VO2max 8 mi w/ 5 x 600m @ 5K pace

Today's training: 8.2 miles w/ 5 x 0.5 mi @ 5K pace, 1:17:30, avg 152 bpm
first, notice I forgot it was 600m and shot for 800m which is how I got .5 miles. Argh.

"Perfect, lung-searing intervals." This is a phrase I read in a running book somewhere and an ideal that someday I hope to attain. Today was not that day. My heart rate didn't get anywhere near the 95-98 %MaxHR I believe 5K race pace is supposed to be. On the other hand, I ran some of these at a pace I'm sure I felt couldn't sustain for 5K. What's normal for intervals?



The elementary school track where I ran is one-tenth mile and made of crushed gravel track. It was designed by the architects who build the high school tracks and I'm assured it's a tenth of a mile. I've also double-checked it. On another day I jogged to the high school's 400m track and calibrated my suunto foot pod. I then jogged back and ran around the elementary school track at the same pace. It was dead on. The tenths ticked over within a stride or so of the same spot each lap.

It was cold out this morning and I was a little stiff from Sunday's 20-miler, so I started slow for the first few miles. I picked the pace up just a little in the mile and a half before I reached the track for the intervals thinking that maybe I wasn't warm enough on my last intervals session, during which I only managed to run at about the same pace as last fall's 5-miler, but my average heart rate on the last lap of the last interval was 178, which is lower than the 186 I averaged for the whole 5-miler. During those intervals I had a hard time finding a gear any fast than that pace even though I wasn't really out of breath.

Today I tried to push myself to do them a little faster. I probably started out a little too fast since I felt like I couldn't run relaxed at that pace and couldn't imagine running a 5K like that. Here are my splits. Each one is .1 miles, so 45 seconds equals 7:30, which is my predicted 5K pace based on the 5-miler. Each .1 seconds translates to 0:01 min/ mi. Below are the interval data -- lap seconds (avg heart rate in bpm).

• 41.8 (156), 41.6 (173), 41.8 (179), 42.3 (180), 42.6 (181)
• 40.0 (164), 42.3 (178), 42.4 (181), 42.5 (182), 42.6 (183)
• 41.7 (165), 43.5 (177) , 44.5 (180) , 43.5 (180), 44 (181)
• 42.6 (164), 43.7 (177), 43.9 (180), 44.4 (180), 44.2 (181)
• 43.1 (169), 43.6 (178), 43.7 (181), 43.9 (182), 44.2 (182)
• The paces for each of the sets are 7:00, 6:57, 7:14, 7:18, and 7:17 min/mi.
  

After the second set, I decided I was running them too fast and just concentrated on 1-1 breathing (breath in on one stride -- two steps -- and breath out on next stride) and running relaxed. I felt like I could realistically run that pace for 5K. I was supposed to jog 90 secs in between each set, but looking back it was more like 2-2.5 minutes. Oops.

I'm wondering if I can figure out anything about how I'm doing relative to my 5-mile race based on these interval paces and heart rates?