Forums >Running 101>What comes first??
Just Be
Not to steal from Nobby, but the formulaic method gives too much to chance. It works great if you hit the median. Otherwise, you could be off quite a bit. The best way to establish heart rate zones is to perform a field test. This is done by warming up, then starting out at a pace that you can hold for about an hour (somewhere around your 10K pace for most runners). After the first 10 minutes, hit the lap button (or just start recording, however yours works). Run at that steady pace for 20 minutes. When finished, your average HR during those 20 minutes should be your Lactate Threshold pace. You can then use that to establish training zones. The other option is to take the average from a 10K race. That can often work well, too. http://www.d3multisport.com/articles/determinezones.html http://www.d3multisport.com/articles/heartrate.htm
SMART Approach
How do you know how fast to go? Do you do long runs at a pace relative to a certain race time? How about lactate threshold tempos? What determines the paces you should be running? Thanks. --Jimmy
Run Coach. Recovery Coach. Founder of SMART Approach Training, Coaching & Recovery
Structured Marathon Adaptive Recovery Training
Safe Muscle Activation Recovery Technique
www.smartapproachtraining.com
Nobby, For runners who do use HRMs, what what you suggest for most runs? 180-age (MAF)? Percentage of max HR?
I walked into my bedroom last night and to my surprise there was a chicken and an egg laying there. The egg was lying back…smiling and smoking a cigarette and the chicken looked pissed off. The chicken jumped up and yelled... “Does this answer your question?"
Feeling the growl again
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Best formula would be for YOU to get out and check your HR while running "comfortable", "challenging" and "hard" and read your own heart rate and get a grip for yourself.
Jim: When you do, say, 40 minutes of “test run”; going out on relatively flat course, taking wind in consideration (head wind or tail wind); you go out and run comfortably strong for 20 minutes, then turn around and come back in 25 minutes; then you’ll know you started out too fast, don’t you? Or if you feel it so easy that you come back in 15 minutes, you’ll know you are not running hard enough. Or put it another way; you go out and run, say, 1:30 strongly and evenly; but that run just completely wipes you out and you’ll have to take 3 or 4 days off afterwards, then you’ll know you pushed yourself too much, won’t you? We (human being) have been running without heart rate monitor (though, once again, I’m not necessarily against HRM) or Garmin to check out how fast each of our runs in minutes-per-mile and we did alright. People have trained just fine way before we even had a concept of “lactate threshold” run by gauging how we felt. One time, Ron Clarke, a great Australian distance runner, probably the greatest distance runner the world has ever seen, was asked at a clinic how he trained. He stood up and said, “When I felt good, I ran hard. When I didn’t feel good, I didn’t run as hard.” And he sat down. Now personally I like a little more structure. But our everyday condition changes; we have biorhythm; stress in life and work will affect your condition… There’s NO way you can precisely calculate what pace you should be running at. The more calculation you use, the further away you’d be from being in tune with your own body (unless you’re using it to “teach” the effort). Then the question becomes; would YOU dictate your effort of the day, or would you let pre-determined calculated number to dictate your effort? It would be so much better for you if you just go out for, say, 40 minutes and turn around and come back in almost same time; preferably a minute or two faster; KNOWING you could have gone a little bit harder or little bit longer if you had to; or, as Arthur Lydiard termed “Pleasantly Tired” state. People still have hardest time understanding what Lydiard’s ¼, ½ and ¾ effort. I believe this is because most people are so hooked with someone else or some pre-determined chart dictate the exact pace (effort) and, more often than not, run themselves in trouble because they are so preoccupied with sticking with that pre-determined pace regardless of what signs their own bodies are signaling.
Also, 180-age is a formula that gives a number that doesn't work for everyone. In fact, that number can be off by as many as 10 bpm, which can make a big difference. The best way is to go to a lab and get some tests done. Or you can conduct your own field test, and use that to establish your zones. This formula is my biggest issue with Maffetone. How do you teach a beginner proper pacing? RPE has been shown to be fairly accurate, even in newer runners. Beyond that, the old "conversational pace" is another option. Listening to breathing is another option. It mostly requires the person to really pay attention to their bodies. I disagree that new runners need an HRM. In fact, I think that it can be intimidating for many people. Whenever you introduce a tool like that, you need to make sure that the person using it has a full understanding of what they are doing, and why. Otherwise, they lose sight of the goal. I've met people who are slaves to their HRM. It becomes more of a numbers game, and less about the actual running. Additionally, I think that there's a risk of learning to rely on a device to the point where they never learn to listen to their bodies as well. An HRM is a useful tool, but is not a complete replacement for our own abilities to listen to the feedback being given to us through the natural ways.