January 04, 2012

Invincible on medium long run

On the morning of the 2011 Victoria marathon, we had the hotel room's TV on a music channel as we were getting ready to go to the startline. Just before we left, Invincible by Hedley came on. I hadn't heard the song before but liked the title instantly:-).

I like Hedley because frontman singer-songwriter Jacob Hoggard seems to have so much passion and energy for his music.

We listened to the song until we had to leave and the Invincible tune was what I had in my head as Tim, Angelique (making her debut at the distance) and I jogged over to the start in Victoria. After running a marathon PB for the first time in three years, you can imagine why hearing this song makes me happy. I added it to my iPod this morning before getting ready to do my medium-long run,which today was 19km.

Again, I took some time to make sure the course I had in mind was the correct distance, so I didn't have to think about it, as it was another rainy day (with a rainfall warning for our Howe Sound area). It was also a balmy day (9 degrees C), and I decided shorts would do; I'm certainly loving this wet mild West Coast winter for my training.

The program recommends doing medium-long run at a similar pace as the long run. After a hard session the previous day (as I did yesterday with the lactate threshold workout), it recommends staying near the slower end of the intensity range, given as between about 74 and 84 percent of max heart rate and between 10 and 20 percent below marathon goal race pace.

For me that works out to between 4:41 to 5:06 per km (marathon goal race pace is 4:15 per km) and, assuming my max HR is near 184, between 136 and 155.

The run was great, even as I got absolutely soaked, and I did feel pretty invincible. According to Mr Garmin, I ran 19.25km at an average pace of 5:07 per km and an average heart rate of 141 beats per minute. Right on target.

2 comments:

mindy olson said...

Hi Margreet. I was just reading this post this morning as I was trying to psych myself up for a 26km run in the rain. I had to laugh because i asked my husband to charge my I-pod last night and put some new music on it while I was at work so I would have something fresh on it to pass the time. I was just heading out the door thinking about the kms ahead of me and I turned on my music and the first song was invincible. I listened to the words and it kind of pumped me up for the run ahead. What a great song. Sometimes when running I don't really hear the words because I zone out but this time i did. Good Luck with your new program and the many miles ahead of you. Here's to a 2:59!!

Margreet Dietz said...

Hi Mindy, that's too funny! Sounds like the 2012 running year has begun well for you. All the best with your training and please let me know how it goes. Here's to a year of PBs!