Is it sad or odd that the highlight of my week is workouts with the Sante Fe Striders? One thing I did not explain last time is that all their track workouts are 12 laps in various combinations. Last week was unusual that they did 14 laps. But last night was crazy and almost did me in. Besides not yet figuring out my paces (until this post) at 7000 feet I had no idea how to adjust. This was the workout: 2 x 600 (400m recovery) 1 x 1200 (400m recovery) 3 x 400 (200m recovery) 1 x 1000 (400m recovery) and 4 x 200 meter rolling with 100 meter recovery. These are strict recovery they do not meander around.
Workouts are at 6:00, if you want to warm up get there early as they line up at 6:00 and start. There are no drills, no introductions just go. You jog your recovery and get right back on the line, no chit chat, no prolonging the recovery. Workouts are done w/i one hour, there is no cool-down, do it on your own.
I had no idea pace 600-600-1200-400-400-400-1000-200-200-200-200 so I just did the best I could. I was ready to puke after the 3rd 400 with only 200 recovery. I know my pace range according to McMillian based on my May 1/2 marathon time of 1:44, but not at altitude. So I consulted Dr. Jack Daniels at Run Smart Project. This is what I learned:
At 7000 feet of altitude the adjustment is more like 15-18 seconds per mile slower than sea level. To simplify, figure about 1+ seconds per 400 meters (4-5 sec/mile) per 1000 feet above 3000 feet of altitude, at 4000 alt = 4-5 sec/mile, 5000 alt = 8-10 sec/mile, 6000 alt = 12-15 sec/mile, 7000 alt = 16-20 sec/mile, 8000 alt = 20-25 sec/mile, etc. This is what I put together according to the 16-20 sec/mile.
Distance | Sea Level | 7000′ | Notes | how I “naturally adjusted” |
200 | 43-47 | 45-49 | sprint times | 44-51 |
400 | 1:31-1:38 or 1:38-1:44 |
1:36-1:43 or1:43-1:49 | sprint vs speed workout times | 1:35-1:38 |
600 | 2:24-2:31 | 2:31-2:38 | sprint times | 2:31-2:36 |
1000 | 4:24-4:34 | 4:36-4:40 | speed times | 4:45 |
1200 | 5:17-5:33 | 5:32-5:47 | speed times | 5:31 |
1600 | 7:12-7:27 | 7:32-7:47 | speed times | 7:20-7:40 (last week) |
Tempo | 7:37 to 7:57 | 7:57 – 8:17 |
McMillian has sprint time workouts vs, speed. I think what we did was speed since we were moving in all different distances rather than repeating the same distance so I listed speed workout times as well as the sprint. I am in the ball park. I was still warming up on the first 600 and by the 1000 I was ready to die, I needed more recovery time, I really wanted to walk the recovery but we had limited time to get back on the line.
Here was the workout and my times. After figuring out paces I feel more confident on how to run these, but man, my butt has never hurt so bad after a workout.
Distance | Time | Pace | Recovery |
600 | 2:36 | 6:46 | 400 |
600 | 2:31 | 6:53 | 400 |
1200 | 5:31 | 7:20 | 400 |
400 | 1:35 | 6:39 | 200 |
400 | 1:37 | 6:43 | 200 |
400 | 1:38 | 6:43 | 200 |
1000 | 4:45 | 7:33 | 400 |
200 (rolling) | :44 | 6:17 | 100 rolling |
200 (rolling) | :45 | 6:20 | 100 rolling |
200 (rolling) | :51 | 6:54 | 100 rolling |
200 (rolling) | :48 | 6:08 | 100 rolling |
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