The February 2016 Running Challenge

lporter229 wrote: »

@_nikkiwolf_ -Be careful! If you are at all a numbers geek, the Daniels table can suck you in for a good hour or so on any given day!

FWIW, the Daniels table is pretty spot on for me based on my HM PR. It even has my HR nailed down pretty well for each of my paces. But I agree with @Stoshew71 , the term "tempo" is really pretty general. I try not to over think it. My bottom line is that I want to make those 20% moderate/hard miles really count, so I just focus on pushing myself out side of my comfort zone for whatever it is I am doing that day. Whatever I end up with is what I get. Of course, I have goals and numbers in mind, but if at the end of the workout if I can ask myself if I gave it my all and honestly say "yes", then I feel like the workout was a success.

Yup. I try and focus on the purpose of each run. Like Long Runs are supposed to be at your easy conversational pace that last between at least 90 minutes to 2-1/2 hours max. The purpose is to stay in that aerobic zone where you have plenty of oxygen so your body will eventually stop using glycogen so much and use more percentage of fat for energy. The long runs are supposed to stimulate that need for the body to create more enzymes and practice that fat utilization process. The more you do it the better you will become at using fat for fuel and the quicker that transition from glycogen burning to fat burning. The long time on your feet also builds up a good physical and mental endurance/strength too and gives you the confidence you need to run longer races.

I haven't done much speed work but your VO2max workouts are supposed to help with aerobic efficiency and power. Your repetion is supposed to help with turnover rate and your running economy.

Tempo, and again I use that term loosely is supposed to help your endurance.

Your easy runs are supposed to help your cardio vascular system. The longer (over the course of many weeks) you run at this easy pace, the stronger your heart becomes, the more hemoglobin (the amount of oxygen your blood can carry) you have, the more and bigger your mitochondria get (oxygen power houses). So it helps your LT by delaying how fast you need to run to reach LT because the more oxygen you can deliver and the more efficient you can use oxygen, this will make you have to run faster to produce more lactate.

But tempo's help on the other side of the coin of endurance. lactate clearance. In order to reach LT not only do you have to create lactate, but create so much of it faster than you can clear it. So if you can improve your ability to clear lactate then that also improves LT. So there are so many different "tempo" workouts. We already discussed a bunch of them (cruise intervals, tempo intervals, LT steady pace, steady state). But when you run a pace for an amount of time to where you begin to accumulate so much lactate in your blood, you stimulate the body's ability to clear and use that lactate. You can do lactate threshold long runs for example. Run 1 mile around LT or a lil faster, then run the next mile at easy or marathon pace (so your body clears the lactate), then the next mile run at LT again and keep switching between the 2. The purpose is to purposely make lactate, then have the body clear it, then make more lactate.

Feed the geese dry rice (supposed to expand in their wet stomachs and explode their tummies) or Alka-Seltzer tablets. :-)