Monday 5 March 2012

Tempo running with 8.5kg backpack

Howdy folks.  As you may have noticed the majority of my training has been long steady runs and I haven't done much speedwork at all.  Hill training on the other hand I have done plenty of, with the Uetliberg and Zurichberg being my regular routes.

In light of this fact I decided today to do a tempo run.  The idea of a tempo run is that you run near to your lactate threshold for around 30 minutes max.  Normally you would do a tempo run without a backpack, but since I need to be able to run fast with one I decided to wear it on my tempo run.  It weighs the same as it has done the last few times i.e. 7kg plus 1.5kg of water so 8.5kg.

I set off a little too fast and my heart rate went up to 177bpm, which I cannot maintain for long at all.  That is way above my lactate threshold.  Then I settled in to a good rhythm with an average heart rate of 154bpm.  If you look at the activity on Garmin Connect http://connect.garmin.com/activity/155207374 you will see that apart from the initial peak in my heart rate, it was almost a perfect horizontal line.  It felt tough but sustainable and I was blowing hard but steadily.  I was unable to give a sprint finish, as the finish was uphill from the river to the apartment.

In 30 minutes and 2 seconds I covered 6.1km, which seems okay to me considering I was wearing the pack.  Without it I would expect to go much faster of course.  I will try and fit in some more of these tempo runs over the next couple of weeks and see if it can help inject some more speed in to my legs.  Tomorrow will be a long steady run again though, as well as a session of hot yoga.

On a final note, I was wearing my desert shoes with gaiters on, and I didn't experience any problems.  6.1km is pretty short though and I will need to wear them on a longer run to see if I get any more blisters like I did the other day.

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