LTHR Test

I had a crappy run this morning. It was the worst workout of my entire training cycle thus far. It was the heartrate zone test for the run (to determine my lactate threshhold heartrate, or LTHR; this number is used to determine training zones for workouts). I only had to run for an hour, but the middle 30 minutes were to be at a steady, hard pace, as if I were racing.

I slept until 9:30, which meant I ended up running at noon. The temp was up in the 70s already. I didn't mentally prepare for that.

Another problem with running at noon is that you're not supposed to have caffeine before the heartrate zone test, so it was 1pm before I had my first caffeine of the day. Cue headache...

I did a decent warm-up with some pick-ups. I was feeling sluggish physically, and mentally I was not on my game today. I kept telling myself to just do it anyway. At least it would be good mental practice for the low moments of the Ironman.

When I started the first hard interval, I noticed my heartrate dropping. Five beats, ten beats, thirty beats... SHIT. I stopped to adjust my heartrate strap and re-wet the electrodes. No luck. I tried again - still nothing. My heartrate was reading 92 while running at an effort level of 7. C-3P0, you really let me down today. (I think it was the Body Glide I had slathered on, interfering with the electrodes; unfortunately, the glide didn't even keep me from chafing. Double fail.)

Time for plan B. I decided to take my pulse manually at the end of each 10 minute interval. This got the job done, but I can't help but feel it's not as accurate as with the monitor. The numbers I came up with were consistent during the test, but I really wanted to see them in black and white to believe them. Oh well.

The next problem was that I was mentally weak today. I walked a handful of times (which sheds much doubt on the validity of the test results). I don't have any problem with the idea of walk breaks in general, but if I haven't planned to walk, then I shouldn't walk. I haven't taken an unplanned walk break during a run in ages. This was a huge mental blow.

And that brings me to my biggest problem with today's run: I have gotten SLOW. I worked so hard last year to get faster, and was very happy with my progress. But I have lost all that speed and then some. Yes, I understand that I'm training for an endurance event, and that speed is not the priority right now. I'm just worried that when the Ironman is over and I go back to short races, I won't be able to get back to where I was before by the end of the season. I can't worry about that now; I'm committed to training properly for Texas. But let it be known that I am NOT happy about my speed situation.

The good news is, my LTHR seems to be about what I predicted it would be. I have a fairly good idea of my max, so I had done some calculations based on my max, my resting rate, and the rates I've observed at various effort levels. Compared to today's test results, I was off by only about 3 bpm. (I also did the heartrate zone test on the bike this week, and that number was close to my prediction as well.) Now, I just have to use these numbers and force myself to stay in the proper zones. I'll be repeating these tests in about 5 weeks.

Repeat after me: I will follow the plan and I will do the work and I will be patient and the results will come.