31-01-2024, 01:58 AM
Hi TheEd,
Ok here's a quick update. Last week was a big week because with the weekend off I canned what would have been an easy swim on Friday and substituted it with Saturday's intervals run, so Tues-Fri were all quite big days.
This is how last week panned out:
- Monday: easy run just under 10k
- Tuesday: hard ride short VO2 intervals > 10 mins easy run
- Weds: am: 2x10 mins tempo run (4:41, 4:35) pm: open water group swim
- Thurs: 3x7 mins threshold ride (I find this harder than VO2 intervals)
- Fri: 3x2k threshold run (4:12, 4:09, 4:04)
The most interesting was Friday's 3x2k run. More on that below.
This week is looking like this:
- Monday: easy 8k run (late evening)
- Tuesday: bike - 9x2 mins VO2 intervals
- Weds (today) - just did 20 mins steady/tempo (4:36). This felt quite good and the HR stayed around 140 for most of it until the end. Open water group swim this evening.
- Thurs - 3x6 mins threshold ride
- Fri - easier swim, maybe CSS intervals
- Sat - intervals run. Not sure yet but maybe 400s / 200s around 3:45 / 3:30 pace.
- Sun - easy ride
Then it's race week. The tri is on Sunday 11th.
Back to last Friday's 3x2k threshold run. The 1st interval (4:12) wasn't too bad, but I struggled on the 2nd (4:09). Garmin says my lactate threshold is 4:11 / 163 bpm and I feel runs faster than this really test me. During that second interval my first thought was "I would struggle to complete this at 4:00 pace". Then I started thinking "this is only 2k, I could never hold this for 5k". Then the 3rd interval actually felt easier. than the 2nd. I'm not sure if this was psychological (relief that it was the last one) or physical (I stopped after the 2nd to wet my cap as I was getting hot) but I didn't mind it as much.
Interestingly, 2 month ago at the end of November I did 5k threshold off the bike in 21:00 (so 4:12 pace) and that felt solid, not like a huge effort at all. Perhaps last Friday I was fatigued after a big week.
But in general I struggle to know what sort of pace I should be targeting for the interval sessions. Do I need to be pushing 4:00 pace (or faster) for things like 5x1k and really going hard, or is something like 4:05 or 4:10 going to be just as good, without tiring me out for subsequent sessions so much?
I have a friend here who runs 5k in 16:40 but very rarely trains any intervals at that 3:20 pace. He runs over 100km/week though so perhaps that is a different approach?
Ok here's a quick update. Last week was a big week because with the weekend off I canned what would have been an easy swim on Friday and substituted it with Saturday's intervals run, so Tues-Fri were all quite big days.
This is how last week panned out:
- Monday: easy run just under 10k
- Tuesday: hard ride short VO2 intervals > 10 mins easy run
- Weds: am: 2x10 mins tempo run (4:41, 4:35) pm: open water group swim
- Thurs: 3x7 mins threshold ride (I find this harder than VO2 intervals)
- Fri: 3x2k threshold run (4:12, 4:09, 4:04)
The most interesting was Friday's 3x2k run. More on that below.
This week is looking like this:
- Monday: easy 8k run (late evening)
- Tuesday: bike - 9x2 mins VO2 intervals
- Weds (today) - just did 20 mins steady/tempo (4:36). This felt quite good and the HR stayed around 140 for most of it until the end. Open water group swim this evening.
- Thurs - 3x6 mins threshold ride
- Fri - easier swim, maybe CSS intervals
- Sat - intervals run. Not sure yet but maybe 400s / 200s around 3:45 / 3:30 pace.
- Sun - easy ride
Then it's race week. The tri is on Sunday 11th.
Back to last Friday's 3x2k threshold run. The 1st interval (4:12) wasn't too bad, but I struggled on the 2nd (4:09). Garmin says my lactate threshold is 4:11 / 163 bpm and I feel runs faster than this really test me. During that second interval my first thought was "I would struggle to complete this at 4:00 pace". Then I started thinking "this is only 2k, I could never hold this for 5k". Then the 3rd interval actually felt easier. than the 2nd. I'm not sure if this was psychological (relief that it was the last one) or physical (I stopped after the 2nd to wet my cap as I was getting hot) but I didn't mind it as much.
Interestingly, 2 month ago at the end of November I did 5k threshold off the bike in 21:00 (so 4:12 pace) and that felt solid, not like a huge effort at all. Perhaps last Friday I was fatigued after a big week.
But in general I struggle to know what sort of pace I should be targeting for the interval sessions. Do I need to be pushing 4:00 pace (or faster) for things like 5x1k and really going hard, or is something like 4:05 or 4:10 going to be just as good, without tiring me out for subsequent sessions so much?
I have a friend here who runs 5k in 16:40 but very rarely trains any intervals at that 3:20 pace. He runs over 100km/week though so perhaps that is a different approach?