My Forum

Dr. Dan... Thanks... I have managed 5:17/km at 148bpm over 60 minutes on the flat a few weeks back... this felt reasonable speed-wise... maybe I should just forget the HR and try my long run at about 5:20 - 5:30/km and see how I go.... might be an idea to jump into the sub-LT sessions now as well instead of plodding away during the week.... these should be well under 5:00/km.

Dr.Dan... I reckon I'm in 19:30 5k shape at the moment... what do you mean by 5k pace + 3 minutes ?

Take my 5k pace in mins/mile and add 3 to it ? Or take my 5k time and add 3 to it ?

The reason I started this HADD plan in the first place is that I was finding the FIRST plan tiring physically, although my legs were fine....the first "long" run of the FIRST 18-week HM plan was 15k at 4:28/km... I managed it ok (I'd just done a HM fairly easily at 4:29/km) but together with the tempo and interval session, after a couple of weeks I was feeling both tired and lacking motivation.

The problem I'm having with the HADD paces is that my max HR is about 204... I've historically tried to keep my HR sub-170 on my long runs (gets over 180 on FIRST long runs), but running at sub-150 for HADD is a big difference. I can clearly see it has had benefits over the past 6 weeks, but at a physical cost... I think this is both the increse in mileage (although restricted to 10% a week) and the slower pace affecting my run-form.

I have a long-standing ankle weakness... I've twisted it so many times over the years, including a bad double twist last autumn that had me out for 6 weeks, that it's always an injury waiting to happen... changing to forefoot-strike has mitigated this a lot, slowing my running down seems to have had the opposite effect.

I think I'll continue this week with a couple more 60 minute runs, going on feel.... I'll leave the HRM at home, and see how my ankle feels before deciding what to do next.

Interesting run for me this morning.... after feeling some soreness in my ankles after my long run Saturday, I've rested till today and decided on an easy 60 minutes.

It didn't take too long for my ankles to start hurting again, I was also struggling to keep my HR down to such an extent that I was on the point of binning the run with 25 minutes left and walking home.

After a rather loud "f**k it" I decided to speed up from my plodding 6:00/km to about 4:30/km and it was like someone had flicked a switch.... all pain gone immediately... the last 4k was a joy, that floating feeling of hardly glancing the ground each step.

I'm not sure where now.... clearly my running form collapses when I run too slowly and this exacerbates an underlying ankle weakness. 4:30/km is what FIRST suggests for my long runs... my HR will be well over 150bpm at this speed, more like 180.

Bit unsure about this HADD stuff now. It's certainly put some miles in my legs but I might have reached my limit.

The general rule on cutting back is every fourth week, so you're due one....I tend to go on feel, I had a hard week last week and I'll be cutting back this week even though this is "week 3" and not "week 4" for me.