I spent the morning studying and then I headed out the door to have a lunchtime game of padel. What an awesome way to break up the day. Shame I got whacked at full pace with a padel ball in the face. Luckily my cap and glass took the brunt of it but I have been left with a little cut across the bridge of my nose. It is just one of those things. At least it’s not as bad as my friend, Laura as she got hit on her playing hand and has got a massive bruise. I’m sure it is broken…. but only time will tell.
Tonight’s run is quite interesting… it is a ‘Progression Run’. 5 minutes in Zone 1; 15 minutes in Zone 2; 8 minutes in Steady State Pace; 4 minutes in Lactate Threshold Pace; 2 minutes in Critical Velocity and back to 5 minutes in Zone 1.
To be honest, I have no idea if I am going to be doing this run correctly but I will give it my best shot. Its says that…
‘Similar to Fast Finish Runs, Progression Runs teach the body to run faster on tired legs’
This Progression Run features a 3-step progression that hits the following intensities.
Steady State Pace.. the fastest pace you could sustain for 2 hours. (Low end of Zone 3)
Lactate Threshold Pace.. the fastest pace you could sustain for 1 hour (High end of Zone 3)
Critical Velocity… the fastest pace you could sustain for 30 minutes (Zone 4)
The warm-up and zone 2 are pretty easy to achieve but the tricky part is I don’t even think I would be able to run for two hours let alone know what pace I would be able to keep for that duration… So I decided that I would just increase the pace and stick with it for the duration of time. I didn’t want to increase it too much as I knew that I would have to increase the speed a further two times. I probably could have increased it more but I kept telling myself would I actually be able to run at this pace for 2 hours if I increased it more. I knew I would be able to run at a faster pace for 8 minutes but for 2 hours that is a completely different story altogether.
Progression Runs if I have to do them more often I am sure I would grasp a better understanding of what it actually requires from me but this is a learning journey for me. I am absolutely loving it. I wish I was a lot more knowledgeable already but everyday is a school day and I am loving learning new things. Thank goodness there is no exam in it.
The Steady State Pace I did actually feel as though I could carry on for longer so I guess I have done something right and then I have increased the speed a little bit more. Lactate Threshold Pace.. here I come. Time is flying by and again it isn’t too bad running at this pace.. I guess it is probably because this was the pace I was pushing myself to run at when I first started training. As you can imagine there would have been no way I would have been able to run at this pace for 1 hour in those earlier days but believe it or not… I actually believe if I carry on the way I am I can run at this pace for 1 hour without any problems! Go Me!!
Critical Velocity… 2 minutes and my legs are running so fast… or at least they feel as though they are… I have no idea what pace I was running at. I did check the treadmill but by the time I got off and went to the swimming pool I had completely forgotten what it was. But Critical State I felt I was in…. I am 100% certain if I carried on at this pace for 30 minutes I was be in critical emergency care!! But two minutes are over and done… and then I am back down to zone 1…. Well it literally took me 5 minutes of walking to get back down into this zone again!
Yeah I am still alive and well…. I feel great now….