Life after Zone 5

Yes there is life after zone 5.

Tonight I finished my first zone workout. The minimum goal was 3 sets of 2 min in zone 5; the max was 5 sets of 2min in zone 5; I did 4 sets. I new I could stay strong for the 4th so I went for that one. I wasn’t sure I could keep the full out effort for the entire 5th so I kept it at 4 sets.

Here are my results:-

Set	Time	Distance (m)	Avg Pace (min/km)	Avg Speed (km/h)	Avg HR	Max HR
1	2:02	580	3:30	17.1	150	170
2	2:06	581	3:36	16.6	156	174
3	2:01	556	3:37	16.5	157	174
4	2:02	558	3:39	16.4	152	173

My thoughts on the workout and the resulting data
1. The heart rate data is very misleading as I really don’t think I could have gone that much faster this first night. My Heart Rate didn’t even get over 180. I’d even venture to say that the heart rate monitor wasn’t picking up the heart rate correctly tonight.
2. The speed was consistent which was good. The only question is can I keep up the next sets at closer to the 17.1?
3. Next week I’ll definitely go for the 5th set. The data seams to indicate that it would have been possible based on how fast the heart rate was recovering after each set. I was quite concerned about making sure that I kept the speed at the right speed for zone 5.
4. This was a very hard workout. Tonight my mind was a little too focused on getting all the speeds right. Next time I should be a lot freer to focus just on the workout itself.
5. Overall, I’m happy with the first results and look forward (yes its insane to be even saying that for this type of workout) to see what will come out of the next zone 5 workout. There was a lot of feeling my way as I go tonight.

It usually takes me more than one of a type of workout to really nail it but tonight was a definately a fantastic first night.