 We are at the track once again ready to do a tough workout today via to max intervals it is hot as a Up in here, and it's gonna be pretty tough Let's do it today's workout is six times 800 meters at The other max pace which is probably around three minutes and 45 seconds three minutes and 50 seconds per kilometer For me at this point, so that's that's essentially 800 meters two laps in three minutes That's it. I'll do it six times and in between. I'm gonna do Like two minutes of just walking and jogging to recover No one at the track at the moment which I prefer because then I can really focus Maybe there will be some more people later who knows I'm gonna start with a warm-up though three kilometers Of just easy running. Well, we'll start right now There we go Three kilometers of easy running around the track Feeling pretty good Didn't have a good night's sleep, but still feeling okay So I'm gonna do the warm-up and I'm gonna check back at you after that All right first part of the warm-up is done just Two point six kilometers of just easy running 16 minutes. So now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do some strides just some easy strides Accelerate a little bit here on the hundred meter stretch Just a little bit and then take it easy I'll do it four times just to go through the full range of motion with the legs and Get everything ready For the workout All right, so I'm done with the strides. I'm done with the warm-up 20 minutes total Now we're gonna get to the workout so The purpose of the workout is to train my oxygen Capacity my aerobic capacity by the other max and I Don't actually know my actual max heart rate So I don't know exactly what heart rate target. You should usually go up to about Maybe 95 96 97 even 98 percent of max heart rate on these intervals. I'm doing 800s three minutes so I'm thinking I want to get my heart rate up to about 195 minimum 204 maximum my max is probably around 208 maybe so Just around 200 BPM. That's what I want to target in today's workout So it's gonna be tough and it's really warm. So All right, I'm gonna put you guys up in a nice spot so you can Watch me and then I'm gonna focus on my workout and then we'll talk we'll talk after the workout All right, sure is off First rep bit too fast But it still felt easier Then my last work out a week ago So fitness games I was definitely getting a bit cocky on the first rep because okay, I'm gonna the cool down basically just One two kilometers of easy running and then we'll talk about the work out All right, so I'm done Great workout really tough though. I I really suffered today. This was this was a High level of suffering. I think mostly because of the heat. It was very warm. It's probably 29 degrees Celsius right now. I don't know, but it's in the direct sun and it's just it's really really hot So that made the work work out a little bit harder But I finished I did the work out as you saw I did that first rep a bit too fast I got cocky and I was like wow my fitness. Oh fitness games. Yeah Whereas in reality, I was just fresh and it was just that first rep right so I don't want to do that again because I paid for that in the in the subsequent reps slowing down progressively I also felt like my legs were getting heavier throughout the workout possibly for because of an accumulation of lactate and hydrogen ions, you know inhibiting proper metabolism in the muscle I Don't know if that was it, but it did feel like that Even though I've never had really that issue on lactate threshold training sessions I really had it today and I must say I'm a little bit confused because okay. Here's my conundrum. Here's what I'm Thinking about a lot these days My max heart rate is you know the highest heart that I've ever seen here at this track is like 204 BPM So I'm thinking my max heart rate is probably like 205 207 208 Could it be 210 that's what I've been working with so far in my with my garment 210 It's probably a little bit lower 208 whatever Definitely is 205 though or higher So that means a VO to max Sessions should really be touching at you know about 95 percent of max and a 95 percent of max If I have a heart rate of 208 Well 96% of that is like 200 BPM. So I'm thinking I should probably hit about 200 beats per minute at least in the second Lap of each 800 meter rep But I'm not able to do that. I'm suffering a lot at like 194 195 196 and then I just seem I can't seem to push past that because it's already so painful and so hard I can't imagine running even harder so I Don't know it doesn't really look like I'm working at a high enough percentage of my VO to max Or of my max heart rate rather Yet my pace is faster Than what the Jack Daniels tables indicate for example that I should be running my VO to max intervals at But still I'm running so fast and feel so painful. Is there a large anaerobic component to this? You know, am I actually running too fast? But then again, if I did wouldn't my heart rate go up higher though? You know, I don't know. I so I don't know if I'm gonna if I should run these Interval sessions by heart rate or by pace I'm leaning towards heart rate though thinking that I Think the effort that I'm putting in is sufficient. I'm certainly working at at least 94 94% of my max But I'm it feels like I'm working harder than that though. It feels like I'm almost at my max Because at the very end of my last rep I Sprint a little bit just to get my heart bit up and I don't know how yet. I haven't checked how high it got But I think you got up to 200 202 and something like that So if that's where I end up when I'm sprinting at the end of such a workout I can in a sense I could really consider that to be my max maybe who knows Of course the purpose of a VO2 max session is to improve your aerobic capacity your your capacity for metabolizing fuels aerobically using oxygen So it's about your stroke volume. It's about that heart beating more blood which eat with each beat It's about peripheral adaptions in the muscles Where the muscles, you know enzyme contents within the mitochondria that sort of thing It's really about delivering oxygen and consuming it at the site of the muscle cells And that's best done when working at That max capacity, right? You're always improving you to max regardless of what you're doing slowly But surely but if you really want to push the limits you need to work at your max capacity And that's what what the point is of these workouts and of course You cannot work at your max capacity via to max for more than like eight nine minutes in race So certainly you can't do that in training that would be too taxing So you break it down into intervals, right? And that's why two to five minutes is a good amount of time to spend at your rear to max per interval so these 800 meter reps for me that are like a Like a three-minute type effort and then I rest for two minutes Maybe even three and then it's back at it and over the course of the whole workout. I'll accumulate a Fear a man of minutes at My view to max and that's gonna provide a good stimulus for improvement and adaption. Anyway, it was it was an awesome workout It's painful. It is very painful though. I notice and as soon as I start to work out. It's almost like a feeling of I Can't do this. I cannot do this This is gonna be too painful I can't stand it and then as I progress through the workout that feeling gets stronger and stronger until ultimately it feels like last two reps are just Insurmountable like I cannot imagine almost doing it, but I'm still pushing through and doing it anyway Trying to maintain that pace From looks of it today my view to max space is about three minutes 50 seconds per kilometer probably I'm not thinking faster that doesn't really make sense. But then again the heat today was really strong And it is really strong. So perhaps On a cooler day, perhaps I could perform better. I had well for sure I would perform better on a cooler day Anyway, I love the track. I really feel like these high-intensity sessions are benefiting me very much I mean I can notice my easy pace is on my easy runs and my long runs. It's coming down. It's going faster It's it feels easier So fitness gains are definitely taking place I'm still not sure what I can expect in terms of my half marathon time in about six weeks seven weeks or something like that but That remains to be seen as I progress through my build up now I'm gonna go eat lunch and my bananas Then I'm gonna chill out at a library for a little while and then I'm gonna go and do strength a weightlifting session Some squats and deadlifts that sort of thing just to finish off a very hard training day Tuesdays for me and Fridays are the hard days where I cram in as much hard work as possible and Then the other days of the week. I'm doing fairly easy stuff I appreciate having you with me watching these videos If you haven't done so you should subscribe and if you already have subscribed you can click the little bell button So you get notified when I upload a video. Let me know in the comments If you go to the track what you do at the track if you enjoy the track Have you done any video to max sessions? Have you done any threshold sessions? What kind of sessions do you like to do at the track? Tell me all about it in the comments and check out this video here or there Where I went to the track a few weeks to go into the speed session, so we better check that out as well Thanks for watching. Bye. Bye