Heart Rate training (Read 75 times)

7:30 per km or 7:30 per mile? If the former, that seems pointlessly slow for a 19 minute 5k runner. If the latter, that seems kinda fast of an easy pace for a 19 minte 5k'er.

I only in the last year got a watch with optical HR -- now that I"m old, way out of racing shape and basically a fitness jogger. I did most of my training and racing over many years without any HR data, so I don't know what the numbers would have looked like when I was really fit, but I find the guidlines to be basically nonsense, especially if you don't live in a pancake flat area.

For starters, I know for an actual fact that my max heart rate is a lot higher than the age-graded estimates, but I have no desire to find out what it actually is. So I just bumped it up by 20 beats so my watch would stop yelling at me that I did a max effort after every run. Even still, it's basically impossible for me to keep my heartrate in the 130's for an entire run unless I jog laps around a track or field and avoid all hills. I generally don't pay attention to HR *while* running but even after what feels like an extremely easy 4 mile jog, I'll look and see that my average heart rate was like 145 and I hit 165 for a max going up a hill, even though at no point did I feel like I was exerting any real effort. What I usually find is that any kind of uphill sends my heart rate into the 160s and then it stays somewhat elevated even after the hill. I'm a very experienced runner and I know that these runs are taking next to nothing out of me, and require little to no recovery, and so my conclusion is you shouldn't take these guidelines too literally. The idea that if your heart rate goes above some magical number even temporarily during an hour or two hour long run you somehow defeat the aerobic purpose of the run has always seemed like utter nonsese to me anyway.

My advice: keep your easy runs easy in terms of they *feel* easy, and don't require any recovery. And use the heart rate data as additional information that's sometimes interesting. Over time, you'll get a good sense of what a particular heart rate at a particular effort means *for you*.

I second MikeyMike comments. When I coach, I focus soley on pace and my runners continue to thrive. I am not against HR training but this whole zone training and HR training is obsessive. Most don't even know what zone 2 running is and just go with what Garmin or their sport watch says. A good rule of thumb is to know your 5K race pace. Tweak it based on the day....if it's very warm or very windy or you are tired, then your 5K race pace may be a bit lower THAT DAY. An easy run is at least 2-3 min per mile slower than 5K race pace. The formula has worked for me and my athletes for years.