Yesterday I did my long interval bike workout and unfortunately 2 mins before the end of the first interval the screen saver on my computer screwed up my program. I decided to move right into the rest break with the intent of adding the extra 2 minutes to the second session. Upon restart, I quickly decided that two 18 minute intervals would do quite nicely instead of the called for 20 minutes. I had to push very hard to even get to 18 minutes again but I'm okay with that. I need to be kind to myself occasionally. Of course 5 minutes into my cool down I felt guilty enough to go back and do the missing 4 minutes!
Anyway it was a tough ride, which eventually led to today's experiment. I wanted to get a long run in, but was worried that it would be too much. So I did a 4min/1min run-walk thing for the entire 30 kms. I've experimented with run-walk before but never for a long session like this. Aside from the fear of overdoing it I had another motivation for the experiment. I'm pretty sure I want to tackle the Ironman marathon with a run-walk strategy form the start rather than when I no longer have a choice. My hope is to run under four hours and so I need to find the formula that gets me to a 5:40/km pace. I thought 4/1 would do it, but in actual fact I was a fair bit faster than that finishing with a 5:27 average. It was quite gratifying. I'm still not sure of the final plan but that gives me something to go on at least.
"It's not an experiment if you know it's going to work."---Jeff Bezos
Love
Peter
Anyway it was a tough ride, which eventually led to today's experiment. I wanted to get a long run in, but was worried that it would be too much. So I did a 4min/1min run-walk thing for the entire 30 kms. I've experimented with run-walk before but never for a long session like this. Aside from the fear of overdoing it I had another motivation for the experiment. I'm pretty sure I want to tackle the Ironman marathon with a run-walk strategy form the start rather than when I no longer have a choice. My hope is to run under four hours and so I need to find the formula that gets me to a 5:40/km pace. I thought 4/1 would do it, but in actual fact I was a fair bit faster than that finishing with a 5:27 average. It was quite gratifying. I'm still not sure of the final plan but that gives me something to go on at least.
"It's not an experiment if you know it's going to work."---Jeff Bezos
Love
Peter
I just curious to learn why this might be better than just running that pace from the beginning? Won't you use more energy doing the run/walk than just adjusting your pace?
ReplyDeleteLove old john
http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/walk_breaks.html
ReplyDeleteI assume that the run/walk method is not something recommended or suitable for short distances, like 5-10km, or no? When I did Cross Country, I always thought anyone who I saw walking didn't train right... is this correct? And I always pushed myself to finish a race having run it completely.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the run/walk method worked out for you when you tried it and then you actually had a better pace than your goal! That's a great sign.
Is anybody gonna answer me about the run/walk method? I'm interested.
ReplyDelete