Sunday, April 22, 2012

Sunday penance

For the punishment of my sin of a poor performance yesterday, I reported to the church of the white lines for penance.

It was a raw day, perfect for an endurance foundation workout.   In Sewanee it was overcast, 48º and windy, an occasional spit of drizzle made it feel more like winter.

I didn't want to run anything real fast since my quads were a bit tight, I thought I'd work on my foundation.   Playing one upsmanship with my previous 6 x 600m workout, I did 7 x 600m.  I set a goal of 18 sec 100m splits (1:48).

This time I averaged 1:51.1 (for  7).   Last time I did 600s, I averaged 1:52.2 (for 6).

800m warmup, stretches, drill 
7 x 600m - 1:46.5, 148.5, 1:50.5, 1:53, 1:55, 1:56, 1:48.5 
avg. 6 min rest

I feel like I really pushed very hard on the last one that left me feeling spent.   If I had stayed at 1:56ish, I could have done a few more.

Good to get it done.

4 comments:

  1. That, is one of my fav workouts to do: 6x600m.
    I do it a little differently only taking 90secs recovery between reps, thus each rep is at a pace that I can maintain for all of them. Why do I do this?

    Published research indicates that the anaerobic system maxes out in male sprinters after approximately 40seconds of maximum effort, which for us 50sec and above sprinters, leaves us with approximately 100meters of pain with only our aerobic system left to help us home.
    6x600 can be an anerobic workout if you take long recovery, but I am willing to bet if you slow those reps down and take way less recovery, you will really begin to see the benefits of a better aerobic system when you kick off of that final turn.

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  2. I guess I'm not in that good of shape since even after 3 min rest, my heart rate is still 126+. I try to wait until my heart rate falls to about 114 or less before starting the next one. I doubt I could retain good sprint form for 600m with just 90 sec rest. Maybe if I was 20-30 yrs younger.

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  3. http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/csa/vol71/billat3.htm

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  4. Bill - Regarding your point about being able to hold sprint form at that pace 20 to 30 yrs ago: Even a 20 year old, when going very deep anerobically, needs 3x to 5x rest time to completely replenish CP stocks. When emphasizing energy mechanism development, if a 1:1 rest period slows a 20 (or 50) year old down so that they don't have "sprint form" - then so be it. That is, if the emphasis is on aerobic development. If sprint form is needed, practice sprinting seperately. Anerobic is 16 times less efficient than aerobic, at this pace you are going deep into O2 debt, and you replace oxygen when done. Hence you are winded. But at the cellular level it is entirely different. You are really taxing your anerobic systems trying to develop aerobic finishing power. Try 1:1 long sprint workouts at slower pace and move speed into a seperate workout, shorter, faster, crisper..

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