How is his heart rate so high on the slow reps? My mile is just under 20 seconds slower than his but I run (threshold) mile repeats at roughly 4:51-53 with heart rate ending in the 175-177 range typically. I'm also younger than him with a maximum heart rate of about 205; I'd assume his is about 200 or so. So how is his heart rate 179 at a 5:15 mile pace?
How is his heart rate so high on the slow reps? My mile is just under 20 seconds slower than his but I run (threshold) mile repeats at roughly 4:51-53 with heart rate ending in the 175-177 range typically. I'm also younger than him with a maximum heart rate of about 205; I'd assume his is about 200 or so. So how is his heart rate 179 at a 5:15 mile pace?
Yes, this jumped out at me. It’s possible he is pretty out of shape aerobically since hes back from injury recently, so this workout is setting a baseline for regaining fitness.
EDIT: IG commenters say this is max HR in the rep, but yours seem to be too. These are also Ks so youd think only the last 2 would be at all taxing for him
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
How is his heart rate so high on the slow reps? My mile is just under 20 seconds slower than his but I run (threshold) mile repeats at roughly 4:51-53 with heart rate ending in the 175-177 range typically. I'm also younger than him with a maximum heart rate of about 205; I'd assume his is about 200 or so. So how is his heart rate 179 at a 5:15 mile pace?
I don't have HR but I went 6 x 1km yesterday took blood at 3/5/6 and hit 9.4, 12.4, 12.5 but my workout was not a progression. Goal was 3:02 per km. Not happy with blood results, but late night Thanksgiving and early morning workout, felt tired, breathing heavy.
Kerr is obviously relatively early in base training right now, which is as it should be. Ordinarily, no one would ease into the intervals like that. He's doing his first 1k at my kid's 3-5x1k pace. Did he even do a jog warmup? Then he doesn't even get very close to 5:00 pace until the fourth one. The fifth one is still at marathon pace for a top guy and his heart rate is 194 and the lactate reading is quite high. The last one is just a bit under 5000m WR pace and he is at max hr and a very high lactate. Jakob does around 2.5-4.0 mmol on thresholds and under 7.0 for hills. However, I saw Hoey getting much higher numbers on long hills.
March of this year (obviously way further along in training) Fisher did 20 miles @ 5:30 (3:25/k) at 4500 feet with an average HR of 135 which seems ridiculous
Hes been posting more on strava recently, hopefully he keeps it up into the season
61:51 on a course with a quite bit of net downhill, to be clear. Still impressive of course, he would definitely be under 13 if he cared to run a well paced 5.
But the guy himself acknowledges he won't be contending for medals in the event.
Kerr is obviously relatively early in base training right now, which is as it should be. Ordinarily, no one would ease into the intervals like that. He's doing his first 1k at my kid's 3-5x1k pace. Did he even do a jog warmup? Then he doesn't even get very close to 5:00 pace until the fourth one. The fifth one is still at marathon pace for a top guy and his heart rate is 194 and the lactate reading is quite high. The last one is just a bit under 5000m WR pace and he is at max hr and a very high lactate. Jakob does around 2.5-4.0 mmol on thresholds and under 7.0 for hills. However, I saw Hoey getting much higher numbers on long hills.
More speed-oriented athletes will usually have a higher lactate reading at their threshold paces compared to distance guys. Most athletes now do their threshold intervals between LT1 and LT2 pace similar to "sweet spot" training. The workout done by Kerr does not fit into this category. Lactate may be closer to 1.5-4.0 mmol for distance guys, but an 800m guy might be closer to 6.0-8.0 mmol by the last few reps.
I am not too sure about the HR. Even if it is his max HR for the rep, it does seem a bit high during reps 2-4 compared to what I would expect.
This is interesting - this is 100% a threshold testing "workout" (so not even really a workout per se) to get a series of data points combining speed, HR and lactate over a standardized distance (1000m) relevant in his 1500.
You can see that by the pretty consistent staggering of paces. He was probably looking to be closer to 3:00 on that 4th rep and 2:40 on the final one but it actually doesn't matter, the data points are all obviously relative to those speed, HR and BL numbers. The recovery time doesn't matter per se - at a guess they have a HR+BL number they want him to hit before he starts again and looking at how in that 4th rep he hits 190/4.0 in only a 2:56km rep, I would doubt it's a very long recovery.
It is/will be interesting to see how this progresses for him throughout his buildup. He might do this another 2 times(?) as he gets closer to the outdoor season.
I am sure that for example with Jakob, by the time the racing window opens, he and his camp know how fast he can run for a certain distance without crossing his threshold and they also have an idea (less precise) of how fast and far he can go once he does cross it. I think specifically they focus on the 1200m point knowing that if he is there right at his threshold he can "maintain" another 300m at an elevated pace (40.0-40.5) to the finish. That's how they get all the figures for wavelight and the human pacing. Kerr is probably in the process of doing the same here.
Just to correct what I wrote above, where I was guessing not actually calculating, Kerr was running 12:55 5000m pace on the last one (7:45 3k pace), not sub-wr 5000m pace.
As another poster pointed out, we have to remember that Kerr ended the season with an injury and had to take a chunk of time off. He’s probably only a few weeks back to training, so this test is a baseline. A lot of people assume that Kerr is more of a speed oriented guy but I would consider him a strength oriented 1500m runner with good speed. His lactate spikes at a pretty low level and he doesn’t top out crazy high. Granted, he only got down to 2:35 k pace, but you’d certainly see higher numbers from somebody like Hoey who is very clearly a speed guy. Kerr is the world record holder for the indoor 2 mile. I don’t think he’s officially broker 1:45 in the 800.
Kerr is obviously relatively early in base training right now, which is as it should be. Ordinarily, no one would ease into the intervals like that. He's doing his first 1k at my kid's 3-5x1k pace. Did he even do a jog warmup? Then he doesn't even get very close to 5:00 pace until the fourth one. The fifth one is still at marathon pace for a top guy and his heart rate is 194 and the lactate reading is quite high. The last one is just a bit under 5000m WR pace and he is at max hr and a very high lactate. Jakob does around 2.5-4.0 mmol on thresholds and under 7.0 for hills. However, I saw Hoey getting much higher numbers on long hills.
I do lactate testing all the time, for almost every workout. I’m a mid-2:30s marathoner & my HR/lactate would be lower than this *at altitude* on the slower reps. Good on him for posting this, because this is not the workout of a world championship contender. It shows he’s out of shape, as other posters have noted. As for it not being normal to ease into intervals like this, lots of coaches do progressions like this to test fitness (as opposed to maximizing any particular training system). It’s a test workout, and it shows he’s got some work to do!
As another poster pointed out, we have to remember that Kerr ended the season with an injury and had to take a chunk of time off. He’s probably only a few weeks back to training, so this test is a baseline. A lot of people assume that Kerr is more of a speed oriented guy but I would consider him a strength oriented 1500m runner with good speed. His lactate spikes at a pretty low level and he doesn’t top out crazy high. Granted, he only got down to 2:35 k pace, but you’d certainly see higher numbers from somebody like Hoey who is very clearly a speed guy. Kerr is the world record holder for the indoor 2 mile. I don’t think he’s officially broker 1:45 in the 800.
He’s definitely been a strength guy through and through, I agree. That doesn’t mean he’s an awesome 5,000 guy, runs huge mileage or crushes threshold. He ran the impressive 2 mile at Millrose and that way surpasses anything he’s done in the 800. Id say he’s a pure miler with good strength and a decent kick. His biggest assets in these races are his tactical sense, physicality, and mental toughness. I think if he allowed himself to get pushed back or running extra distance like Yared or laid in wait like Hocker, it might not work. He does a great job of making runners have to really earn a victory by either outlasting him or flashing top-end finishing speed.