I haven't written in a few days. I have been trying to decide if I wanted to make some changes in my training and have been thinking and experimenting. Russ has expressed interest in running a sub-5 minute mile so I have thought about how best to do that.  Long story short, I have decided to go back to a kind of heart rate training that I have been doing off and on for the past few years - since I came to New York. My workout today is basically what I will be doing most days.

I went to the track and ran wearing my heart rate monitor. I did intermittent running and walking keeping my heart rate in specific zones. Here is how it went:

I began by running until my HR reached 130 bpm and then walked until it dropped to 127-128 and then ran again to take it back up to 130 bpm. I did the same thing in each respective HR zone.

0 - 5 minutes: HR 125-130 bpm

5 - 10 minutes: HR 130-135 bpm.

10 -15 minutes: HR 135-140 bm

15- 20 minutes: HR 140-145 bpm

20 - 35 minutes: HR 145 - 150 bpm

35 - 50 minutes: HR 150 - 155 bpm (156 bpm is my threshold HR)

Overall average HR for 50 minutes was 146 bpm

This is a controlled workout that I can do some version of every day. Every other day running doesn't work because on the days I don't run, I don't sleep as well, and I retain too much water necessitating frequent trips to the bathroom. This type of training has several advantages. The main advantage is that I can keep my HR in my training zone for 50 minutes or longer without having to run 50 minutes straight. This vastly lowers the risk of injury. Also when I do run, it is fairly fast and for a short time. It doesn't take long to raise my HR 4 or 5 bpm. I can concentrate on staying relaxed while running fast. I can maintain good form throughout the workout because I never run long enough to allow my form to deteriorate.

After Russ runs his triathlon on September 23, I hope we can meet on the track once or twice a week and do workouts specifically designed to run a sub-5 mile. Here is the workout that enabled me to run a 4:40 mile in the late 1990s.

4 x 100 meters in 17 sec
1 x 200 meters in 34 sec
1 x 300 meters in 51 sec
1 x 400 meters in 1:08
1 x 500 meters in 1:25
1 x 600 meters in 1:42
1 x 700 meters in 1:59
1 x 800 meters in 2:16

Basically we are establishing a 17 second 100 meter pace (4:32 mile pace) and just extending the distance at that speed 100 meters every repeat.

Of course we will start at a 22 or 23 second 100 meter pace and drop one second/100 meters every time we do the workout or every week. When we can complete the workout at a 17 second/100 meter pace, we will be ready to run a sub-5 minute mile.