Who's in Control?

I'm pretty sure that Coach's middle name is "Control." Almost all workouts that she gives me that contain pickups or tempo parts of them involve staying inside a controlled heart rate.

Yesterday's workout involved three sets of pickups at 30 seconds, 1 minute, and 1 minute 30 seconds each with equal rest. The catch was I could not go above zone 2 for any of the intervals. Here's the thing...I have a really high heart rate to begin with. Walking pretty much puts me close to zone 2. So to do pickups only in zone 2 was going to test me more mentally than physically.

Here's what they looked like (top of zone 2 for me is 164):
30 seconds on: avg 164
30 seconds off: avg 164
1:00 on: avg 162
1:00 off: avg 158
1:30 on: avg 163
1:30 off: avg 157
30 seconds on: avg 160
30 seconds off: avg 161
1:00 on: avg 163
1:00 off: avg 157
1:30 on: avg 164
1:30 off: avg 156
30 seconds on: avg 160
30 seconds off: avg 163
1:00 on: avg 164
1:00 off: avg 159
1:30 on: avg 166
1:30 off: avg 161

Mostly, I hit the average heart rates right on. I thought it was interesting that my heart rate was higher on the 30 seconds off than on, but I think that's because my heart rate was still on the way up and I couldn't recover fast enough.

Today I had another one of these "control" workouts. This one was assigned to the treadmill. :( After a 1-1/2 mile warm-up I was to do three core exercises then hop on the treadmill for a half mile at half marathon pace (7:38) but not go above zone 3. I had to do this exercise/running intervals five times.

Here's what happened (top of zone 3 for me is 174):
Half-mile 1: 3:49, avg HR: 172
Half-mile 2: 3:55, avg HR: 171
Half-mile 3: 3:55, avg HR: 172
Half-mile 4: 3:54, avg HR: 172
Half-mile 5: 3:54, avg HR: 171

Although I probably wasn't going as fast I should have been, it certainly felt faster than those paces outside and I was able to maintain the heart rates. Coach was quite impressed, as was I, and thinks we should retest the zones to see if I'm gaining fitness.

I've had a pretty good week of running. A 14 miler is on the schedule tomorrow. The race is in three weeks. I'm feeling a little more confident that good things are coming.