The session on the trainer was a couple of hours, which makes for an early morning if I want to fit it in before work (4:00am type early). Still knowing that I headed to bed early last night, got up this morning and got it done.
The session was a tricky one, with a LOT of one minute intervals. The Kickr certainly got a solid work out turning the power levels up and down every 60 seconds. The thing with one minute intervals is that it isn't very long, but when done at high intensity they sure add up. It was quite a painful session in the end.
The run tonight is going to be an interesting session. On paper it looks a little bit like last week, ie lots of 3 minute intervals. But really they are very different sessions. My goals for this session are entirely heart rate based. Funnily enough I have never done a purely heart rate based run before. I remember way, way back in the day when I was rowing and heart rate monitors were first becoming easily available (yes I was doing sport back then) we used to do a lot of heart rate based work. But that is one of the one times I have done exercise based on heart rate and nothing else.
Since those pre-historic times I have gone through various amounts of heart rate monitor use, everything between using them sporadically and not using them at all. I really went off them for a while there. With the advent of GPS based watches (yep I remember when they came out too - although admittedly that wasn't that long ago), heart rate didn't seem as important. Why measure intensity when you can measure actual speed. My last few races in extreme conditions have brought me back into the fold though. I have come to realise that heart rate monitors have a part to play in keeping an eye on your intensity and the pacing a race. Slow learner perhaps. I would go so far as to say that right now is probably one of the periods of heaviest heart rate monitor use I have had in my sporting career. Although even now I use it as just one of a few different metrics, part of an overall picture, rather than as a stand alone.
So all that makes this run session just a little unusual for me. No speed goals, no distance goals, purely time and heart rate. I am even planning on displaying just the Time and Heart Rate data fields on my Garmin 920XT rather than pace, so I am not tempted to chase the speed at all. Something like this:
There is something a little liberating about being freed from the constraints of working to a set pace. Even if it is just for a little while.
I don't doubt the run is still going to end up being fairly tough. But I am just interesting in seeing how it will work out. I am also very interested to see how the pace ends up, when I am not concentrating on it. Should be interesting.
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