Hill Intervals # 10, and something to think about

Plan tonight is 4 X 8-9 min uphill intervals. This is the 10th of 12 total hill interval workouts in my plan. The 11th will be in Bend at the end of May, and the 12th 2 weeks out from Race day. The other weeks between? Progressive speed work? building to 3 X 3 mile at greater than 1 minute faster than IM marathon goal pace.

Is this plan working? Uhhhh..everyone in the group is PR'ing on the run portion of their tri's and in their open road races. One girl I am training in CA at a 1:31 half marathon, a PR of over 10 minutes.
Me? I havent ventured to race yet. Lets see...I've gone from running 7 min pace in high zone 4 to 6 min pace in mid zone 4 on my workouts.
Again, you want to run a fast marathon? You may have to give up a few of those mega mileage bike weeks. IM marathon splits of 3:10, 3:15, even 3:20 for an age grouper dont magically happen off the bike. You have to work for it. No extreme amount of coaching will get you there, you just have to commit to making yourself faster by doing alot of subthreshold work and a fair amount above threshold in the 8 weeks leading up to race day. It will pay off.
How fast? How intense? It's hard to explain...but put it this way. All my workouts negative split throughout. I always know I am at very high intensity, but know I can push harder. On the final repeat, a slowly take it up to max effort. I finish the workouts knowing I can do one more repeat if I had to...not feeling like my legs are blown apart and I couldnt go on if you paid me. This is one of the critical lessons to be learned in hill and road intervals in running. Once you get a grasp on it, you start to realize why you over-trained yourself in the past. Why some of your best performances are in workouts, but never in races.
Case in point, the 3 stage TT race this past weekend? I felt my strongest in the final 46 mile TT, was able to sustain a power average of over 300 Watts for over 2 hours. This on top of additional 16 miles of running under my belt. How can I sustain this power when I havent done all those mega 100 milers on the bike? My ave bike week of 130-150 miles? It's not that complicated. I am strong enough to improve my run strength dramatically, and that translates into bike strength. You can get into 4:55 IM bike fitness...but only run a 4 hour IM marathon. Honestly? an ultra fast bike split means nothing to me if you cant back it up with a solid marathon. I would rather pass 200 people during the marathon off a 5:15 bike, then get passed by 200 people as I am crawling along.
Improving your run strength can allow you to bike 5:15, yet run a 3:20 marathon. Bottom line is I think the strong run fitness helps the bike fitness more than strong bike fitness helps the run.
Pro's different story..of course I would love to put together 300 mile bike weeks combined with all the running. But the reality is that I work 40-60 hrs per week. So, I dont have time to venture out on the bike each day. I have to make some choices. I choose to improve my run strength above all else, because that's where I will see the most overall benefit in my race. I am convinced one of the reasons I averaged over 300 Watts for each of the 3 TT races this weekend was in part related to all the run strength I have built over the past 2 months.
The 100 milers? Yeah I will do a few in the next 6 weeks, but I wont blow up my legs and sacrifice my quality running during the week.

Man O' Man, those hills!
So, met at Rob and Erin Perkin's place. Total run 1:27, about 11 miles.
4 X .9 mile uphill repeats. First 800 ave grade around 15%, then 400 leveled off at 3% or so, then about a 5% to the finish. Equal jog back down for rest, all rests around 8-8:30
1 = 8 min./ave HR125/max 138/end of rest 80
2 = 7:36/138/150/91
3 = 7:35/141/152/96
4 = 7:25/148/157/96
Easy jog back to house for cd. Total ascent 1900 ft.
Yeah, I lied a bit to the group, told them we'd stop after 3, esp since it was a cold rain for the second and third. Then just did the 4th in the pouring rain. Yes, the girls were a bit shocked that we continued in that rain for 3 of them. Yeah, they looked a bit upset as Rob and I passed and said, "come on, one more".
Well, at the top of the 4th, in the cold rain, after over 30 minutes at high zone 4 low zone 5 on hills...they werent complaining. I tried to explain my reasoning. I dont know, I think most athletes that want to do well in running, esp in an IM event would have done 3. Three hills in the rain is alot, and probably enough. However, how many would have done that 4th, soaking wet, raining fairly hard, and 40 degrees? Only the ones that want it most. Only those who will face that diversity head on. There's a time and place for going a bit over-board. This was one of those times. I dont know, I could just tell, these guys (girls) wanted to be pushed to a discomfort level tonight. Yeah, we were shivering for an hour after. Didn't kill us.
Zone Summary (includes wu/cd)
Z1 = 57 %
Z2 = 9%
Z3 = 7%
Z4 = 14%
Z5a/b = 12%
Compare zones during last road interval workout: 1 X 1 X 1.5 X 1.5 X 1 mile repeats on 2:15 rest
(tues april 24)
Z1 = 20%
Z2 = 12%
Z3 = 19 %
Z4 = 21%
Z5a = 20%
Z5b = 8%
**See what I mean? Reasonable amount of time spent in all HR zones. Full coverage throughout the intense workout. This is how its done. This is how you build aerobic strength.


Diet:
Breakfast: Cider-vinegar tea, then 1 cup oats with tsp bwn sugar and tbs of flax meal.
Late morning: small coffee
Lunch: burrito with chicken, rice, black beans. No cheese, sour cream, etc. Small salad, water
Afternoon: med non fat carmel latte, 6 small mollases cookies ( total 5 g fat)
Dinner: Recovery drink after run. Rob and Erin made dinner. Big plate of pasta with pesto and salad, olive bread. Some sweet potato chips and hummus for app. Of course, the hot chocolate hit the spot.
On the way home, a non fat strawberry smoothie, and small piece of strawberry shortcake.