Monday, September 1, 2008

Wk 34 Summary

- 127km in 7 workout. The maximum up to now for this training cycle

- 3 workouts:

Wednesday: 25km with 6x2km @ MP, short recovery. This time I nailed the target of 7'20" each, but I was a bit over the target of my HR in the last 2 (reminder: my marathon HR should be around 168-170)

Friday: 20km with fast farltek, many short intervals 1on-1off, good leg cadence, 92/94.

Sunday: 33k. I got up at 4.30am, slept very poorly only maybe 3 hours, back pain. Outside was already 28C/85%rh ... in practice, I felt like S... and was very close to call off for the day... but I could not miss my long run !! Legs felt ok for 20k+ with 2 climbs,than I run out of steam. I felt the back tightening and low overall energy. The last 5km were really long.
It is the second long run in a row that I screw up... definetely I need to make my hard workout on Thursday and have some extra-recovery before the long run.

***TEST***
Saturday I jog around the track and also found time for a Conconi Test (400m protocol). Actually I read many articles about the low reliability of the test in picking up the actual AT level, but I want to use it mainly to monitor the change of the HR profile over time, as sign of good/poor training.
Good: from my first test, right after start of the training, I definitely improved a lot. The curved moved to the right in a dramatic fashion, almost 2.5 kmh faster at the same HR
Bad: I was for sure tired while doing the test, the HR did not climb over 175 even if I felt pushing fast in the last laps. Only 181 bpm as max HR during the test. I must take care of recovery and doing easy runs, very easy

4 comments:

RICK'S RUNNING said...

NICE IMPROVEMENT! INTERESTING DATA.
GOOD JOB!

by7 said...

Alien,

thank you for the compliments, but I take the result with some caution because the first test was done right after coming back from injury. So it worked as a baseline.
It will be interesting to see the next test in 1 month

MB said...

Just curious as to why choose the Conconi test?

by7 said...

Mark,

good question...

a) because I was a cyclist back in 80s and 90s, in Italy we were obviously very aware of the work done by Conconi and keen to try this test. But it was almost impossible to do it if you had not a cycle track available...
so after many years, I can eventually try to use it on myself
(therefore,,, a sentimental reason)

b) in Hong Kong, is very easy to perform (27 sport tracks available...) and I think it is interesting because not only give you an indication at a fixed speed or fixed HR (like those tests based on time trials or HR paced effort), but you can see the trend of improvement in all the speed ranges and also your anaerobic power (last 2 laps).

Being also a short test (only 2000/4000m are enough) is less dependent on temperature/humidity than longer test (eg: 6km/4Miles time trial).

overall, even if not perfect, sounds a good compromise

c) in the book "Marathon Training" from Canova/Arcelli, it is also one of the recommended tests...