Quest for the One Arm/Hand Chin-up

Then on August 29:

mile 1 – 5:59 (avg. heart rate – 148)
recovery – 4:01 (125)
mile 2 – 6:01 (155)
recovery – 3:58 (133)
mile 3 – 6:05 (156)

September 5:

mile 1 – 5:58 (avg. heart rate – 151)
recovery – 4:02 (124)
mile 2 – 5:59 (152)
recovery – 4:00 (126)
mile 3 – 6:02 (152)
recovery – 3:57 (130)
mile 4 – 6:03 (153)

As you can see, I attempted a more even paced workout on the 29th. Notice how starting out with a 5:59 mile (instead of a 5:39) mile lowered my average heart rate throughout the entire workout. The only exception being my 133 average heart rate (vs. 125) on my recovery after the second mile repeat. I guess I can attribute that to a shorter recovery on the second workout and a faster second mile as well (6:01 vs. 6:17).

You can see the benefits of even-paced running and can easily imagine how an excessively fast start in a race would affect your overall result. Workout 1 resulted in a net +19 over 6 minute pace with 33 seconds of additional recovery. Workout 2 resulted in a net +5 over 6 minute pace.

Goal is to average a 6 minute pace throughout; lower recovery to 3 minutes between repeats; and add a fourth mile repeat at the end. A good way to work up to the fourth mile repeat would be to add a half mile repeat to the next workout and then perhaps a 3/4 mile repeat to the following workout.

Update Sept. 5 – Well as you can see I added the fourth mile repeat. The temperature was below 70 and that probably helped the workout quite a bit. How about that 126 on the second recovery (compare with 133 avg hr on workout 2)? Or the 130 average heart rate on the 3rd recovery. And then holding on for a final 6:03 fourth mile at average heart rate of 153? Oh yeah!

I’d like to mix things up with some 1000 meter intervals next time. Maybe 6 x 1000 at a little quicker pace. Or maybe 6 x 800.

I found this much more useful especially in races. If I want to run the first mile of a 5k race in 6:10, I will know exactly where I stand after the first half mile, and I’ll have another half mile to correct any deviations in pace. If I want to maintain that 6:10 pace throughout the race, I’ll have half mile updates of where I stand throughout the race.

For example, at a recent 5k I ran these half miles splits:

3:00
3:07
3:09
3:14
3:20
3:08

As you can see my fourth and fifth half miles splits were where I really lost pace. Despite this data, I wasn’t able to correct the fourth half mile during the fifth half mile of the race; however, the data gives me a pretty good idea of where I slow down in races and where I need to improve my pacing. I could also use this information in workouts and push harder during the 1.5 – 2.5 segment of the workout.

I may try setting the Auto-Lap feature to catch every quarter mile segment of a 5k race. Breaking the pacing down into quarters gives me more time to react to changes in pace and may give me a better chance of maintaining a goal pace.

One of the coolest tricks about the Garmin Forerunner is how it is able to display your current pace at any point during a run. It usually is a second or two behind where you really are in the run. For example, I might look down to see my pace and the Garmin tells me that I’m running a 7:06 per mile pace; however, in reality, I was running a 7:06 pace a few seconds ago and my current pace might have changed since then. So the Garmin is always a little behind in its readings.

Despite the small lag time, the Forerunner’s ability to calculate your running pace offers quite a bit of insight into how most of us run and what affects are pace throughout a run. First off, we rarely keep a steady, exact pace during a run. We might go through the first mile in 6:59 but we rarely ever maintain a 6:59 pace throughout the entire mile. This is probably true even on the flattest of courses. We are more likely to run at varied paces throughout that mile. We may start off at a 7:38 clip; gradually speed up to a 6:40 clip; and then settle in at a 6:54 pace. The end result averages to a 6:59 pace.

Things really get interesting when the course becomes less flat and less straight. A small incline can significantly affect your pace by 40-60 seconds per mile. A large hill can drastically alter it by two minutes per mile or more.

A small decline can have a similar or greater effect on your tempo. Speeding up by 40-60 seconds per mile on a slight decline is really not that difficult. Put in a little more effort and you can easily change your tempo by a minute and a half per mile.

These observations bring into question how many of us were taught to run hills during a race – to either maintain or increase our pace going up hills. Doing so meant that we would often recover and slow our pace on the corresponding downhill. Based upon my limited Forerunner data and relative effort level, it seems that the opposite may be a better way to approach hill running, i.e., don’t work as hard on the uphill section but take advantage of gravity on the downhill section. You are more likely to have a net speed increase and expend less energy in the process.

Other observations are that turns kill our pace. Even a slight change in direction to avoid an obstacle can seriously affect your momentum. 90 degree turns are deadly. 180 degree turns are pace killers. What’s surprising is that you will still find plenty of races with 180 degree turns. I can easily remember a few – a couple of which were fairly recent occurrences. As runners, we need to be aware of these turns in a race and soften them as much as we can without adding too much extra distance.

If you are looking to improve your PR or race faster, try some hill running and take on some curves with a Garmin in tow and determine for yourself how such obstacles affect your tempo.

I’ve been running with a Garmin Forerunner 305 for the past two months and thought I would share some of my findings. In general, it is a great training aid. At any time during a run, I can look at the watch and see exactly how far I’ve run and my current pace in minutes per mile. It keeps track of all my runs and workouts, and it’s bundled with “Garmin Training Center” software.

I ran some intervals the other night and uploaded the data to my computer from my watch. I was looking at the Garmin Training Center software and came across some interesting graphs. Here’s a graph showing one of my 400 meter intervals.

400 meter interval speed graph – Click on graph for larger picture

For non-sprinter types like myself, I have always viewed a 400 meter “dash” as a consistent all out effort. Seeing my actual speed plotted on the graph was a real eye-opener. I’ve added two points at 24 seconds and 44 seconds into the run. Somewhere along the back straight-away and the turn, my speed slowed from 14.4 mph to 13.9 mph. I lost 0.5 mph over 20 seconds, and it occurred on the back straight-away! If anything, I would have thought that speed would be lost on the turns. I was probably gathering myself for the final sprint over the last 100 meters.

Notice also that it took me 24 seconds to reach an initial top speed of 14.4 mph. My final top speed was 15.3 mph.

Heart rate graph – Click on graph for larger picture

Here’s a graph of my heart rate. Notice for the same period that my heart rate continued on an upward climb at the same time my pace was slackening. For the last 22 seconds of the run, my heart rate was pretty much maxed out.

So if I’m trying to improve my 400 time what can I learn from Garmin Forerunner data?

1 – If I can reach an initial top speed faster, I can lower my time. For example, if I can reach 14.4 mph after 12 seconds (instead of 24), then I’ve cut that part of the run in half. And for the first 24 seconds, I’m probably averaging 1 mph faster which means I’ve covered 10.72 meters more in that same amount of time. I’ve just hit the finish line 10.72 meters ahead of time which equals about 1.6 seconds. I’ve just run 1.6 seconds faster without running any faster. In other words, I’ve run a faster 400 without increasing my top speed.

2 – From 24 seconds to 44 seconds, I averaged 14.15 mph. If I could maintain 14.4 mph for this 20 second period instead of losing speed, I’ve just gained 0.25 mph for 20 seconds. This means that I’ve gained another 2.23 meters or about 0.33 seconds. Not much, but every little bit counts.

3 – I can see the importance of stamina in the 400. If I can improve my stamina, maybe my heart rate won’t max out so early – leaving me a little more in the tank.

The Garmin Forerunner data permitted me to see how my speed varied throughout the 400. With a couple changes, I now see where I can cut about 2.2 seconds off my time and potentially go from a 66 to a 63 and change without increasing top speed. Not bad, huh?