am I doing a disservice to myself?
I only run 2x's a week right now and will go up to 3 with bricks now that I am officially on my HIM plan. I find that if I have pace numbers to work with, I try to kill them in the given workout instead of just staying on pace. For example, if I'm slated for a 7:36 mile time for my z4 and I end up doing a 7:10, will that adversely affect me over time? If I am supposed to be doing z4 work but am constantly hitting z5, will it catch up? I understand that everything is a contiuum, but I assume that after a while, I will either get injured or burned out or am I secretly going to get faster?!!!!!!!!! Thanks!
Dan
0
Comments
This is a tough one. My simple answer is that it's OK but you should be very cautious. I have done this quite a bit with no ill effects but that's not to say that it's not without risk. You can overcook yourself or it could be a sign that you're gaining fitness. Listen to your body.
Hope I don't get in trouble from RnP.
It really depends if your vDOT is really an accurate reflection of your current fitness. If you can crush your workouts and aren't having those adverse effects, then you need to re-test!
@Matt- I agree with that, I've always kind of been like that. Its like you see the number, and you just want to beat it! @Patrick, I did a test about 3 wks ago, so I think its pretty accurate, I was wasted when I was done. But, I will admit that I was a track athlete from 7th grade thru college, so interval workouts are what I love, and I love to push them. Now, that being said, going out for an hour run is a different story, I just can't push like that for the whole run. I'm still working on changing those muscle fibers over from so many years in the 800 and down. Tuesday I did the 2X1 mile (2') and it was great, but today I have to go out and do an hour straight with z2-z3 work and I will feel that that workout will be more difficult (mentally more than physically). I just love being on the track, but I need hill work badly. Thanks for the input.
Dan
Dan,
biggest challenge is monitoring recovery. If you can push harder, and still recover well, then it shouldn't be a problem. If you push harder, and other workouts start to suffer, then start thinking about staying closer to the paces prescribed.
We all recover differently, so it's hard to generate a one-size-fits-all prescription on this topic. There are definitely a few peeps in the Haus who seem to have a similar profile to you, in terms of finding the shorter intervals quite easy, and therefore need to push them harder. Typically, folks with that sort of profile need to do a lot of work to fill out the right side of the pace curve. Takes time, but can be done.
Mike
Given that you're only running twice a week its probably pretty easy to outpace the guildelines since your fresh(er) for each run workout.
I would try adding in all the training runs rather that crushing yourself twice a week...
If you have a background and are comfortable with very short distances very fast, but your recent 5k vdot is a bit lower, I would personally recomend focusing a little more on getting the 5k (and half marathon) vodt on par with your intervals, then continuing to try and get faster at the Z4/Z5 stuff. Maybe focus on doing more z3/z4 stuff for longer intervals for a little bit and see how your body responses to it. In other words instead of going 30" to fast on z4 1 mile repeats, do 1.5 and 2 mile repeats at the correct pace for a few weeks.
In our cycling terms, it sounds like you may already have a high roof, and not need to push your ceiling up a little bit to get your vdot inline accross all of the training paces.
FWIW, I have the exact opposite problem of you and had to force myself to run fast with a group at a track for short distances to get myself to make any gains, as just doing what I was comfortable with and liked (i.e. running longer) wasn't making me faster.