Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Kenyan Way Speed #4 - Three Mile Threshold Run

3.0 miles, 20:51, 6:57 pace, Avg HR = 162, Max = 175

Today was the fourth session of Kenyan Way Speed Workouts, which occur every Wednesday until the Houston Marathon. The workout was a simple three mile threshold run. The theories behind threshold runs are too complex for me to try to convey my understanding in this forum, but you can read about them here and here and here.

My goal pace according to my Kenyan Way training schedule was 7:15 per mile, but according to those articles that I just hyperlinked I should have concentrated on running at 90% of my max heart rate instead of pace. By that measure I was below my "threshold" for all but the last 3:46. (My max HR is 191, so 90% of my max is 172 BPM.) Oh well, I guess I'll know better next time.

Tomorrow the college football season kicks off with a match up between my Fightin' Tigers of LSU and the Bulldogs of Mississippi State. You can watch the game at 7PM central daylight time on ESPN. Because of that event, I won't be able to run tomorrow evening for my scheduled hour. I'm going to try to get those miles in at an obscenely early hour tomorrow before work. Getting up early will also enable me to cook the brisket for the pre-game meal. Geaux Tigers!

mile splits:
6:55, 7:04, 6:52

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, 90% of your heartrate? That is a really intense workout. Make sure you're not going too hard on your heart!

P. S. are you now training for the marathon? Melanie

Jonathan said...

The interesting thing is that it's relatively obvious to me where my heart rate is, even if I don't look at my watch during the run.

My easy breathing rate is one breath (full inhale and full exhale) for every eight strides. I drop down to six strides when I hit about 70% (134) and four strides when once I hit about 80% of my max HR (153). But my breathing becomes noticeably labored when I hit 90% . . . to the point that it's obvious to me that I just crossed over to the 90%+ range. I'm still taking four strides per breath, but I start breathing very deeply and I feel like I need more oxygen.