Saturday, February 28, 2009

Run Threshold test

This morning I did a Run Threshold test. The first of this season. Its the standard 30 minute field test, where you run easy 10 minutes, then do 20 minutes as hard as you can. The average HR during that last 20 minutes is a good approximation of your anaerobic threshold.

It was HARD! I have been sticking religiously to the base pace for the past 3 months. No faster than 9 min miles EVER ( except that one time I had maybe too much coffee before a 90 minute run and inadvertently kept throwing in fartleks whenever I had a burst of energy. LUV caffeine!!)

I was extremely happy with the results. Considering I had not done a drop of an interval anywhere in my training thus far. My ave pace for the 20 minutes was 7:30 which is good for me and normally seen only after a build period. which means I am already ahead of where I was speed wise from last year. and further analysis shows I actually had hit sub 6 speeds for a period of about 3-4 minutes early on in the run. but I recall pulling back because I did not think I could hold that pace for 20 minutes. Then I hit it again during the last 2 minutes of the run as I wanted to let the gas out of teh tank. Leavingh it all on the road.

The fact I could hit sub six at all was astounding to me. I have not done any intervals at all, no speed work, nothing. This crap really does work. Who KNEW!! John Hirsch knew thats who.

Anyhow my Ave HR during the last 20 minutes was 178 so that is until my next test my Anaerobic threshold. According to Joe Freil my aerobic threshold is about 20 BPM below that. so that would be 158. for aeorobic threshold.

2 comments:

George Houston said...

That is awesome! Sounds like you’ve got a good season ahead of you.

Marcos Apene do Amaral said...

We are on the same journey! Hope you can also follow myself on a developing triathlon business that I run as a wannabe pro athlete and coaching services. Cheers, Marcos