Endurance

Threshold

Well, it was supposed to be.  I have been exceptionally tired this week and really unmotivated to workout.  I finally got enough motivation built up to make it happen and did the scheduled workout, kind of.

The scheduled workout was an interval session with 15-30 in the target power zone with rest periods between each round of 50% of what ever the work period is.  So for example, you could go 3 rounds of 8 minutes of work followed by a 4 min rest between rounds.  This would be 32 total min. in the target work zone and that zone being 88-93% max effort.  Or on the low end I could go 5 rounds of 3 min of work followed by 1:30 of rest.  Which would be 15 min total time at 88-93%.  

The goal of this type of training is to improve speed and strength, increase movement economy, increase specific strength and endurance, cause greater o2 consumption.  Because this is anaerobic it produces high levels of acidity, which in turn will train the body to tolerate it, and improve its buffering capacity.  If it's done properly with great attention to aerobic work, it can lead to increasing anaerobic threshold meaning a higher level of work and speed despite high levels of acidity.

I, however made a mistake when I went to execute.  I decided to row today and I thought that 1k's would be around 4:30 min for some reason and made plans to do 3 rounds of this.  That would put me at 13:30 of work which in my state would be pretty close to the 15 min...yeah, lazy.  What actually happened was the 1k's took me 3:33 or so and I did only 3 rounds of that, which puts me at a 1:47/500 pace and a total time at this work output at 10:30.  That is quite a bit off from 15 min at 88%.  I should have done two things, slowed down to about 1:56/500 and that would have been closer to about 12-13 min or work, maybe even added a round for a total of 4 rounds.  4x 1k at a 1:56 pace with 2 min rest.  That would have done the trick.  

My Vo2 max pace is 1:53 (or was, based on a test I did back on June 15th).  This workout was actually closer to a Mv02 set.  Which is 3-6 sets of 4-6 min of work at 90-95% capacity.  This corresponds to a 1:54 pace which I exceeded by quite a bit at 1:47 (that's 115% over my V02 max pace).  I was little too low on time at pace, but pretty close. 

There are two things that come to mind.  Either my Vo2 max pace is now higher which means my Vo2 max has increased or, I should be using a different measurement of power output.  

BTW, in light of this info, a "tabata" set for me should be at 1:34 or 413 watts for the 20 sec of work for all 8 rounds!  That's gonna hurt.  Dr. Tabata did 5x/week for 6 weeks in his study...that would suck really bad.  Maybe I should try it?