Low HR Training

1

Run slow or run/walk? (Read 48 times)

Barrtim


    New to running as coming from non-aerobic sport background - sailing/skydiving - so slow in all modes

    but..question is whether it is better to run slowly (horribly so in my case) or to run faster with some/more walking breaks to hit the same MAF HR targets. The run/walk version produces faster times for me (now anyway) for the first few kilometers but after 4/5 it tends to even out.

    Should I persist with the slow pace and wait to get faster...or, since the HR averages are the same does it simply not matter?...and why?

     

    any thoughts appreciated

    BeeRunB


      You can go either way and see improvement in running aerobic speed (pace at MAF), you just need to hit  your sweet spot in terms of volume. I've done periods of just walking at MAf-10 and my running at MAF has improved. So, a run/walk combo won't hurt you. Running everything slow won't either. Eventually, if you're running enough volume, aerobic speed will improve.

      Shondek


        I suppose it depends if your muscles are used to running slow ..when my pals occasionally run at my pace there muscles are aching ..too used to using anaerobic muscles ..I like the idea of walking/running as you are giving muscles a break:a kind of fartlek

        runnerclay


        Consistently Slow

          You can go either way and see improvement in running aerobic speed (pace at MAF), you just need to hit  your sweet spot in terms of volume. I've done periods of just walking at MAf-10 and my running at MAF has improved. So, a run/walk combo won't hurt you. Running everything slow won't either. Eventually, if you're running enough volume, aerobic speed will improve.

          +1

          Run until the trail runs out.

           SCHEDULE 2016--

           The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff

          unsolicited chatter

          http://bkclay.blogspot.com/


          justrundan

            Question Jimmy- how do you know/find the 'sweet spot' re: volume ?

            Dan

             

             

             

             

              Question Jimmy- how do you know/find the 'sweet spot' re: volume ?

               

              I wouldn't mind seeing a reply to that myself Smile

               

              I think for me sweet spot is when I always feel fresh in my runs and still improve nicely. With this feeling of freshness, I also feel ready for faster sessions except if I'm within the supercompensation period that's expected after a faster workout. I only run easy then. So I still feel fresh, fresh enough for the easy runs Smile Because they are done easy enough. (Easy to screw up that!!)

               

              Tbh I didn't ever improve as much if I didn't regularly have that "fresh feeling" for runs. I may have improved a bit but it wasn't as great. I believe in those cases I was a bit past the optimum in the training load. And there have been cases where I was between the optimum and between this "bit past optimum", so, past the best level of training load but still close to optimum, with that kind of training I usually felt good, but not always and the improvement was there but less significant than with the best case.

               

              Also, I believe the sweet spot does NOT just depend on volume and general training load. It also depends on how you distribute this training load. So I had periods where I ran less volume than in some sweet spot period and I was still not feeling as good. I managed to go past the sweet spot optimum even though the volume was lower.

               

              This also isn't completely correlated to whether you do fast workouts or not. You can still hit a sweet spot with fast sessions if it's not run too hard and if the training load is distributed well and you can have a problem without doing fast workouts. 

               

              Hope all this makes sense Smile