Today’s session in my Vitality 10K training programme was a 5K easy run, sandwiched between a five-minute warm-up and five-minute cool-down.
Altogether I covered 5.81 km in 48:46, but the important figures are those for the 5K itself: 38:42 at an average pace of 7:44/km.
The run was consistent from a cardiovascular standpoint. My average heart rate during the 5K was 124 bpm, with a maximum of 134 bpm. I rated the session 5/10 for perceived effort, so although “easy” was what the training plan called for, there was still a reasonable amount of work involved.
Garmin certainly thought so. It classified the session as Threshold (High Aerobic), gave it an aerobic Training Effect of 4.6 – Highly Impacting, and recorded an exercise load of 138. My estimated stamina started at 100% and finished at 53%.
The running dynamics are more useful when looking specifically at the 5K rather than the complete activity. My average cadence while running was 167 steps per minute, compared with 155 spm for the whole session, where the walking during the warm-up and cool-down pulls the average down. Average ground contact time during the 5K was 288 ms.
It was also a relatively flat run. The 5K included 32 metres of ascent and 34 metres of descent, for a total of 40 metres of climbing.
The 5K time of 38:42 isn’t a time I’m particularly concerned about improving at the moment. The purpose of these sessions is to build towards being able to run 10K, rather than turn every 5K into a time trial.
That makes today’s numbers a useful baseline:
5K — 38:42
Average pace — 7:44/km
Average HR — 124 bpm
Maximum HR — 134 bpm
Average running cadence — 167 spm
Ground contact time — 288 ms
Ascent — 32 m
Perceived effort — 5/10
With the warm-up and cool-down included, that gave me 5.81 km and almost 49 minutes on my feet.
Another training run completed, another 5K in the legs, and another useful set of numbers to compare as the journey towards the Vitality 10K continues.