max HR. I'm working now.
25:00 to 30:00, I'm now up to 7.7, which is around my current 10K race speed. My HR is now close to 90% and I'm at my lactate threshold. Today, it feels harder than it usually does.
The next 5 minutes are the crucible. I planned to run at 5K speed for 1 minute, mile race speed for 2, back to 5K speed for 1 and then 10K speed for 1...before ramping back down in reverse order. I did the 5K pace (8.3 mph) okay for 60 seconds and my heart rate was at 95%. I could not complete 2 minutes at 9.0 though. My HR peaked out at around 98% and I throttled back to 5K pace. Then 10K pace on schedule.
By the time I decelerated to tempo pace again at the 35 minute mark, my HR was still at 95%. At 40 minutes, I slowed to 7.1 but HR still was about 90%. I decided at this point to slow to a walk and allow myself to recover. After a minute of walking, my HR was at 70%. I walked for 2 minutes total and then picked up the pace again, starting at 6.7 mph to finish out the profile.
Even at these slower paces, my HR would still elevate to over 85%. I had my "wind" back, but I imagined my body as something like a car with an overheating engine. I finished out the 60 minutes, ramping down in reverse order, and observed how my HR did not come down at the same rate that it had gone up. Once I had pressed the red-line level of exertion during the fast segments, bringing the heart rate back down required not just slowing the pace but stopping the pace altogether. For some reason, I just did not expect that.
I covered 6.75 miles in 60 minutes, which is a slow average pace. Had I simply run 6.75 mph, it would have been an easy run. But the pace changes, and venture up above my lactate/anaerobic threshold made it a tough one; tougher than I expected. I'd rather run intervals; and that's saying something.
I take a rest day today, and from here on out I'm in taper mode. I'll run an 8-9 mile easy pace long run tomorrow and then only shorter easy runs during the week, with plenty of rest and recovery.
