I intend to live forever . . . or die trying.
Don't ever feel embarrassed about your data. Know that there is one person out there who loves your data with all his heart and soul (me). So, keep posting! If you can't walk your self up to MAF-ville, then that shows you aren't so bad off. You can use walking to keep your HR down. You can use it to do aerobic intervals: warm-up with 15 minutes of running, then run a pace that gets your HR to MAF, stay there for a few minutes, then walk or run a pace that brings your HR drops to MAF -15 or -10, do so for a minute or two, then run again bringing the HR up to MAF again. Do 4-8 times. This helps to break up the monotony, and also stimulates turnover. I looked at your running log. I have two comments: 1) All your runs lately are getting to be an hour or more. I suggest that for now you keep your recovery runs closer to 45-55 minutes. You'll be more rested for your hard days, and this will help to avoid overtraining. Time on feet must be considered at all times. 2) Your fastest mile seems to always be your first. Like an MAF test. Try running a pace that gets you to MAF-15 at the end of 15 minutes. Then hold that feeling of pace steady. For example: 11:32 100 10:27 117 10:36 122 10:41 125 10:33 127 10:26 129 10:41 129 I did the above run in ave pace 10:35 after 1st mile. I kept the same feel of tempo throughout after 15 minutes ( I was probably up to 115 bpm). Faster miles were downhill or downwind, slower miles uphill or upwind. Same feel. This does a few things. Teaches keeping an even pace. Gives you room for not slowing so much. You don't "spend too much" during what should be your warm-up mile. Just like a marathon, or any race, if you make the first mile your fastest, you pay for it in the end. There's nothing wrong with doing all your runs like MAF tests, but make sure you give yourself at least 15 minutes of warm-up before you start pushing the limit like that. It will always be an exercise in slowing down as well. Keep going! --Jimmy