Tonight, I'll go to sleep thinking about tomorrow's workout. That will serve two purposes. First, I hope that it will help me fall asleep. Second, by visualizing the workout, I hope that it will help me successfully complete it. On Sunday, I did this new hill workout for the first time. It kicked my butt! However, there may have been some reasons for that. Looking back, I did the first 150m uphill repeat at about 7:20 pace, which would probably be akin to my goal 10K pace on flat ground right now. I actually felt pretty good at this pace. After walking back down the hill, I did the second one at about 7:00 pace, which might be closer to what I would hope to achieve in a 5K on flat ground if everything was perfect right now. Now, these goals might be a little ambitious, but I'm getting more confident with where my training has gone, so I'll go with this. Keeping in mind, of course, that I'm doing these paces uphill at about a 3% grade for 150m. Interestingly, my Garmin pegs these paces as the equivalent to 5:05 and 4:50 pace on the flats, respectively. Since I love numbers so much, my 200's on a 1% downhill grade have been at about the equivalent of 5:10-5:20 pace. So, I'm in the ballpark. The hills give added value to building strength, but I don't want to lose the speed or the leg turnover from a neuromuscular perspective. So, finding the right pace is important.
On Sunday, I got to the third and fourth intervals and somehow managed to increase my pace. Don't ask me how, I just did, finding myself doing them at 6:30 pace, or the equivalent of 4:30-4:40 pace on the flats. That's the rarefied air of what I was doing for 8 seconds the week before. Whoops! That's where I defeated the purpose of what I was trying to do, although I'm sure I gained some physiologic benefit from it. Not necessarily the benefit I was setting out to achieve, however. 6:30 pace is pretty much where I'd love to be for a flat 5K later this year. Who knows whether that's achievable or not, but for 150m, I kept that pace moving uphill. The fascinating thing was what happened to me on the fourth interval. I started out fast, and about 50m from the end, a switch clicked off. I knew that my legs suddenly had no energy, my central governor was sending signals that said enough. But, I know how to override my central governor, so I just gritted my teeth and pushed on for those last 50m, somehow maintaining that pace. Don't ask me how, I just did it.
Of course, I couldn't catch my breath for 10 minutes. I certainly couldn't do a 5th interval. There's the rub. There may be a point in time that I'll try to achieve that pace going uphill for 150m, it's just not now. Now, I need to focus on a pace that I can reasonably keep for multiple intervals. It needs to be a fast pace, one akin to the pace I'm trying to hit right now for the 5K or 10K. That's probably 7:20 pace for the time being. It feels like that makes sense. If I focus on keeping 7:20 pace for that 150m, let's see how many intervals I can do before the switch turns off. The switch will turn off at some point, because this workout is certainly stimulating lactic acid production and engaging my anaerobic lactic system. But there's no need to overwhelm that system and limit my training. There's a sweet spot that should allow me to get some good neuromuscular, metabolic and physiologic benefit.
Tonight I'll think, and maybe even dream, about doing my hill repeats tomorrow at 7:20 pace. The other day I only managed four, but I blew myself up by going to fast. Can I do six? Seven? Eight? Let's see what happens with my new favorite workout!
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