I have 5 months to put up a great marathon effort. To test my current boundaries I have been doing ‘treadmill Yasso’s’ (what is a Yasso?). These are half mile repeats at a challenging but obtainable effort. The treadmill means that there is active recovery. Yesterday I exceeded my expectations.
This does not happen often. I set my goals and my standards at a high level. Most of the time I achieve the goal. Sometimes I fail (I even have a tag called FAIL). But, as I said, the standard is high. I never exceed the expectation.
Well, yesterday I was in the grove, in the zone. I am not sure why exactly that happened. There could be a couple of reasons. The number one could be that having added some intensity the last couple of weeks along with being diligent on my diet my weight and body composition has started to respond. The mirror, clothing fit and scale all indicate that improvement is taking place. What does that mean? A couple of pounds lighter and running at hard intensity are just a touch easier.
So yesterday I dialed up the treadmill for 6 x half mile at 9.8 MPH (6:07 pace or 3:03 for the half). The recovery is half a mile at 6 MPH (10 minute pace or 2:30 half). This is challenging but obtainable. I have done this workout many times and it gets difficult. The first couple are no problem but as the fatigue builds the heart rate rises and some I am at the upper limits of my ZONE 4. This is where everything starts to burn and hurt and you push through. However, yesterday, the last two Yasso's the heart rate rose and stuck in that hard upper range (low 180’s) and leveled off. It was intense and it was hard but I was running on cruise control. In fact, although I don’t ever advise this, I added an extra Yasso. I nailed it. I felt strong and fast. It was an excellent session on the treadmill.
Now I just need to add 3 more Yasso’s and increase the speed to 10.1 on the treadmill (5:5X pace in the real world). I have 5 months to do it to put up my best marathon effort.
The heart rate leveled off in the last 3!
2 comments:
WOAH! Man, BAMF is all I got haha. Solid performance on the treadmill man.
That says something that everything is clicking and aligning for you. Keep your energy from this post on your other hard workouts.
Good stuff!
Love when the feeling during/after a workout is "I felt strong and fast"! Awesome!
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