Equivocal HADD Test

Wednesday:

no running. mental break. 

0 miles

That's the best way I could describe this mornings Hadd test I did. Back on September 12th I performed my first test without knowing my actual Max HR. The example I was following was for a person with a much higher max HR which made me run a bit over what I should have done for that exercise. I will post both tests below but I don't think there will be much to "compare". The data is quite different and today's data will be a lot more useful for the next test. The one thing I can say with certainty would be the overall effort was WAY easier today. By having my effort too high last test I overshot the HR zones at every level. This morning I was a bit under.

 I call this test equivocal because I think one would think after six weeks of steady running one's times would improve. But, this type of training is HR based not pace based. But, one's paces should and will improve after one gets a decent base built. The one thing I have done differently is my overall mileage volume. Compared to the training plan, my mileage has been quite low. Over the next four weeks it is my goal to up the mileage to the 80 mile per week range and see how the efforts and times go. If I can do that I will attempt to repeat the test in four weeks.

Here are the two tests compared:

HR's:    120        130        140          150         160

9/12          -              -        9:19          8:33        8:00

                                          (143)        (153)       (162) 

                                          6.13          5.43         5.20 

10/23    11:43      11:45    10:44        9:45         8:44

              (123)      (129)      (137)       (148)      (157) 

              7.50        7.51        7.12         6.32       5.52  

*parentheses are my HR, below is pace.

as I stated earlier, I ran this test with ease. i overshot the HR's last time and running the 160 range was very difficult. as you can see my HR at the 150 and 160 range is five beats lower than the last test, thus the drastic change in pace. believe me, five beats is a lot!! this morning the 150 and 160 range was easy and just two weekends ago I ran a 1/2 marathon at HR ave. 160.

 After digesting this for a bit, I believe that this is decent progress over a short time at relatively low mileage.

Totals: 11.1 miles with warm up and test.