Close to the Limit

The plan called for a longer tempo session. I warmed up, ran a sustained faster block and then cooled down. The route was not flat, and the temperature had climbed back to 26°C.

By the end of the tempo section, I felt close to my limit.

The data

Metric	Result
Distance	Approximately 11.0 km
Time	1:04:58
Average pace	5:54/km
Average heart rate	145 bpm
Maximum heart rate	169 bpm
Average power	257 W
Elevation gain	64 m
Temperature	26°C
Perceived effort	7/10

The tempo block covered roughly seven kilometres. Pace varied between about 5:05 and 5:40 per kilometre, partly because of the hills. Heart rate rose gradually through the block and reached the high 160s near the end.

Was it really the limit?

ChatGPT challenged my description of the run. I had said that I reached my performance limit, but I also rated the session 7 out of 10.

Those two statements do not quite match. A true maximum effort would normally be closer to 9 or 10. The data looked more like a hard threshold session that remained under control.

I think that is fair. The final part felt very hard, but I was still able to cool down properly. I had not emptied the tank completely.

What the coach saw

The coach liked the duration of the faster block and the fact that there was no sudden collapse in pace or power. It also noted that the hills made pace a poor guide. A flatter route, or a stronger focus on power and effort, would make future tempo runs easier to control.

The target half marathon pace for a finish around 1:54 is close to 5:24/km. I had already run around or faster than that pace for substantial parts of this workout, but not yet for anything close to race distance.

What came next

The following day’s long run was deliberately kept easy. There would be no fast finish. If my legs felt heavy in the morning, the distance could be shortened.

This was one of the tougher decisions in the plan. Running long on tired legs can be useful, but only if the long run does not become a second hard workout.