2023 - 09 - 23

Energy System: Endurance

Difficulty: Test

Intention:

Typically when we start asking “how much (load) or how fast” we’re leaving the realms of either absolute strength or endurance and are talking about work capacity (either aerobic or anaerobic). Technically this not an endurance test because I was working well above my “Zone 2” heart rate and definitely could not have sustained this pace much longer.

Nevertheless, it was a “test” in that it was an official competition. This was a 4-legged half marathon and I think our team clocked in around 2 hours.

Warm Up:

As a fun bonus, I was coming off a rib injury and ran a mile or two before the event to see if I would be able to complete the 5K. It was good enough.

Work:

A team half-marathon comes out to about 5K / each of 4 people. The watch I was using at the time didn’t have a GPS, so tended to overestimate my distances (and thereby pace) because my inefficient running shortens my stride length significantly.

I don’t recall the specific splits for our team members (I’m writing this a year and a half after the fact), but I think the the first two (including myself) were clocking around a 9-10 min / mile pace and our third and fourth successively improved.

Resource: