WHAT IS TEMPO/THRESHOLD RUNNING? FEAT. SUUNTO RACE WATCH REVIEW

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#suunto #suuntorace #TempoRunning #SuuntoRaceWatchReview

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I have recently moved to Winchester and it’s so good to finally be able to showcase the country roads.
This session was far from perfect and got tough, but I am so glad I filmed it, because that’s running for you.
It’s a beast of a workout loop, having climbed 143 meters in 12kms
Hilly undulating tempo is what I need. It’s what we all need.
I give a review of the Suunto Race watch. Very impressed by it.

00:00 – 01:18 – Intro
01:18 – 02:38 – Suunto Race watch
02:38 – 15:22 – The workout with explanation
15:22 – 17:09 – Post session thoughts

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Onwards and Upwards,
Nick

okay so another Thursday another session I’ve come to one of my favorite Loops here it’s a Country Loop here uh in Winchester and today’s session um remember my Tuesdays are super hard and and my weekend session is super hard Thursdays are sort of intermediate so I want to be working hard like sort of tempo threshold e Pace um but not completely empty the tank um so today’s session I’m doing 6 times 1K under over so basically I’ll go under threshold pace and then over threshold Pace repeat that six times um and 12K is worth of volume um I’m running with my new two um race watch over here can’t wait to test it out um yeah looks awesome such a good feel I’ve done a warmup I’ve got 300 M to go in it um it’s connected to an external heart rate monitor here which is sinking quite nicely and um it’s really important and the reason why is because um I’m on an undulating Loop so normally in the past I’ve done these on a flatter route like batter SE where you can hit Paces sort of perfectly this the paces are going to fluctuate I think if I did it on a flat route it will probably look something like 315 a K versus 325 a k and so on and so forth but some Kil might be 35ish some might even be close to four on on the Steep uphills so that’s where heart rate becomes super important um and I’m going to monitor sort of my threshold heart rate’s around 167 so I want to be going sort of just under just over and repeating cool 300 M let me take this JW and get going okay before we get into today’s session let me show you exactly what the sin2 race watch is all about and how it comes it comes with a built in heart rate monitor but remember when doing exercise and getting sweaty then I highly recommend getting an external heart monitor it’s a lot more accurate this is how the sinu race watch comes and I must just thank them for sponsoring this video hooking me up with this epic watch these awesome straps and the external heart rate monitor as well in running nothing is more motivational than new kit day let’s peel off this top piece and get ready to rock and roll here’s a look at what the external heart rate monitor looks like it connects seamlessly I didn’t chave at all and I’ll speak through heart rate quite a bit during the session the charging port Clips in magnetically into the back very nice and neat pairing the watch to the phone looks like this quite a seamless process and I must say in total it probably took me about 5 minutes to set the watch up here I am personalizing the widgets that I’d like displayed and unticking those that I don’t a bit of a closer look at the widget options here are some of my preferences quite a few options to choose from I must say then onto a very important piece building of today’s workout six times under over session so the watch can tell me what to do and I don’t need to concentrate here has a quick look at the finished product some nice motivation and we’re ready to rock and roll let’s go out there and get this workout done before we get into the workout let me quickly show you Alex had to film on this bike was climbing 143 m in his 12ks I think he had the harder job let’s go baby 3 2 1 let’s go okay I’m not going to add any music to this so we can get a good feel of exactly what what it’s like out there I’m so glad we formed this workout it’s one of my favorite Loops even though it’s hard work you’ll see exactly just how beautiful it is so we’re starting with the under and then the over so in my mind I’m thinking more efforts slightly less efforts but they’re both at effort as beautiful as this Loop is there are a few cars so we do have to be a little bit cautious but there’s more space than what you think and you can get past cars quite easily so throughout this video I’m going to cover off a few things one exactly what tempo and threshold is as well as how hard you should be working within the zone and what percentage of your weekly training it should make up and then I’m going to give you a good overview of what the sunu race watch looks like what I look for in a watch and what some of the data screens look like here we go through the first km in 318 still feeling quite controlled that’s the harder effort now it’s the less hard effort even though you’ll see this next kilm actually faster the reason why is because I dropped 32 M over this next k so let’s chat a little bit about what exactly Tempo or threshold running is it’s this running terminology that can sometimes confuse a lots of Runners out but for the purposes of this video I’m going to keep it as basic as possible some classified tempo as easier than threshold and some classify threshold as easier than Tempo I’d love to know exactly what’s your definition some definitions is that you can hold threshold running for 30 minutes others say that you can hold it for 60 minutes so let’s go for range somewhere in between you can hold it for around 30 to 60 Minutes worth of running to some Runners that are targeting shorter distances this might be between your 10K to half marathon effort and to those targeting longer distances like me this might be between your half marathon to Marathon effort 308 in an over so far but we’re running downhill there to be honest depending on fatigue sometimes I actually don’t even hit marathon pace in these sessions and that’s okay so effort levels for this you’re looking at around 7 to 8 out of 10 working hard but it’s comfortably tough second kilometer 313 big net downhill that was an over back to an under I’ve made this mistake in my early running days where you end up racing Tempo sessions especially when you do it in bigger groups of people and that competitive side comes out on you but please do not get caught up into the Trap of racing Tempo if you do it starts becoming unproductive and I promise you you end up paying for it a day later 2 Days Later you’re still stiff and you’re unable to hit those faster Paces that you need to in training comfortably tough you working you can say a few words but not a full sentence often I actually find harder track sessions easier because you mentally pumped up for it the heart rate’s going and you’re going you know it’s a hard session whereas Tempo often the adrenaline isn’t there but you got to keep the body moving in order to hit that threshold heart rate my threshold heart rate is around 165 to 167 let say my hard rate Max is around 187 to 188 so that’s around 88% of my hard red Max so you can work out yours from there boom Going Through The Gap okay now that we’ve chattered about Tempo threshold and what sort of effort you should be running at let me discuss how much of your weekly training that should make up so generally a ratio that is recommended is the 8020 rule I’m sure you may have heard of this before but what that means is 80% easy everyday Zone 2 maintenance running 20% fast quality higher intensity of that 20% around 5% should be V2 Max work those Fast Track interval sessions so that leaves 15% left and what I would say is probably around 10 to 15% of your weekly volume should be this Tempo threshold effort and that’s about The Sweet Spot we’re all different and if you’re a runner that has super quick high-end speed but struggle to convert that 1K Pace into 510 half marathon you might need to do slight more than 10 to 15% in your weekly training and on the flip side if you let’s say a marathoner and struggle with that high end speed you might need to do slightly less Tempo training and slightly more V2 Max work as I go through the third kilometer in 315 but don’t be fooled yeah the uphills are about to begin if you have a watch that allows you to build workouts like the sinu race watch does how I showed you in the beginning I highly recommend you doing that it just takes the stress away of having to walk worry about the workout and sort of let your watch tell you what to do I’ve set this watch to beep every kilometer so I know when it’s an over when it’s an under and I don’t have to constantly check it all the time to see exactly when that kilometer is going to end and how many reps I’ve done and are left to do so I’m monitoring live heart rates on my watch while I’m running just to check that I’m working within the right Zone you should be predominantly working within zone four on these sorts of runs because the loop is so undulating you can’t exactly run in a session to Pace I set myself a target of averaging around threshold heart rate efforts towards the end with the unders being slightly above threshold and the overs being slightly below now that’s very tricky on this Loop to maintain the correct heart rate because sometimes you go down a hill in a harder section and it’s a catch 22 do you absolutely fly down the hill run the risk of rinsing your legs being stiff for a few days just to get to that heart rate or do you think okay let me just back off even if I don’t hit that heart on this downhill I’ll most certainly hit it on the up today we’re going with that option hello 4th km in 342 it included 24 M of elevation gain things are feeling tough we are third of the way in not entirely sure if it’s easier to run up this hill or cycle up this hill going into the session I was quite fatigued I’ve got two little ones a 3-year-old and a one-year-old I’m a 3-year-old the not before unfortunately caught a tummy bug from nursery and was up pretty much every hour during the night if however I only did workouts when I was super fresh and had nights with good sleep then I probably wouldn’t do many at all and I feel like that’s life for all of us constantly tring trying to get that balance right we’re never ever going to be 100% for all of these sessions we don’t exactly live life like professional athletes so all we can do is show up give our best efforts if and do I promise you get the session done you always thank yourself for it afterwards even though you’ll see at the end of this workout my Paces probably weren’t quite where I wanted them to be as well as my heart rate was slightly lower than I wish it had been but we showed up we put in the work and that’s all we can ask for on a day like today showing up when you’re feeling good and smashing it on those easier days is completely fine but showing up when you’re not 100% On song for the day grinding through those sessions I promise you those are the character Builders the sport stuff and it makes you so tough that’s where the magic is made when looking for a running watch this is some of the stuff I look for and then let’s touch based on where the sunu race watch has it so basically what I’m looking for is a few things an accurate GPS a watch that’s really easy to set up and use nice clean screen where you can see data long battery life a watch where you can build workouts one that stores music and connects to external headphones one that gives you good insights afterwards tells you how you’re recovering how you’re sleeping it’s important to keep on top of our metrics and we want accurate metrics these days and one that’s just really easy to connect to a heart rate monitor like I said earlier on often they come with built-in heart rate monitors which is deadly accurate when you’re sitting down or sleeping but as soon as you do an exercise and sweat gathers underneath and you’re following heart rates then please get an external heart rate monitor it’s just way more accurate fth kilm in 331 and we’re really starting to break into that threshold heart rate zone it’s tough work on this Loop but I promise you it’s made easier by these beautiful views just have a look at that road that’s like a runers paradise yes we did it during peak hours and there’s a few cars but it serves us right we should get going early morning late evenings those are the best times to run when the going gets tough a beautiful route makes it a bit easier that’s for sure I’m going to keep quiet for a bit just to give you a feel of what it’s like out there and then tensity that I’m working at okay back to the running and back to the watch we go let me speak through some of the features of this race watch and what it’s all about it’s got a high definition screen making it nice and clear and easy for you to see the numbers whilst running provides you with HRV recovery measurements allowing you to keep on top of your metrics it comes with 95 different sports modes obviously my biggest one being Road running nice to know it’s got all the cross training options free offline maps so if ever I get lost on these country roads I can find my way back home it has a whopping 26 days of battery life and 40 hours if the GPS is constantly connected so in summary battery is never an issue exactly what we need thank you it’s got both the touchcreen and scrolling options here has a look at some of the personalized feedback on the training load that it offers you it’s calculated via AR by a combination of load progress recovery and HRV I must say on all those points that I mentioned on in the beginning this watch pretty much ticked all the boxes for me recommend it highly and if you’re looking for a really good Fitness tracking watch then this is a really good option for you here has the 7th km in 318 and within that kilm I dropped 32 M so significantly downhill but as mentioned earlier I didn’t want to absolutely smash the Downs ramp up that speed and in turn ramp up that heart rate but then run the risk of Smashing the body to bits and pieces and be stiff for quite a few days to come heart ratees efforts controlled comfortable productive work is what we’re after today I decided to do the session in my Pro 3s it was a tossup between the Pro 3 and the prime X remember the prime X they 50 mm stack height so they’ protect the legs quite nicely on a loop like this and you recover quite quickly but I went with the Pro 3s on this occasion my heart rate on this downhill is dropping to around 158 so about 7 or so beats lower than I would have wanted to time to pick it back up on the uphill remember when it comes to running this so many variables involved and it’s almost impossible to get them right all the time so on those days where everything clicks enjoy them hopefully those days are the race days but on those days where you feel slightly fatigued where the body is not moving probably as nice as you would have liked it to keep showing up and keep grinding to the correct effort if you walk away knowing that you ran within the right Zone and correct effort that is pretty much all you can ask for 9th km 341 humbling I cannot wait to go down but still two more km of climbing before we go down the last kilometer ter if you look at the world’s best the East Africans a lot of the Kenyans end up doing fart leg on a Thursday and what that means is basically they’ll go harder for section and slightly easier for Section pretty much what I’m doing today but their workout sort of veryy between 1 1 2 1 31 52 that sort of stuff and what that means is 2 minutes on 1 minute easier 3 minutes on one minute easier so on and so forth so fluctuating that pace and they’re not exactly doing it on flat Loops they’re doing it on hilly off-road gravel routes and those runs make them so strong oh boy let’s grind it up this bump nearing the end of the workout and this is how the data shows in the sin 2 app by the way that’s Alex breathing that heavy on the bike not me how was it let’s go let’s be honest very good boom 12ks 326 4122 um wow do you know what that was hard but if I think about where my weaknesses are when I did the recent ultra um the guys I was competing against they just flew away up the hills so angulating Tempo heel Sprints heel repeats it’s what I need it’s probably what you need as well let’s not neglect it um yeah I would say this Loops probably a good 10 seconds perk slower than like a fast battery but do you know what it doesn’t look as good on stra but it’s so so so good for you and the magic is made in training um I thought that my heart rate was a little bit lower than what I wanted to be but at the same time my legs weren’t exactly fresh didn’t have a good night dress last night so can’t complain I think you know effort was there um on fresher legs I probably could have pushed that heart rate more but I didn’t want to end up in my racing zone so yeah all in all solid workout watch was amazing so easy to use um thanks C power power watch I look like I’ve just jumped in a swimming pool but yeah I just want to say massive thanks to Alex who came in fun for me how was it on the bike super challenging it was undulating it was yeah it was quite difficult but I mean I can’t imagine how of course yeah you came in jeans and I gave you Kat pedals with uh non Keat shoes so congrats as you can see I’m sure you saw from the video super prepared probably easier to run in cycle but thank you so much appreciate it pleasure let the races begin let’s go [Music]