Workout 13: 3-Miler

I felt great walking outside to start my run so I decided to test a theory. I read in a few places that base traning does have a downfall. Basically, you continue to improve your average pace while staying in Z1, but that's about as fast as you get. So if I can run 10:30 miles for 9 miles, I can also only run 10:30 miles for 3 miles, but after the 3 miler, I won't really feel tired. There is some physiological limitation that keeps you from running faster, even if you go to an increased HR. The theory is that if you go to a higher HR zone, you will only be able to hold it for a short interval. This is a problem for me as I would like to break my 10K PR of 54:17 when I run my next 10K on Feb 23. It seemed strange, and I didn't agree.

So.....maybe there's some truth to it. I didn't really go all out, but I did try a little harder. This time I did 3 miles in 30:58, so 10:18 avg pace and 167 avg HR. This is at the upper limit of Z1 for me but nothing crazy.

Mile Pace Avg Max
1- 10:20 165 169
2- 10:16 167 172
3- 10:40 167 174

That hill at the end is really killing me. I definitely would have gotten in under 30 minutes if it were flat. I'm going to consider an all out run for Sunday's 6-miler just to see where I am. I still have 3 tomorrow and 5 Saturday though, so we'll see how it goes.