Week 14 Run Test
Well, today didn't turn out exactly how I expected. I've been feeling pretty good on my runs. I was really hoping to shave a bunch of time off of my 5k time today. Unfortunately I was stuck with the hottest day of the year and high winds.
Bad news: My race was considerably slower than I've been testing (although previous testing was on treadmill).
Good News: I was 10th overall out of 400+ and took home some hardware for being 3rd AG.
Breakdown:
Mile 1: 6:21 (I liked it... feeling strong)
MIle 2: 6:31 (I turned a corner and into a big headwind)
MIle 3: 6:51 (Thought the tailwind home would be good, but all it did was let me feel the heat)
Mile .1: 6:10 pace
Not sure what to do with this result. It is slower than I've been running in workouts and I genuinely feel like I should have a higher VDOT. Today was far from ideal conditio s. Do I fudge? Try to retest???
Comments
tested earlier today in very WNDY conditions; and came in at exactly the same as my last test. I had done my homework n all
I do 3.3 miles 1.1 milesx3
1st was at 800
2ns at 811
3rd at 758
vdot of 43. I'll take it. I'm sure I can work hard at getting a bigger bump for the next time. I'm sure you will do the same ;-)
wy am I so sure. there's a graph in daniels book, on running with wind, and it's literally an exponential wind vs effort graph. so if we retest next week, we can bumo 1/2 a opint to a point; but hey, I'm definite it's not the end of the world.
Let's wait n see what the WSMs say to this....
I am not WSM nor I claim to be smart, I just spent the night at Holiday Inn Express. Here is what I would do:
I would not retest. I would note down the temp, humidity, wind and profile of the race. I would attach that particular VDOT to those conditions, make a note of it.
Continue to train at a VDOT you think you should, providing you are hitting all the target paces across the board and you are recovering for all other workouts on target as well. Make sure you review all of your workouts for execution quality. If the data shows you are due for a bump, than you are.
On a side note, above 60F, for every 5F rise in temp/heat index, paces slow down by 3sec/mi. Take that into account before you start beating yourself up. I used to ignore this fact and absolutely beat myself into the ground with blatant disregard.
I am also in the same boat. I consistently train at VDOT 54. Recover well too. I ran on Saturday a hilly 5k at 19:35. That is way off from 18:40, but I will sure not adjust down the VDOT as the course was slow. I look at my running data, I am running all workouts at R-pace down to E-pace exceeding VDOT 54. So, I will stay with it until I get a next chance to race an open race. Maybe in 2 weeks I will run a mostly downhill 4 miler. Will I adjust a VDOT after that, no. It is downhill, no bearing on a real flat course performance.
What is good about taking a note of your race conditions and VDOT with it, if the next race pops up in similar conditions, you have your starting VDOT to work with, apples to apples.
Good job both of you.
http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/108/Default.aspx?topic=Understanding+OS+Test+Results
I'm feeling particularly good about this for a few reasons. First, last year, I wasn't able to take my treadmill performance and translate to outside, so I've kicked up the testing from 0.5% grade last year to 2% grade this year, and I'm getting closer to my speed of last year. Second, I really know I was at my limit for the entire 3rd mile, as I was absolutely dreading my internal checkpoints of when to kick the speed up, so I know I paced it pretty well. Last, running is just plain feeling pretty good right now.
So, I'll have to see what this translates to on the open road, but I'm excited about it!
Unfortunately, I did not have a good test. In fact I stopped it a little over a mile in. I woke up with what felt like the start of a head cold and by the time I hit the gym at lunch (figured I give it a shot), it had developed into a full blown fluid fest! I'm not even going to count this as an attempt and will retest when I feel better.
Aaron hang in there - no since testing when sick and fatigued....
OMG - that was hard. Alot of work for 19 sec improvement from wk 1 test (didn't test wk 8). On same treadmill at gym as wk 1 but seemed alot hotter. Lungs felt like running, but legs just felt heavy. Started out fine @ 7:18 pace and worked my way down to 7:03 pace after .85 miles. Held 6:53 pace for 2nd mile but my plan of dropping down to 6:47 pace somewhere in mile 3 didn't work out. It was all I could do to finish the test . Finished @ 7:03 pace. wk1 = 7:10 pace.
Would've prefered to run in morning but work meeting killed that. I think going forward I'll test outside if at all possible.
B/T/W - don't have a piece of cheesecake a few hours prior to testing - that last mile was a killer - dove into restroom like a man possessed....
vDOt up 1 to 45 from 44. Trending forward so can't complain....
Now i must go to bed cause I gotta do tomorrow's w/o in am.....Good night !!!
Nice job Tom! It's so hard to get your head around this whole "world is not flat", "world does not have a constant temp" and "world does not have consistent wind direction" stuff when we're so numbers oriented. Looks like you got the double Mother Nature F-U in that last mile.
Agree with the other advice offered and in addition wear that hardware with pride... AWESOME!
Yesterday was a no test day for me. Ran 5k last week. Instead, I had my first group track session ever with our local tri club.
The session was not very long, 1hr, but boy was it fast. I have never seen myself run that fast. On occasion or two I was asking guys around if their garmin watches were acting up. I was clocking in some 400s at 4:50 pace, 800s at 5:30 and worse of all it did not feel that straining to hold it. I guess pack factor. Anyway, enjoyed it, 2400m of R-pace running, not much at all, felt refreshing.
@ Alex - wow - those times just amaze me - don't think I'll ever see them....kudos
My PB at that distance is 33:06 (6:40 pace), set a couple of weeks ago at the St Paddy's day race. The goal for this race was to get the extra 6 seconds and go sub-33:00, or completely blow up.
Well, I did the "blow up" option. The race today was very bad. The results are not yet posted but the Garmin says 34:34, which is about a 6:59 pace, not even z4 for me.
My actual running time was 33:45 (6:47), but the blow up literally caused me to stop in the 4th mile (twice). I started MUCH too fast out the gate, running sub-6:00 pace for the first half mile. Recovering from that start was just not possible. I was cooked from the get-go. My pace continued to decline although I passed the 5k mark still somewhat on track to make 33:00. But I knew it wasn't going to happen, and then the collapse occurred.
Obviously the pacing was the thing that killed me, although I think several other things conspired against me as well, including having not run in a week due to rehabbing my right leg (which did not hurt at all today, thank goodness), the fact that it was the first warm day of the year (temp of 78 at the finish), and most of all my head was not in the game…I didn't have the mental fortitude to push through.
But forgetting about the stopped time, the fact that the actual running was 6:47 pace tells you my pacing was just completely screwed up and it wasn't my day.
After the race I waited in the nice sunshine for my wife and mother to finish, then I went for a "redemption run" – I ran almost 5 miles from the finish area in Grant Park up to a restaurant where I re-met up with my wife for lunch.
In a very strange twist, I ran a pace of 6:59 for the run after the race – the same as my average pace for the race, and which at 33:00 was almost as long as the race itself. Cadence for the post-race run was a very nice 82, vs. 80 for most of the second half of the race. And not surprisingly the run after the race was a solid negative split, with paces for each 10' chunk of 7:15, 7:01, 6:53 and 6:36. And I felt 10x better at the end. Amazing how pacing properly makes such a difference.
I have a 10-miler next Saturday. I will not taper for it, really just a good event to facilitate a training run at FTP. And I will NOT mess up the pacing!!!
Race: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78393517
Run after the race: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78380088
Cheers,
Matt
@Matt, that is so common. I have come to learn that even 5sec/mi can put me over the edge when approaching the limits and racing in the upper end. So does 5W over as well. I have a serious OCD and like numbers. I approach workouts and races with numbers. Many times I have ignored the actual weather conditions, my recovery state and went for those numbers, just to blow up. This last 5k I raced conservatively so I would not do that.
What bothers me now I keep screwing up my FTP rides by starting "too hard", or at a level I was comfortably holding in long intervals prior to VO2max phase and I just keep blowing up, whether it is heat, humidity, wind, whatever excuse I can come up with.
That close to the edge, every effort over leads to walking at some point. It is the art learning to connect with your body, cover the watch and run by feel. I think we would come out better racing that way.
Keep it up. I am running a 4miler on Sunday but I will try to limit myself to T-pace so I would not kill myself next week. I did loose the run yesterday due to travel.
I am a week behind, so I just did my Week 14 run test today. 48 seconds better than Week 8, and 90 seconds better than Week 1. Plus, I actually slightly negative split it (a first for me). Before you get all excited, I should point out that my time tonight is still 26 seconds slower than my 5K PR, I was really fat and out of shape before week 1, and my week 8 test was done in a driving rain storm. But still I haven't run this fast in almost 2 years.