Thanks coach herewith is my little hill repeat workout.
Wednesday’s hill repeats went well and I actually felt pretty good right throughout holding proper form and posture. I started with a 1.8KM warm-up in 6’56 / K and finished with a 1.74KM cool down in 6’03 / K Here is the data:
1. 182M in 53’8 @ 142 BPM. I ran straight into the 1st segment from my warm-up onto the hill with my HR already at around 127 BPM. I don’t think it had any ill effects on the remainder of the session.
2. 180M in 51’7 @ 134 BPM. Remarkably I notice that my HR got up to 156 BPM it averaged only 134 BPM for this segment.
3. 180M in 51’6 @ 140 BPM. Very steady but had to focus to maintain posture.
4. 181M in 53’8 @ 133 BPM. I let this slip ever so slightly as I prepped mentally for the final segment.
5. 174M in 49’8 @ 136 BPM. I noticed I ran this ever so slightly shorter this the time. This finish line I use for this session is a tree on the opposite side of the road and not a solid fixed line.
6. 183M in 49’6 @ 137 BPM. Decided to do the 6th repeat as I was still feeling pretty good, I made up for the short run on the previous effort and as it was the final one I threw a bit more effort at it.
This felt like a mini breakthrough session and I was feeling just a little stronger than I have in previous hill repeats. I deliberately cut my recovery times to around two minutes as I felt that I had not been putting enough stress on my cardio system, due to the elongated recovery.
Finally arrived at my Park run with an absolute intention to crack 25:00 minutes on this beautiful Saturday morning. The temperature was around 14 degrees with no wind and a cool fog over the park. I felt that although the goal had been set previously and committed to with Gavin, I had been continuously delaying the effort, week by week as I was certain that at some point I would nail it. This morning was that week, during the weeks training I set the intention that it was going to be this Saturday as I was getting frustrated by the continual delays and internal excuses. The splits were:
1K 4’51.5 @ AHR 144 BPM. I decided that I needed to go out at a reasonable pace before hitting the 1st hill.
2K 5’12.4 @ AHR 149 BPM. This was over the 1st climb and I tried to keep it steady without blowing up over the top.
3K 5’03.0 @ AHR 152 BPM. The 3rd K is a combination of moderate downhill and flat which I decided was going to be my recovery section before approaching the hill for the final time. I ran this steadily not wanting to overcook my system or legs prior to the hill.
4K 5’09.3 @ AHR 156 BPM. Back up and over the 1st climb for the second loop was a bit of a stretch and I really had to find that voice of determination to maintain my pace. My max heart rate here peaked at 159 but I knew that if I could just get over the top and through the 4K mark in around 20’15 I could make up the difference through the finish.
5K 4’40.9 @ AHR 156 BPM. There is a short climb at around 4.2 K where I had to hang tough and then it was downhill and flat to the finish. I really had to kick over the final 200m to break the 25 min mark but just got there.
Thank you Gavin for your support and encouragement to get me to this 1st significant step towards getting back to where I was pre Covid. I must be honest that there were times that I doubted that sub 25 minutes would be achievable again, especially on this tough course but here we are. Much of the acknowledgement must go to you coach for having the faith and tenacity for hanging in there with me, its hugely appreciated.
Wednesday’s hill repeats went well and I actually felt pretty good right throughout holding proper form and posture. I started with a 1.8KM warm-up in 6’56 / K and finished with a 1.74KM cool down in 6’03 / K Here is the data:
1. 182M in 53’8 @ 142 BPM. I ran straight into the 1st segment from my warm-up onto the hill with my HR already at around 127 BPM. I don’t think it had any ill effects on the remainder of the session.
2. 180M in 51’7 @ 134 BPM. Remarkably I notice that my HR got up to 156 BPM it averaged only 134 BPM for this segment.
3. 180M in 51’6 @ 140 BPM. Very steady but had to focus to maintain posture.
4. 181M in 53’8 @ 133 BPM. I let this slip ever so slightly as I prepped mentally for the final segment.
5. 174M in 49’8 @ 136 BPM. I noticed I ran this ever so slightly shorter this the time. This finish line I use for this session is a tree on the opposite side of the road and not a solid fixed line.
6. 183M in 49’6 @ 137 BPM. Decided to do the 6th repeat as I was still feeling pretty good, I made up for the short run on the previous effort and as it was the final one I threw a bit more effort at it.
This felt like a mini breakthrough session and I was feeling just a little stronger than I have in previous hill repeats. I deliberately cut my recovery times to around two minutes as I felt that I had not been putting enough stress on my cardio system, due to the elongated recovery.
Finally arrived at my Park run with an absolute intention to crack 25:00 minutes on this beautiful Saturday morning. The temperature was around 14 degrees with no wind and a cool fog over the park. I felt that although the goal had been set previously and committed to with Gavin, I had been continuously delaying the effort, week by week as I was certain that at some point I would nail it. This morning was that week, during the weeks training I set the intention that it was going to be this Saturday as I was getting frustrated by the continual delays and internal excuses. The splits were:
1K 4’51.5 @ AHR 144 BPM. I decided that I needed to go out at a reasonable pace before hitting the 1st hill.
2K 5’12.4 @ AHR 149 BPM. This was over the 1st climb and I tried to keep it steady without blowing up over the top.
3K 5’03.0 @ AHR 152 BPM. The 3rd K is a combination of moderate downhill and flat which I decided was going to be my recovery section before approaching the hill for the final time. I ran this steadily not wanting to overcook my system or legs prior to the hill.
4K 5’09.3 @ AHR 156 BPM. Back up and over the 1st climb for the second loop was a bit of a stretch and I really had to find that voice of determination to maintain my pace. My max heart rate here peaked at 159 but I knew that if I could just get over the top and through the 4K mark in around 20’15 I could make up the difference through the finish.
5K 4’40.9 @ AHR 156 BPM. There is a short climb at around 4.2 K where I had to hang tough and then it was downhill and flat to the finish. I really had to kick over the final 200m to break the 25 min mark but just got there.
Thank you Gavin for your support and encouragement to get me to this 1st significant step towards getting back to where I was pre Covid. I must be honest that there were times that I doubted that sub 25 minutes would be achievable again, especially on this tough course but here we are. Much of the acknowledgement must go to you coach for having the faith and tenacity for hanging in there with me, its hugely appreciated.