Thursday, February 26, 2009

Track Time


I ran an easy 5 in the morning and felt better than I had during the last two days.

In the evening my workout was to run 5 x 1000m (400m rest) in 2:57-2:58 (just a tad faster than 5k pace). This time I ran totally by myself and completely by "feel". I have a watch but can not see splits while running (esp at the dimly lit 200m mark), so I am really running by feel alone. I hit the stop button after I finish and run underneath a stadium light to get my times. I hit 3:01, 2:55, 2:58, 2:58 & 3:01. I was pissed I didn't hit my 5th K on time. My legs felt heavy/tired, but I should have been able to muster up a 2:58 again...only I fell asleep. I had more left (as I assume you should) and ran 2 x 200m strides to end the workout on a good note.

I am encouraged that I am able to run 100% by feel without any help and mostly hit my times. 10 miles tonight and 15 for the day. I am trying to run mid 80s to 90 this week and again next week before bringing the mileage down.

2 comments:

Matias said...

There's a lot out there about heart rate stuff, but agree the best way to do it is by feel, or the uber technical term "perceived effort"

That's the way we learned, lots of people have run fast w/o heart rate monitors, power meters, VO2 assessments... I blame capitalism, everybody always trying to get my $$$$.

Like the toothpaste commercials... who REALLY uses that much toothpaste? They zoom into it the giant wad of toothpaste, I don't know anybody that uses that much toothpaste... but they want you to think that's how much you need, so you use more of it and end up buying more of it all in an effort to get the consumer to spend more and more and more.

The heart rate monitor is used to help understand what went wrong.... or right. For example, the heart rate data from yesterday's workout could help explain why the last one wasn't what we wanted.

KLIM said...

Yes, it is kind of liberating to run by feel. I focused on form and sorta "clicked" into my pace.

On normal runs, I "click" into 6:40 pace all the time. I can guess to the second how fast I am running while running along mile marked bike baths. I am trying to do the same in these 5k-paced workouts.