[Scott Johnston]

Hey Mark!

Great to hear from you. I hope Dave’s keeping you busy. Great question. And like all great questions, the answer is: It depends. That’s really helpful, right?

Seriously, these “A”/Superman days don’t come along very often, so when they do it can be a nice little reward for all the capacity-building work you’ve been doing to get to toss in a bit of utilization work. See this article for more on those two terms https://evokeendurance.com/capacity-vs-utilization-training/.

The way I handle these days when I am planning an aerobic base training run is that after a good warm-up wherein I assess that I have a bit more spring in my legs I will push into Z3. I do this in several ways.
1) Least stressful and metabolically demanding: toss in a few 10-15sec strides. Not sprints. Accelerate up to a fun fast; “damn I feel good” pace and then jog and relax for 3 or so minutes before the next. Usually,2) 4-6 of these will be good leg power stimuli.
2) Next would be to include a block of 30-30s (more on these in an upcoming article). 30sec at a fun fast pace, 30sec jog allowing HR to drop no more than 5-7 beats. Repeat 5-10 times.
3) A 15 min tempo run. Let HR settle into mid-Z3 and relax into running.

In #2 and #3. Stop before you notice any fatigue. It can be tempting to push yourself these days. The point of these days is to let the horse out of the barn but not to get him all lathered up. These runs are a celebration of your fitness. Don’t overdo them and wake up with a hangover the next day.

I hope this helps.
Scott