Sunday Progress Test
11.0k 58:30 HR Avg 146 Max 173
Course: UoQ Track.
Start Time: 5:50 am Temp 14C.
Session Type: Lactate HR Test
Now that I have completed my base building phase in my Gold Coast training, this morning was time to test my progress and gadge where I currently stand with my fitnesss.
The test runs along the principles outline in this article by Hadd . The idea is to do this every couple of months and to monitor your pace at given Heart Rates and to get some idea of your fitness improvement and Lactate Thresholds. The test I do is based on 2000m sets with 90 seconds of rest between each and are run at HR 135, 145, 155, 165 and 175.
I was up at 4:30am and it was noticeably cooler this morning at 14C. Perfect running temperature. I got into the car to drive out to the Uni track and the radio was on the ABC. Now I never listen to the radio but My Wife does and she had been last in the car. So I was just about to flick to the CD ( a newly purchased compilation of 1980's Kenyan Dance Music compilation), when the announcer caught my attention saying he was broadcasting live from in front of Parliment House Canberra and it was a lovely brisk morning and 2C outside. TWO DEGREES!!!! That is not lovely that is freezing, seriously cold. I have been mentally preparing myself for the worst, expecting it maybe to get down to 9C or 8C but not 2C. Lets hope it is just a one off and it warms up a little by next Sunday.
The session went by quickly. The low HR sets are easy but tricky keeping the HR steady. The middle ones are easier to keep a steady pace but the HR 175 set I found really hard to get the necessary speed going to get up to the 175 Heart Rate and managed only to max at 173. I just couldn't go any faster than the 3:48 I was doing.
Here are the pace results in mins/Km from July 05, Dec 05 and today.
The results were: July Dec April
Heart Rate 135 - 6:25 5:20 5:07
Heart Rate 145 - 5:45 4:58 4:47
Heart Rate 155 - 5:03 4:35 4:20
Heart Rate 165 - 4:38 4:18 4:03
Heart Rate 175 - 4:15 4:10 3:48
Again big improvements since December. These improvements maybe a little overstated in the upper ranges as it was very humid in the December test and those figures suffered because of that.
In December, I said I would be very happy to be sub 4:20 at the HR155 level, so I guess I just got there. This in theory should be close to my target Marathon Pace but I know I am not up to doing that in a marathon at the moment. Maybe by Gold Coast though. After Canberra I will start doing speedwork and with this I should see more improvement in the HR 165 and 175 range.
I'll mull over these figures for a few days before deciding my Canberra target pace.
Week Total : 47.8 K
MTD: 11.0 K
YTD: 930.3K
I had a family dinner to celebrate my brother's 50th birthday last night at my sister's place. She has entered the 2006 Marathon de Medoc in France and was showing me an impressive race book about previous years. Lots and lots of great photos but the one that caught my eye the most was the 37k "drinks" station which supplied fresh oysters and champagne.
Course: UoQ Track.
Start Time: 5:50 am Temp 14C.
Session Type: Lactate HR Test
Now that I have completed my base building phase in my Gold Coast training, this morning was time to test my progress and gadge where I currently stand with my fitnesss.
The test runs along the principles outline in this article by Hadd . The idea is to do this every couple of months and to monitor your pace at given Heart Rates and to get some idea of your fitness improvement and Lactate Thresholds. The test I do is based on 2000m sets with 90 seconds of rest between each and are run at HR 135, 145, 155, 165 and 175.
I was up at 4:30am and it was noticeably cooler this morning at 14C. Perfect running temperature. I got into the car to drive out to the Uni track and the radio was on the ABC. Now I never listen to the radio but My Wife does and she had been last in the car. So I was just about to flick to the CD ( a newly purchased compilation of 1980's Kenyan Dance Music compilation), when the announcer caught my attention saying he was broadcasting live from in front of Parliment House Canberra and it was a lovely brisk morning and 2C outside. TWO DEGREES!!!! That is not lovely that is freezing, seriously cold. I have been mentally preparing myself for the worst, expecting it maybe to get down to 9C or 8C but not 2C. Lets hope it is just a one off and it warms up a little by next Sunday.
The session went by quickly. The low HR sets are easy but tricky keeping the HR steady. The middle ones are easier to keep a steady pace but the HR 175 set I found really hard to get the necessary speed going to get up to the 175 Heart Rate and managed only to max at 173. I just couldn't go any faster than the 3:48 I was doing.
Here are the pace results in mins/Km from July 05, Dec 05 and today.
The results were: July Dec April
Heart Rate 135 - 6:25 5:20 5:07
Heart Rate 145 - 5:45 4:58 4:47
Heart Rate 155 - 5:03 4:35 4:20
Heart Rate 165 - 4:38 4:18 4:03
Heart Rate 175 - 4:15 4:10 3:48
Again big improvements since December. These improvements maybe a little overstated in the upper ranges as it was very humid in the December test and those figures suffered because of that.
In December, I said I would be very happy to be sub 4:20 at the HR155 level, so I guess I just got there. This in theory should be close to my target Marathon Pace but I know I am not up to doing that in a marathon at the moment. Maybe by Gold Coast though. After Canberra I will start doing speedwork and with this I should see more improvement in the HR 165 and 175 range.
I'll mull over these figures for a few days before deciding my Canberra target pace.
Week Total : 47.8 K
MTD: 11.0 K
YTD: 930.3K
I had a family dinner to celebrate my brother's 50th birthday last night at my sister's place. She has entered the 2006 Marathon de Medoc in France and was showing me an impressive race book about previous years. Lots and lots of great photos but the one that caught my eye the most was the 37k "drinks" station which supplied fresh oysters and champagne.
posted by Robert Song @ 8:22 am
6 Comments:
At Sun Apr 02, 06:05:00 pm AEST,
Rob said…
Very impressive stats Robert Song. Your training is certainly producing the results. Gold Coast is going to bring you a great deal of satisfaction I should think.
At Sun Apr 02, 06:32:00 pm AEST,
R2B said…
Hadds aproach shows a lot of merit Robert and your living proof.Doing the 12km teasts every so often is also great to see your improvement.
Keep it coming!
Can't wait to see how you go in Camberra taking it "easy".
At Sun Apr 02, 08:19:00 pm AEST,
Ewen said…
Perhaps around 4:47/km will feel comfortable?
2 degrees is not seriously cold - that's just fresh. Try the minus 5 of late July! It does seem like it will be cooler than last year.
At Sun Apr 02, 08:21:00 pm AEST,
Tesso said…
Wow, great improvement there Robert Song! Wonder what the stats are gonna look like after the speed work starts.
Champers at the 37k mark .... hmmmm .... wonder if they'd keep our Canberra special drinks on ice :-)
At Mon Apr 03, 09:34:00 pm AEST,
blues buffett said…
GR : checked out the half results. Now I get it. Nice nom-de-plume.
Is The Band on Robert Song's list of favourite artists?
At Tue Apr 04, 01:04:00 am AEST,
blues buffett said…
Got your note on my blog. Thanks for the good wishes. It's a good calendar of events - complements the training and keeps up the motivation through mixing with other runners. I'm assuming you get The Band reference (as in a certain member).
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