Sanity check on prescribed paces

Training & Coaching
1

I have a December marathon scheduled. I might just be a Nervous Rex here, but the paces that are getting prescribed to me for some short distance workouts seem fairly wacky.

Example - I’ve had a HIIT (short) and hills workout prescribed regularly, which involves “sprinting up a hill” repeats followed by 3 min repeats of 2m hard/1m easy. But Athletica is prescribing the exact same pace for both of those! I know I’m not an elite athlete, but I’m not even close to sprinting at 8:37/mile. That’s about 40 seconds above the pace I raced a recent half marathon in (in really hot weather, too, hah).

My pace profile says I may be limited at VO2 max and in the 2-3 minute range. I haven’t manually set my CP or CHR since the change, just accepted whatever Athletica is suggesting. Thoughts? Am I overthinking it?

2

Hi @ohlylo ,
Yes - I think you’re overthinking those sprints. Really you shouldn’t be paying much attention to the pace. You should be paying attention to the effort. I would describe these efforts as ‘easy speed’ and towards maximum. So very strong from an effort standpoint will above half marathon race pace. Up a hill so obviously the pace diminishes but don’t look at that or HR as these won’t guide you. Only the effort level guides you.
We made the pace similar because a short 100m sprint up a hill can be similar to an L4 pace you’re doing for your 2’ hard/1’ easy.
Hope that helps clarify. Go easy on yourself and don’t overthink.
Best,
Paul

3 Likes
3

Thanks so much for the explanation!

1 Like