Hadd Workout – 9/19/07

This is a place holder post re my workout last night. I’m not sure what it was, but it was significantly better than my two workouts last week. (Ok, it could be that I was much better rested for this workout. ) I think the numbers were:

7 miles – 6:12 pace – 166 bpm

Through 5 miles my pace was 6:10 and my HRave was undoubtedly under 165 bpm. (As a reminder, 165 bpm is a sub-lactate threshold effort for me.) I was doing a great job controlling my HR and was running quickly. My HR drifted a bit from mile 5 through 6.25. At 6.25, I picked up the pace when a runner came up on my shoulder. We ran the next 1000m together. While my HR rose quickly with the increased pace, the effort was comfortable and controlled. I had no problem dropping to what I think was 5:45 pace. I’m fairly confident I could this weekend in good conditions and very comfortably run a 62-63 minute 10 mile.

I must keep in mind that the paces are raw paces from my Garmin and might slightly inflate the distance. Normally, I just use the raw data without much thought as I run most of my workouts on a clear enough track where I’m usually in the inside lane. Last night, the track was really crowded and I had to weave a bunch as well as spend time in lane 2. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I seem to recall that my workout distance was 7.2 miles or so for 28 laps of the track. I wonder if it was possible that I added 3% to my workout distance due to track congestion or whether this is primarily due to GPS data point wander. With an accuracy of +/-15 feet, I’m sure this variation can add up over many data points. I’m not sure if the Garmin automatically corrects for this or if it is only corrected when I upload the data to Motion Based.

Regardless of the above noted possible data issues, this was a solid workout. All my other workouts have the same “issue” in that my Garmin may slightly over estimate my pace, but the noise/inaccuracy should be a relatively consistent, so comparisons should still be useful. I ran the same distance (7 miles) with the same HRave (166 bpm) both yesterday (9/19) and five days prior to that (9/14), but ran an amazing 15 seconds/mile faster.

It’s worth noting that I couldn’t breathe deeply during the workout without uncomfortable chest pain. During a Sunday morning trail run I fell hard on my chest – I initially thought I’d done some major damage. Unfortunately, I had a 1 oz. plastic vial with Succeed S!Caps in the left chest pocket of the Nathan HPL #020. While I’m not visibly bruised, the spot where I landed on is very sensitive to touch and pressure and is unhappy when I breathe deeply. I’m pretty sure I’ll live, but it did make controlled breathing difficult during my workout. I hope it’s healed some by Saturday’s race… though I have no intention of running hard enough to need to take deep breaths.

On the other side of things, my legs are not in the slightest bit sore today!

Related articles:

1. Looking for Floor Space for Way Too Cool 50k (and a Workout Report) So I’m headed out to California next weekend for Way Too Cool and am hoping that someone who reads my blog lives in the area or is headed to WTC...
2. Hadd Rehash [Updated 6/25 9 a.m.] I’m going to try something new. Every time (or nearly every time) I run a Hadd workout, I’ll write about it. That’s not so different, as I’ve already posted about...
3. Hadd Is Back! I’ve got lots to catch up with re my spotty Hadd workout reporting of late. For now, I’ll report on my most recent workout and reestablish an ongoing Hadd workout...

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Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
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