[Todd Struble]

Thanks Scott, this is extremely helpful.  As was probably obvious I tried to frame it in a way of increasing intensity and was assuming the first two were well-executed IF they matched up with our intentions for the workout, and the latter two were more situations where things were generally going off the rails a bit.  Your response to #3 is really, really helpful.  It hasn’t come up often for me, but it’s usually a case where I am either not rested enough or fighting off some recent toddler infection; where I can DO the work but I’m not sure if it’s lining up with the intentions of the workout.

I have a follow-up question:  IF we see a mismatch in the pattern that we’re experiencing vs. what we’re intending to do, is it possible or advisable to try to “salvage” the workout?  For example, say we’re shooting for Z3 but we see our HR clearly climbing on each work bout.  Is it a situation where you can try to slow down the pace or duration of the work bout or increase the recovery period or is it better to just fully pull the plug and try again another time?  From all you’ve written before, my inclination would be to just bag it and try again when feeling more rested.