This week starts Phase 3 of Jack Daniel’s “Red” fitness running plan.
I finished Phase 2 and ran my first race effort in about a year. I think technically the marathon was a race effort, because I don’t think I could’ve finished any faster, but it feels different because that was less about fitness and more about my body breaking down. “Fitness” and “what my body can handle” might be two sides of the same coin, but it didn’t feel like a race to me, so I’m not counting it.
I’m happy to have a race under my belt so I can have a marker for my running fitness and actual training paces for my workouts. A 24:17 5k is a 39.7 VDOT. So my T-paced runs should be around an 8:16/mi effort.
For running paces over varied terrain, which is hard to avoid with mile-long efforts for T pace, I like Strava’s Grade Adjusted Pace (GAP). Looking at my last few workouts, my T-pace efforts have had GAPs of
- 7:40/mi
- 8:05/mi
- 8:09/mi
So I can ease off a touch on the effort for T pace.
Looking forward, Phase 3 introduces some H-pace workouts. “H” stands for ”hard” and should be around VO2max effort, but can be over varied terrain. H-pace workouts are always by time, since the varied terrain effects the velocity at VO2max. I ("interval") pace is VO2max pace on flat terrain, so my H efforts’ GAP should be close to my I pace, which is 7:36/mi.
Yesterday was my first H-paced workout for this training cycle, and it had two efforts at H pace. The first I ran at 7:00/mi GAP and the second at 7:23/mi GAP. So I can ease off of those too.
Here’s how my next four weeks will look:
- Monday: 30 minutes easy + 6 strides
- Tuesday: 10 minutes easy + 6 strides + 2 x 3 minutes H with 2 minute jog recoveries + 10 minutes easy
- Thursday: 10 minutes easy + 1 mile T + 10 minutes easy
- Saturday: 45 minutes easy
Those workouts are adjusted for my weekly volume, as previously decided.
Onward!