05/11 10:30
Karate practice.
Sensei says it's time to re-test in a couple weeks.
05/12 14:00
6.3m outdoor run 1:15
- Average HR 144, peak 165
Running on a dirt trail near the house. A bit of up-and-down to it, but nothing too aggressive.
My endurance training lately has been focused on building heart capacity, staying in zone 3. This is my first outside run of the year, and I wanted to keep the pace low, but keep running the whole time, HR be damned. Bit of an eye-opener. I think the heart capacity training has been effective, I certainly felt like my lungs & heart could have keep going. But, most of the run ended up in zone 4, and it's clear I haven't built up the muscle endurance I'd need to come anywhere close to the pace I'd like to be running at this distance. My hips and ankles were really whimpering after the run even though the I kept the pace pretty low, and I had a pretty wicked energy crash (feel asleep on the floor for 15 minutes). Seems like I'm faced with a couple of options.
A) Stick with the heart capacity training, and accept that the pace I want just isn't going to come along for a long time (or ever, maybe...)
B) Replace some of my other work with more tempo runs
Being strong first points solidly to option A - the zone 3 runs I've been doing leave plenty of recovery room for strength training, I think to some degree they are even restorative. Compare that with the soreness I'm feeling the next morning from this run - this puts a lot more demands on recovery.
Maybe I'm overreacting, and this is just an artifact of needing to shake the rust off a little. It's just a little discouraging.