My Training - Mike

[Iain]

Well I extended today's L4 to an HM so you have to!

[Mike Channin]

Every session these days is a HM, for Crazy Bear reasons.

Today, the plan was to have yet another go at the 60min/2:00, and use this as a pace test for a near future attempt to row the full HM at 2:00 (and try to pick up a proper SB (and my highest scoring one, too)).

Last time I did 2:00 pace was 29th Jan; it went WAY better than expected - I was literally expecting to make 2k with stretch targets at 5 and 6. Ended up doing 11k, and the HR values were suggesting I easily had the hour, had I carried on, and maybe even had endurance form for the full HM.

So today was about investigating how well I could keep going at 2:00 pace...

[Mike Channin]

Haven't found the time to post it all yet, but long story short, I managed to get to 15k/1 hour, and was still running comfortably, which was good.
I chose to run to 17k, as my arms were a bit sore from weights yesterday and I didn't want to push my luck.
HR was saying I could have gone all the way. Body was saying otherwise, but then it tends to do that, and the best trick is usually just to ignore it.
I cruised a bit, and then decided to do a bit more, so I did 2 more 1k intervals at pace, including a Sprint finish, and managed to come in within a minute of the SB.
So everything points to it being possible on the next attempt, all being well.

[Mike Channin]

Splits
1:25:17.9 21,097 2:01.2 196 975 1380 25 161
3:59.9 1,000 1:59.9 203 997 66 24 145
4:00.1 2,000 2:00.0 202 996 66 24 150
3:59.8 3,000 1:59.9 203 998 66 25 155
3:59.8 4,000 1:59.9 203 998 66 25 155
4:00.2 5,000 2:00.1 202 995 66 25 157
4:00.1 6,000 2:00.0 202 996 66 25 159
4:00.3 7,000 2:00.1 202 994 66 25 160
4:00.4 8,000 2:00.2 202 993 66 25 161
4:00.3 9,000 2:00.1 202 994 66 25 162
4:00.0 10,000 2:00.0 203 997 66 26 163
4:00.3 11,000 2:00.1 202 994 66 26 164
3:59.9 12,000 1:59.9 203 997 66 26 165
4:00.0 13,000 2:00.0 203 997 66 27 167
4:00.2 14,000 2:00.1 202 995 66 26 168
3:59.9 15,000 1:59.9 203 997 66 27 168
4:00.4 16,000 2:00.2 202 993 66 27 169
3:59.3 17,000 1:59.6 204 1003 66 27 168
4:36.5 18,000 2:18.2 132 755 58 23 156
4:00.9 19,000 2:00.4 200 989 66 27 165
4:23.3 20,000 2:11.6 153 827 60 24 163
3:56.4 21,000 1:58.2 212 1029 67 28 171
0:19.9 21,097 1:42.5 324 1416 7 33 172

[Mike Channin]

The C2 Log view

[Mike Channin]

ErgZone's view

[Mike Channin]

Still need to work out what metrics to put on ErgZone - there's a thread on the main forum if anyone wants to offer some advice!

[Iain]

Very interesting Mike. Can you remind me where the "Red" Zone is started?

Personally I find that dropping the pace for 30S-1Min is enough usually to allow me to resume losing a lot less time. Great pacing for first 17k.

[JonT]

Very interesting Mike. Can you remind me where the "Red" Zone is started?

Grey: Below 60%
Blue: 61-70%
Green: 71-80% green
Orange: 81-90% orange
Red: 91+ red

[Iain]

Thanks Jon.

[Mike Channin]

Very interesting Mike. Can you remind me where the "Red" Zone is started?

Grey: Below 60%
Blue: 61-70%
Green: 71-80% green
Orange: 81-90% orange
Red: 91+ red

So, in high-end terms, above 90% HRMax is actually not that high. I can spend extended periods up there. I think the all time record was going into the red 20 mins into a 90 min HM, way back in maybe 2012 (but might even have been earlier) and hanging on to finish with 70mins straight in 'red'.

Even today, I can tolerate 40mins in 'red' (especially if I have adjusted now for HR Max being ~185, so 'red' is around 166, rather than the nice 170 it used to be when my max was 190ish).
(On top of all of this, I prefer the HRR model anyway, but Polar never did that, and although I can see that ErgZone might, I'm wary of playing with it).

So anyway, I always think of a Dark Red top zone, which is the 95% Hr Max, or about 175 in real terms. And that's the one where I know I have about 10 mins left, assuming I can tough it out. It's a long time since I've done a really full out cardio max session, where the HR flattens right off and hits HR Max at the end. Most of them are running at least 5 below, even at the end sprint. But this is partially that I haven't trained a lot in the dark-red zone, so my tolerance for it (mentally and physically) is well below what it was. I am offsetting this to some degree these days by training aerobic base more effectively, and being able to run at lower HR, but I'm still missing my 'top gear' that would unlock really good times...

[Mike Channin]

Might even try the elbow out today.
It is still very painful - not helped by some over-zealous garden maintenance over the weekend.
Really hope I can row around it, as it feels like it will be months to properly heal...

[JonT]

Might even try the elbow out today.
It is still very painful - not helped by some over-zealous garden maintenance over the weekend.
Really hope I can row around it, as it feels like it will be months to properly heal...

How did it go Mike?

[Huw Thomas]

Sorry to hear of your injury, get well soon. Maybe a bit of legs only rowing?

Huw

[Mike Channin]

I did indeed end up doing pretty much legs only, as initially, I couldn't put any power into the arms/finish part of the stroke at all.
Did another longer session today, and it feels like I'm finally starting to make a bit of progress, although I'm still cruising along at a very slow pace. But at least I'm able to do that.

On other news, I did another go at Ian and Iain's Sally Up Squats last week - managed to do a double-header with two times through, back-to-back. Legs were like jelly by the end though.
And Iain, I tried the bench-press version, which was pretty humbling. I totally failed, even with a pretty light bar, but hey, gives me something to work on...

[Mike Channin]

Might even try the elbow out today.
It is still very painful - not helped by some over-zealous garden maintenance over the weekend.
Really hope I can row around it, as it feels like it will be months to properly heal...

How did it go Mike?

Could have been much better on the first two times, but it is just about making progress now, thanks!

[Mike Channin]

Back in the saddle.

I HM'ed

[Iain]

Great to hear Mike.

[Ian Bee]

Nice result Mike

[Huw Thomas]

Well done great news Mike

[Iain]

Here's to many more!

[Mike Channin]

It's still very slow going, I'm afraid.
Arm does seem to be tolerating rowing a bit better now, and I even managed 1k at 2:00 pace during the Sunday IWD 5k row.
I think I've also managed to trap a nerve or something, as I'm really struggling to sit comfortably, even on short/light stuff. That said, it's only pain, and it's not the kind of pain I was getting from the arm when it was making sure that I knew not to push it.

Have a tiny plan to try to hang on for the Mud Season 5k challenge, but I've already dropped most of the spare days, so I'll be very surprised to make that!

[Mike Channin]

Plugging away doing slow 5k's each day. Better than nothing, and the arm is less sore than it was, so I may even get brave enough to try a 5k at reasonable pace sometime soon...

[Iain]

Slowly, slowly catchie monkey!

[Huw Thomas]

Good luck Mike - keep at it - remember the CTC too