SUMMER RUNNING RECAP FIRST:
Since the death of my treadmill in July I haven't really ran. I checked my Garmin app and literally the month of July I logged 5.25 miles and that's it. No walking no running no nothing. It was so hot and humid this summer that just opening the door took all the energy out of you.
I had surgery in September and have been cleared to start running again and I'm really excited to start my Space Force T-Minus 10 Miler training. I'm following a low heart rate plan this go around and found a local college that has a track I can use for some of the speed work. I started on 10.7 so I'm back to weekly updates! Let's start the training recap!
I am so excited to be running again and during this training I am going to be doing some deep diving into Low Heart Rate training research and VO2 Max research. I will share links to articles that I find helpful (and I'll preface this with I get a lot of great information from Amanda Brooks on her Instagram and her website so those will definitely be shared as well! I did have to make an adjustment to my training plan and moved my Saturday run to Sunday because of a birthday party and my husband's schedule but hopefully I won't have to adjust too often! I am going to start including strength training as well with Sunday being the true rest day. Also if you have never done low heart rate running before...it is truly humbling. Let me just say that my average pace during my half marathon was about a 13:30/mile...I won't be seeing that number in LHR training for a long time...let's get into it!
REMINDER OF WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO
Monday: 4x400m hard effort
Tuesday: 25min Threshold (Z4)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 4x800m Z4
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 3 miles Z2
Sunday: Rest
WEEK (1) SUMMARY
TOTAL MILES:Â 10.22 miles
TOTAL TIME:Â 3h 59m 46s
Day 1 - VO2 Focus 4 x 400 meter repeats I have to get back into the habit of taking pictures either during or post run but Monday runs are a VO2 run meaning that I run hard for the specified distance, in this case 400m (which is 0.25 miles) and then I have equal rest. If it takes me 2.5 minutes to complete the distance then I have a 2.5 minute rest. Ideally I want my heart rate to get below 135 before I start my next leg. It's been a long time since I've done intervals like this so I tried to use my recovery time to focus on breathing and getting my heart rate down. I was moving but not necessarily walking in a forward motion. Recovery wasn't about gaining distance so I just stayed where I was. Here's what my splits ended up being: run 2:44.7/recover 2:48.1, run 2:38/recover 3:19.3, run 3:11.4/recover 4:05.1, and run 2:59.9/recover 3:01.8. I had a 10 minute warm up with some dynamic stretches and some walking to get the heart rate up, and then a 10 minute cool down once my heart rate dropped to 135 and walked back to my car. Overall I felt really good and logged 1.89 miles
Day 2 - 25 minute Threshold
The threshold runs on this training plan are running in Zone 4 or 80-90% of your max heart rate or 2 minutes slower pace from your 5K pace. Since I don't have a consistent mileage base, I don't have a 5K pace that is accurate so I'm focusing on the zone. For me, this is what my usual heart rate is during my "easy runs" so...technically not easy at all. I'm looking at a heart rate between 144-162. I managed to keep my pace in zone 4 with a few spikes above that meant some walking breaks but overall it felt really good and I managed 2.31 miles not counting the warm up or cool down walk.
Day 3 - Rest Day
Ideally this will become a full body/core workout day but for this week, it's a rest day.
Day 4 - 4x800 meter Tempo
This turns out to be different from the Monday runs. This is running in zone 4, not max, and recovery time is half of run duration and the heart rate needs to drop to 135 before starting next leg. I went to the local college and ran on the track because it was easier to focus on two laps at a time then trying to gauge the distance in my neighborhood and I loved it. I did not enjoy that there were not bathrooms to use and after my first round I had to pee and couldn't go so I couldn't hydrate like I wanted to. I've said it before that I pride myself as being a runner that has yet to pee or crap their pants during a run and will continue to pride myself in that! I had my 10 minute warm up with dynamic stretches and some walking and my 10 minute cool down was after I got my heart rate down below 135 and I slowly made my way back to my car. Here's my splits: run 7:02.9/recover 3:43.8, run 7:44.1/recover 3:54.3, run 7:35.3/recover 4:00.9, and run 7:41.1/recover 2:48. This gave me a total of 2.47 miles total.
Day 5 - Rest Day I'm thinking upper body/core or maybe cross training.
Day 6 - Rest Day
My husband had plans that had him away from home all day and then my daughter had a birthday party so I moved my "long run" to Sunday this week.
Day 7 - 3 mile long run Zone 2 I told my husband via text that calling this a run was a joke. My warm up was dynamic stretching and walking which spiked my heart rate up to 145. My zone 2 heart rate is between 108-126. Immediately my watch was beeping at me that my heart rate was too high. If I was able to wog, it was maybe a max of 10 seconds before I was above 126. I walked 3 miles. In total it was 3.55 miles in 1h 25m but I logged it everywhere as a walk. I didn't even track the mileage for my shoes because there was no running impact on them so why take away 3.5 miles from their life for no reason.
WHAT'S ON DECK FOR NEXT WEEK:
Week 2 is going to have some changes but I'll get into that in the next recap. For now, here is what my schedule is supposed to look like (spoiler alert...it changes).
Monday: 4x400m + 2x200m
Tuesday: 30 min Threshold + lower body strength
Wednesday: Full body strength + core workout
Thursday: 4x400m Tempo + upper body strength
Friday: Core workout + Cross training
Saturday: 4 mile long run
Sunday: Rest
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