RUN and SWIM Tests: Round One

RUN TEST

February 23, 2010
Average HR 161
Max HR 169
Recovery HR 34 beats
Distance 2.4 miles
Pace: 8:20

I started out of the gate with the treadmill set at 7.5mph. Keep in mind, these were WellFit treadmills, which I'm convinced (and others are, too) that they are calibrated to reflect a much slower pace (nearly by .5 miles/hour) and are set an incline already. Therefore, this 7.5 start was more like 8.0, which is insanely fast for me.

I held the 7.5 for a while. I can't remember exactly since it was 2 weeks ago now, but it was for at least 8 minutes, or 1 mile. Then, I brought it down to 7.4, then 7.3 and then the last 3 minutes I brought it to 7.2. I seriously thought I was going to vomit. Overall, it was an AWESOME test, espcially because I found out after the fact that the treadmills at the club are likely calibrated faster than they reflect bu a half mile. That's a LOT. Akemi and I flushed our legs for a good 25-30 minutes after on the bike. Whew.

My paces are broken down as follows:

Recovery/maintenance 11:10-11:40 (holy crap, that is SLOW! I don't think I've EVER run that slow)
Easy 10:10-10:40
Long 10:10-11:10
Steady State (Marathon) 9:09-9:26
Tempo (Half Marathon) 8:47-9:09
Cruise (10K) 8:35-8:47)
Speed (5K)8:34 or faster

HR Zones
Zone 1: 136 or below
Zone 2: 137-146
Zone 3: 147-153
Zone 4: 154-160
Zone 5: 161+

SWIM TEST Friday, February 26, 2010

We also had our SWIM test this week. Something about a rest week makes me think we shouldn't be tested when we're supposed to be resting, but I guess it makes sense when you think about it. I was also pretty stressed out about this test because my last swim test of preseason did not show a whole lot of progress. This test was Friday morning, at 6am SHARP.

We warmed up with a bunch of 25s, 50s, and a few 100s at our test pace. The actual test is 10 x 100s. I requested to go first with another woman as we split the lane. I felt really strong the entire test but kept banging my right elbow on the lane line at high speed because of space constraints. Unfortunately, the woman I was sharing with kept forgetting we split the lane and she was swimming into me a few times. Uggh. I refrained from allowing this to break my concentration and instead compensated by hauling ass the rest of those 100s. It turned out that I negative split the bottom half of the test, which was fantastic. I started out at 2:03 and finished at 1:57. I averaged 2:00 on the dot.

My stroke count was out of control, however. Supposedly, the lower your stroke count, the fast you swim because your form is more under control. I am not 100% convinced but I can see how you can conserve energy by reducing your stroke count. My final count was something like 28 per 50yards, which is b-a-d. It should be under 20. However, when my stroke count was 28 instead of 23, I was negative-splitting (thus, faster), so this is why I have a hard time appreciating that a lower stroke count correlates with a better time.

Keith, my swim coach, calculated the estimated time I'd be out of the water at Ironman for a 2.4 mile swim assuming :20 is added onto one's time/100..... 1:36.00! That is pretty exciting. I hope that really is the case.