Taper Intervals

Caught up on the intervals I was going to run yesterday. But first, let me note something a little out of the ordinary.

It’s been awhile since I did any running with my heart monitor. The main reason for the drop off was because the chest strap has lost almost all of it’s elasticity and I only have about an inch left of movement before it won’t tighten up anymore. It just became too much of a hassle. Plus, I felt I had a pretty good gauge on my heart rate based on perceived level of exertion, so I weaned myself off of it.

I put it on today, just for the heck of it, and I was a little confused by the initial rest reading. Normally, I’d expect it to be around 60 given that I was just walking around. But it was up around 70-75. I didn’t feel like my HR was elevated, but there it was. I doubled checked my pulse against the clock to see if the sensor was off, but it was correct. I figured I’d go through my planned session anyway and just make a mental note of the anomaly.

After a ½ mile warmup drill, I did 4 ¼ mile fast runs with ¼ mile recoveries in between. The first two 440s were pretty easy, clocking in at 1:30 and 1:25 respectively. I didn’t go as fast as possible, but I’m pretty sure I was at a pace that I could sustain for a mile…maybe two if I wanted to put myself in the pain cave. I noted my HR at the end of each sprint was in the neighborhood of 168. That’s pretty high, and based on my estimation of HRmax being 175, that would be 96% of max. I ran the recoveries at an 8:20-8:30 shuffle and watched my HR drop to the low 150s. I would have liked to see it get down to 140, but my ventilation felt good. Again, though, there was that 10-bpm discrepancy I’d noted in my pre-workout measurement.

The third 440 was tough. I ran it in 1:30 again, but this time I was laboring. At the finish, I noted my HR was 173. Whoa! Okay, so I was laboring. But it didn’t feel like I was getting that close to 100%. Again, I jogged lightly for recovery and my HR was 156 at the start of the last 440. 158 or so is what I’ve been thinking my lactate threshold was. 156 is not really a recovery HR.

Nevertheless, I pushed out on the last 440 and ran it in somewhere between 1:25 and 1:30. Yes, I was huffing and puffing. I was glad to be through. But I felt like I still had some overhead left. My HR was 174.

I’m not sure how to interpret this. Was I really running at 99% of HRmax? Or is my maximum HR really a little higher than I’ve been thinking, and I just haven’t been exploring the upper envelope as much? I’d think that as I’ve become better conditioned, getting my HR up into that last 5% of max range would be harder, requiring greater and greater effort. Either I really was working at that level of effort or I’ve lost some of my high end conditioning. I don’t know. I’ve been doing so much running these last few weeks in the aerobic range, perhaps my anaerobic capacity has dipped a little.

But something was up with my HR today. Even hours later, sitting quietly in a chair, my resting HR was still around 65 when it would normally be under 60. I’m going to keep tabs on this over the next couple of days, especially making note of my resting HR in bed in the morning. (It’s 61 right now, sitting at my work desk and typing.)

As for the running workout, it was good. I finished off with an easy 2-mile cooldown jog, getting another feel for the 8:20-8:30 pace when tired. It was good to air out the legs and lungs a bit, even if it was only a short 30 minute session. This puts me back on schedule and I’ll do a light 3-4 miles tomorrow, rest on Friday, and then mostly rest on Saturday except for a “get-the-jitters-out” morning jaunt around the Lusardi Creek pond.

3 days and a wake up.