G-Trainer Session One

Yesterday was my first speed workout on the G-Trainer at Endurance Rehab. There were two goals for the session... first, getting used to how the machine works and what my relative pace will be and second, get a good speed session in. I think it went pretty well for the first time. It was different than I thought it was going to be. In a good way, but different. So I'll explain how it all went down, and then recap my impressions....

Warm-up 3 miles: roughly 28 minutes on road/ canal trail. Average HR 149.
10 minutes getting checked in and set up on the trainer. AHR 102.
Settings: 85% body weight. 1% incline.
0.25 mile warm up. Roughly 8:35 pace, which is equivalent to my easy pace.. about 9-9:15 pace on the road.
Interval #1: 0.5 miles. 6 minute pace (3:01). RPE 7-8.
Recovery #1: 0.25 miles. 8:40 pace (2:07).
Interval #2: 0.5 miles. 6 minute pace (3:01). RPE 7-8.
Recovery #2: o.25 miles. 8:40 pace (2:07). AHR 156.
Interval #3: 0.5 miles. 6 minute pace (3:01). RPE 8. AHR 168.
Recovery #3: 0.25 miles. 8:40 pace (2:07). AHR 158.
Interval #4: 0.5 miles. 6 minute pace (3:02). RPE 8. AHR 169.
Recovery #4: 0.25 miles. 6 minute pace (2:04). AHR 159.
Cool down: 1.5 miles. 13:25. gradual decrease in pace, incline. AHR 149.

With the intervals listed above, there were a couple of times that I forgot to hit the lap counter on my HR monitor so I don't have average HR for intervals 1 and 2, and recovery 1. In theory, by removing 15% of my body weight during my intervals, I will be able to run faster with a quicker foot turnover. This is going to train my legs for a quick turnover and also improve the neuromuscular firing speed. Several things that I noticed:

1. When running intervals on the G-Trainer, when you hit the button to increase pace at the start of the interval, you are running target pace within about 5-10 seconds. On the track, I usually feel like it's a good 100 meters before I'm at cruising pace which is a significantly longer period of time.
2. Oddly, I felt like I recovered quicker on the G-Trainer between intervals. I'm not sure why this was but I felt my HR had come down farther and I was breathing comfortably much quicker than out on the track. May or may not be a real impression. I looked at the stats from my test track workout and my recovery HR was 161 so a little higher than my recovery HR on the G. Interestingly, my HR for my warm-up/ cool-down was also higher in my test (155/159 respectively). Being on the G for my cool-down, I was controlling my pace/ weight/ incline so I wasn't truly running "how I feel" like I normally would for a cool-down.
3. The first two intervals my HR didn't quite come close to 170. By the last two I was running mid 170's for the last part of the interval though the average never went over 170. The last track workout I did outside, I did average 176 for one interval. I think part of the difference was that I have been fighting off a cold for the last week so I may not be able to get my HR up as high as I normally would if I were healthy. If I am better recovered, and healthy, I hope to be able to run a higher HR with same RPE.
4. My quads still burned. I thought the G-Trainer would magically make me feel fantastic with the subtraction of 15% of my body weight. Though I did notice a significant difference during my recovery phase, my intervals were still hard and my quads still burned like normal.
5. During my cool down when I started to add my body weight back, I felt like someone was pushing down on my shoulder with bricks! I figure I had taken off about 22 lbs of weight during my workout. Adding back only 7 lbs (going from 85% to 90%) during my cooldown was huge! This tells me that I really DO need to lose those 10 lbs that I gained since September because it WILL make a difference!
6. Matt says that I run with a very erect posture. Next time he's going to show me some drills to practice at the start of my workout to allow me to improve my running posture and efficiency.

So my goals for next time:
1. Learn some drills to improve efficiency.
2. Complete 5 x 800 at RPE of 8+.
3. Challenge my HR. Maybe need to go faster than 10 mph to reach >170 AHR per interval.
4. Start my diet!!!