Improving 10k time at altitude

[TheEd]

Hi markco, hope you starting to feel better again

altitude is not a fun space if you have to continually go through the readpting

on we go

well hopefully

TheEd

[MarkCo]

Hi TheEd

Feeling OK now thanks. Had a wobble at the weekend where I didn't feel good during a run so had a couple of days rest at the start of the week. I must have had a mild cold as my other half had it as well and we both felt a bit under the weather for a couple of days. You're right about having to regularly re-adjust to the altitude, it makes things a bit difficult and I'm pretty sure it's held me back a bit over the past year, but with all the effort I've put in so far I'm absolutely determined to continue with my running plans here and hopefully I'll be able to reap the rewards with some shiny new PBs when I get back to the UK - which *fingers crossed* should be in the next few months!

I started a new cycle yesterday. Update from the past week below:

11 Jan
8.05km in 45:01
5:35/km
Av HR 141
Was planning to do 50-60 mins but felt weak and light headed so stopped early.

12 & 13 Jan
Rested

14 Jan
10.01km in 52:31
5:14/km
Av HR 141
Felt much better, pace still felt easy and was quicker

15 Jan
11.14km in 1:01:20
5:30/km
Av HR 143
Middle 6k were 1k loops around a mildy hilly park. 111m of elev gain in the run.
Feeling OK.

Today I'm planning to just do a 30-40 min easy run to give my body more recovery time before the 2000s tomorrow. I'm not going to do 5 reps as we discussed a while back, with the re-acclimatisation and recent cold I think it's best to stick with a conservative 4x2000 effort and build from there. I can push a bit more on the 1000s if feeling good then.

Cheers

[TheEd]

nice to hear that things are better now

onward bound

TheEd

[MarkCo]

Hi TheEd

16 Jan
Easy 7.55km in 40:00.
5:17/km
Av HR 140

17 Jan
Did the 2000s today. Felt I could have gone faster but wanted to not push it too much given recent slight cold and reacclimatisation. I was pretty confident I was running at a consistent pace so slightly disappointed to see I still didn't get the 1st and last a bit closer, but it was a bit blustery and I had to stop on the last interval for a second when someone got in my way, so I'll let myself off! On the positive side, definitely going faster for very similar HR data and so pleasing to see an improvement following the mini "off period" over Xmas and NY. Next cycle I will aim to up the intervals to 5 and get them more consistent.

Interval / time / pace / av HR / max HR / min HR after rest (90 secs walking)
1 / 8:51 / 4:24 / 158 / 164 / 123
2 / 8:56 / 4:27 / 159 / 169 / 130
3 / 8:58 / 4:28 / 164 / 172 / 139
4 / 9:02 / 4:30 / 166 / 177 / 135
Av pace during intervals: 4:27/km

Previous 4x2k from 6 December:
Interval / time / pace / av HR / max HR / min HR after rest (90 secs walking)
1 / 8:59 / 4:28 / 157 / 168 / 123
2 / 9:07 / 4:32 / 160 / 167 / 132
3 / 9:05 / 4:31 / 162 / 171 / 136
4 / 9:09 / 4:33 / 165 / 176 / 134
Av pace during intervals: 4:31/km

Cheers

[TheEd]

markco, nice to hear things are slotting into place nicely

now you can see the benefit of the off period and going through the cycles

onwards TheEd

[MarkCo]

Hi TheEd

Yes, I've certainly learnt more about how the body responds to the cycles and the articles on compensation and super-compensation make sense when you've been through it a few times.

Here's my activity since the 2000s...

18 Jan
Rest day

19 Jan
Long run - 16.02km in 1:28:24
5:31/km
Av HR 149
Wasn't able to keep the HR under control as I wanted to after about 6-7km. Had to slow from 5:20 pace to 5:30 after 7km, then 5:40 and 5:50 towards the end but it was still in the early to mid 150s from 7km onwards. Frustrating!

20 Jan
11.01km easy in 1:00:03
5:26/km
Av HR 141
Much better run and HR stayed under control.

21 Jan
9.03km easy in 50:31
5:35/km
Av HR 142
Feeling OK.

22 Jan
6 x 1km
The last 6x1k session I did in December was quite a good one if you remember with a jump up of 10 seconds per km in pace. My aim this time was not to go quicker but to try and relax in the session more and get the intervals as consistent as possible. Unfortunately that went out of the window a bit when during the 2km warm up I felt a bit sluggish, including when I did my usual 10-20 seconds of pace testing during the last km of warm up, so I decided to set off at a conservative pace and hopefully increase from there. I think I set off a bit too slow, and then over-compensated a bit on the following 3 intervals, meaning I didn't have enough left for the final two and the pace dropped off a little for those. Certainly not a bad session and I'm still reasonably happy with it given that I was feeling a bit tired - the final two intervals were hard going and I could really tell during the warm down that I'd given it everything!

km / time / av HR / max HR / min HR after rest (60 seconds walking)
1 / 4:28 / 154 / 163 / 131
2 / 4:23 / 158 / 166 / 134
3 / 4:15 / 162 / 171 / 139
4 / 4:12 / 164 / 174 / 148
5 / 4:16 / 168 / 176 / 150
6 / 4:22 / 169 / 178 / 148
Av. pace of intervals 4:19/km

Previous 6x1k session on 11 Dec:
km / time / av HR / max HR / min HR after rest (60 seconds walking)
1 / 4:18 / 160 / 166 / 133
2 / 4:15 / 161 / 172 / 138
3 / 4:11 / 164 / 173 / 145
4 / 4:18 / 167 / 174 / 151
5 / 4:15 / 168 / 176 / 149
6 / 4:20 / 168 / 184 / 149
Av. pace of intervals 4:16/km

I'll probably just do a shortish 30-40 min recovery run tomorrow rather than an hour. Will check waking pulse to determine (it has been pretty consistent recently at around 50-52, with the exception of a 56 the morning after the long run).

I'm aiming for 200km minimum per month this year. I exceeded that amount for Sept, Oct and Dec last year only. Although I had a slow start to this year, I should just make 200k for Jan.

Cheers

[TheEd]

Hi markco, great to hear about the understanding coming in. You right to back off if the pulse is higher than normal during an easy run. The 1k session was OK, considering .. the next few days will tell you if you coming down with something or something else effected you, but there will be the upswing if you monitor yourself and allow your body to 'catch-up'

great to see how you see you control your running and not the other way around

onwards TheEd

[MarkCo]

Hi TheEd

Thanks. I think I have slowly just about got over the cold but might be a bit 'run down' as I have a mouth ulcer which I tend to get when stressed or after a cold. I've still been running but trying to take it a little more easy so as to allow my body to catch up, and I've also had a couple of extra rest days.

23 Jan
Rested

24 Jan (1 hour easy)
12.01km in 1:07:41
5:37/km
Av HR 141
Nice and relaxed.

25 Jan
Rested

26 Jan (5k pace run)
Was still not feeling 100% but not bad enough to not run, so went ahead with the pace run keeping it feeling slightly easier than usual. Comparing with the previous same session in December it looks very similar but it definitely felt easier, apart from pushing a bit harder in the last 100m or so.

4km WU @ 5:32/km and 4k CD @ 5:33/km

km / pace / Av HR
1 / 4:37 / 146
2 / 4:37 / 164
3 / 4:37 / 165
4 / 4:35 / 169
5 / 4:24 / 170
Total time: 22:56 (4:35/km)

Previous 5k pace run on 15 Dec:
km / pace / Av HR
1 / 4:37 / 149
2 / 4:31 / 163
3 / 4:32 / 164
4 / 4:31 / 167
5 / 4:34 / 169
Total time: 22:52 (4:33/km)

27 Jan
Rested

28 Jan (1 hour easy)
12.52km in 1:08:01
5:25/km
Av HR 140
Nice and relaxed, felt very easy and 'light'.

29 Jan (3 x 5mins)
Bit disappointing to be slower than last cycle again, if only slightly, and for a slightly harder effort looking at the HR data. At least I managed to speed up for the last interval! I guess the cold has had an effect on me and the after-effects may still be lingering. My estimated VO2 max has slid back down to 54 having recovered previous lost ground to 57 a couple of weeks back. Plan now is to do a couple of easy shorter runs (40-50 mins) tomorrow and Friday. I don't think I'll do a hard effort at the weekend in place of a race, to aid further recovery hopefully. Any further suggestions welcome! cheers

3km WU @ 5:27/km and 3km CD @ 5:36/km

Interval / dist / pace / Av HR / Max HR / Min HR after rest
1 / 1.12km / 4:26 / 161 / 168 / 155
2 / 1.11km / 4:29 / 165 / 171 / 160
3 / 1.16km / 4:16 / 170 / 178 / 161
Av pace during intervals: 4:24/km.

Previous 3x5mins on 18 Dec:
Interval / dist / pace / Av HR / Max HR / Min HR after rest
1 / 1.14km / 4:21 / 160 / 164 / 154
2 / 1.13km / 4:24 / 164 / 170 / 157
3 / 1.14km / 4:21 / 168 / 174 / 160
Av pace during intervals: 4:22/km.

[TheEd]

HI markco, little steps when no t feeling great, make sure to pay attention to the morning pulse

on we go TheEd

[MarkCo]

Hi TheEd

Feeling noticeably better and more energetic today. Waking HR 46 which is the low end of normal for me, so hopefully the bug / after effects are finally gone.

30 Jan
10k easy in 53:09
5:18/km
Av HR 138
Lower HR for faster pace so looks like I'm absorbing the training.

Going out for another 40-50 min easy today which will take me up to my 200k target for the month. Then rest on Saturday and we'll see on Sunday how I'm feeling - will be either a hard-ish effort 5-8k or just another easy 1 hour before starting a new cycle next week.

Enjoy the weekend all!

cheers