I ran a 4x1 LT session several weeks ago that averaged 6:28 with 2:23 rest (400m jog). This past week I cut down the active recovery to 1:15 and averaged 6:34.
Not sure how to gauge the improvement (if any) given I shortened the active recovery by about a minute. How would you assess the progress?
How did it feel? Only 4 sec difference, so that doesn't really matter.
Up your mileage and you win much more than 4 sec.
That's hardly your LT, rather 10 k pace or faster.
More easy running and some strides, in your case, until you can break 40 min at 10 km.
....................................................... wrote:
How did it feel? Only 4 sec difference, so that doesn't really matter.
I was a bit more tired when I cut the rest down to 1:15 instead of 2:23, but they were both hard without being exhausting. Just wondering if cutting over a minute of rest and almost maintaining the pace represents much.
Prefontaine1991 wrote:
Up your mileage and you win much more than 4 sec.
That's hardly your LT, rather 10 k pace or faster.
More easy running and some strides, in your case, until you can break 40 min at 10 km.
Where is the 4 secs coming from, btw? It was 7 seconds slower per rep with 1:08 less rest.
I used Jack Daniels, which says 6:30 is my Tempo pace, based off of a recent 5K (18:52). Decided to be slightly more conservative since I was cutting my typical rest time.
Do not follow Daniels or somebody else.
Follow your shape, feeling and so on. If you feel tired on your cruise intervals or tempo running, that means it works.
Don't need to follow exact numbers, because they can be wrong for you.
LT is based on 10 k.
You can run pretty "nice" 5 k thanks to VO2max at low mileage, but you can't do it with 10 k.
So, if your 10 k VDOT isn't the same, run slower, but more !
Prefontaine1991 wrote:
Do not follow Daniels or somebody else.
Follow your shape, feeling and so on. If you feel tired on your cruise intervals or tempo running, that means it works.
Don't need to follow exact numbers, because they can be wrong for you.
LT is based on 10 k.
You can run pretty "nice" 5 k thanks to VO2max at low mileage, but you can't do it with 10 k.
So, if your 10 k VDOT isn't the same, run slower, but more !
Thanks for the advice. Haven’t run a 10K in since the beginning of the summer (when I was just starting up). I don’t think I listed that or my miles, so just wondering what indicators you are looking at that indicate I should up that and run slower.
Also, I should just say I'm still interested in how to compare threshold workouts (or 10K or whatever you want to call it) where the rest is about 2:20 vs. 1:15.
How much does the extra 60+ seconds do for recovery? How much of a pace dropoff in general should you expect by removing a little over a minute of rest?
All things being equal, those are very similar workouts. But all things are never equal:
-how taxing were the workouts? (It sounds like you said similarly taxing—but was it identically taxing, or did one feel slightly harder than the other?)
-how much fatigue from running did you carry into the workouts (recent mileage, races, or workouts)?
-how much fatigue from life factors did you carry into the workouts (stress at work or at home, sleep deficits, diet and drinking over recent days, etc)?
-what were the conditions like for each workout (temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation)?
If all of those things were pretty similar, refer back to the above—all things being equal, those workouts represent pretty similar fitness.
Not An Expert wrote:
All things being equal, those are very similar workouts. But all things are never equal:
-how taxing were the workouts? (It sounds like you said similarly taxing—but was it identically taxing, or did one feel slightly harder than the other?)
-how much fatigue from running did you carry into the workouts (recent mileage, races, or workouts)?
-how much fatigue from life factors did you carry into the workouts (stress at work or at home, sleep deficits, diet and drinking over recent days, etc)?
-what were the conditions like for each workout (temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation)?
If all of those things were pretty similar, refer back to the above—all things being equal, those workouts represent pretty similar fitness.
Thanks! For the recent one, I raced the 5K six days prior and had a bad midweek workout (probably should have given it another day), so there was some physical stress, but felt pretty good waking up the day of. I was probably a bit more mentally stressed too.
While I felt similarly tired at the end of both, I would say I noticed the cool down miles were a bit more tiring on the recent workout. I had never done an interval session with that little recovery, so that may have been part of it). Weather conditions were both similar (70-80 degrees and partly sunny, maybe slightly hotter on the recent workout).
It sounds like the fitness was similar then. I assumed that cutting a minute from recovery might have been a bit more significant, but seems like I may have overestimated how much that recovery deficit would affect me. Appreciate the insights!