Low HR Training

1

Giving up for now (Read 762 times)

    Okay, I know I really didn't give this low heart rate training a decent enough try but I'm thinking that maybe this isn't the right time for me to attempt this.


    Not running is starting to depress me and it's harder to stay motivated to eat healthier. 


    Thinking about my goals I guess I losing weight is more important to me right now and running helps with that. Not that I believe running itself leads to weight loss but it helps put me in a better mindset.


    Anyway, I'm still going to think about this type of training and read more about it. A lot of what Dr Phil writes sounds reasonable to me. 


    I want to say thanks to all for the advice & support I've received. I'm going to stay a member of this group, if that's all right.

    C-R


      Sorry to hear it isn't working but timing is important in life. Perhaps at another time it may work better only you can decide.

       

      I would say stick around and keep reading/posting. We would enjoy the conversation.


      "He conquers who endures" - Persius
      "Every workout should have a purpose. Every purpose should link back to achieving a training objective." - Spaniel

      http://ncstake.blogspot.com/


      Petco Run/Walk/Wag 5k

        Sorry to hear that sweeter. We'll be here when your ready to try it again. lhr has allowed me to run more often which has contributed to helping me stop weight gain and slowly lose. As you probably know, to lose weight, eat fewer calories than you burn. Exercise helps keep the calorie burn up and above what one eats.Good luck and keep us informed.

        bob e v
        2014 goals: keep on running! Is there anything more than that?

        Complete the last 3 races in the Austin Distance Challenge, Rogue 30k, 3M Half, Austin Full

        Break the 1000 mi barrier!

        History: blessed heart attack 3/15/2008; c25k july 2008 first 5k 10/26/2008 on 62nd birthday.

          Okay, I know I really didn't give this low heart rate training a decent enough try but I'm thinking that maybe this isn't the right time for me to attempt this.


          Not running is starting to depress me and it's harder to stay motivated to eat healthier. 


          Thinking about my goals I guess I losing weight is more important to me right now and running helps with that. Not that I believe running itself leads to weight loss but it helps put me in a better mindset.


          Anyway, I'm still going to think about this type of training and read more about it. A lot of what Dr Phil writes sounds reasonable to me. 


          I want to say thanks to all for the advice & support I've received. I'm going to stay a member of this group, if that's all right.

           

           

          OK maybe you weren't ready to MAF yet but... I have a suggestion for you... I did this one (well, similar) myself and it worked pretty well until I got ready for MAF'ing. try this: run as slow as you can, try to find the lowest pace you can hold okay. note the HR belonging to it. try to train at this zone, and if you notice you got faster, decrease your HR zone by 5 beats. go on with this every time you notice a jump up in pace. this is a nice way to teach you go aerobic at least partially. my opinion and experience anyway. you have to be careful not to do too much load when doing this though. it may feel too easy to do but if your HR is not low enough then it is not really that easy for your body.

             

             

            OK maybe you weren't ready to MAF yet but... I have a suggestion for you... I did this one (well, similar) myself and it worked pretty well until I got ready for MAF'ing. try this: run as slow as you can, try to find the lowest pace you can hold okay. note the HR belonging to it. try to train at this zone, and if you notice you got faster, decrease your HR zone by 5 beats. go on with this every time you notice a jump up in pace. this is a nice way to teach you go aerobic at least partially. my opinion and experience anyway. you have to be careful not to do too much load when doing this though. it may feel too easy to do but if your HR is not low enough then it is not really that easy for your body.

            Thanks for the suggestion. I might be able to handle this. I was wondering if I could approach MAF from the other end -- work my way down so to speak.

            BeeRunB


              Take this with you: if you start to feel injured, begin to develop sore spots,  or lack endurance, consider returning to an MAF base period and its less stressful training for a period of time. Doing  a simple 1-5 mile MAF test once a month will let you know if your more intense training is having a positive effect on your aerobic system, or not. If you still have to walk at MAF, then it's more than likely your aerobic system is still in bad shape, or under stress.

               

              Good luck!

              --Jimmy


              running yogi

                 

                 

                OK maybe you weren't ready to MAF yet but... I have a suggestion for you... I did this one (well, similar) myself and it worked pretty well until I got ready for MAF'ing. try this: run as slow as you can, try to find the lowest pace you can hold okay. note the HR belonging to it. try to train at this zone, and if you notice you got faster, decrease your HR zone by 5 beats. go on with this every time you notice a jump up in pace. this is a nice way to teach you go aerobic at least partially. my opinion and experience anyway. you have to be careful not to do too much load when doing this though. it may feel too easy to do but if your HR is not low enough then it is not really that easy for your body.

                 This trick, implemented in a slightly different way worked for me too.

                 

                Another trick that formationflier(jesse we miss you here) taught me that worked for me was to find down hills, or reverse incline treadmills and run on those.

                 

                I found some rolling hills around my house. I would walk up the hills and run down the hills.

                BeeRunB



                  formationflier(jesse we miss you here)

                   

                  You got that right.

                  --Jimmy

                     This trick, implemented in a slightly different way worked for me too.

                     

                     

                    Another trick that formationflier(jesse we miss you here) taught me that worked for me was to find down hills, or reverse incline treadmills and run on those.

                     

                    I found some rolling hills around my house. I would walk up the hills and run down the hills.

                     

                     

                    what was your "slightly different" implementation? I'm curious. Smile

                     

                    ah, your other trick reminds me that a couple of days ago I had a friend of mine try downhill runs (yes I'm teaching him a little MAF training Smile ), but he could not keep the HR under MAF. he is quite untrained in general of course. so I told him he can try running at a slightly higher HR (of course still well below LT/AT) for now and always keep a rest day between the runs.

                     

                    so I guess the start is the hardest part of all of it if you are not willing to just walk for whatever reason, such as no enjoyment from it (important here: maffetone in his books says that you need to enjoy exercise!). it would be interesting to see what worked best for different people. for me the trick I described before worked well for a few months; I didn't do MAF tests as I hadn't even heard about that stuff back then, but clearly MAF tests would have been showing improvement too.

                     

                    PS: where did formationflier go? sorry for asking but I'm still quite new on this board and haven't read all the threads yet (though I'm working on getting that done!).


                    running yogi

                       

                      what was your "slightly different" implementation? I'm curious. Smile

                       

                       when i started my maximum aerobic heart rate was 144. Initially I could only walk at 17 min/mile. I saw some improvement until I sort of just stagnated at running very slowly at 15min/mile. I could not see any improvement for weeks.

                       

                      Then I let my heart rate go up a little but started running at 14.5 min/mile. After a few weeks I noticed that my heart rate stayed within 144 at 14.5 mile/min

                       

                      I kept it this way for next two weeks. I have been increasing it only at the rate of .5 min/mile, trying not to be too greedy.

                       

                      I am still a work in progress, but it feels nice when we can see the progress in numbers.

                      I have never done a MAF test.

                      TimButterfield


                        Not running is starting to depress me and it's harder to stay motivated to eat healthier. 


                        Thinking about my goals I guess I losing weight is more important to me right now and running helps with that. Not that I believe running itself leads to weight loss but it helps put me in a better mindset.

                        There may be an alternative that lets you run at close to MAF numbers.  Take a look at this article:  http://www.endurancefactor.com/Articles/article-heartintro.html

                        It uses lactate threshold to determine HR zones. It uses a simple test: warm up/10 min run/20 min run/cool down. The average HR of the 20 min run is used as an approximate LT HR. If I use the one hour run I did after finishing my Couch to 5K program last year, the average HR of the last mile was 165 bpm. If my wife hadn't been waiting for me, I could have kept going longer and probably raised the average HR some more. So, this should be a safe LT HR for me to use to calculate zones according to the linked article.

                        For me, using the 165 bpm LT HR number, the lower HR zones are as follows (rounded numbers):

                        1-Active Recovery: under 132

                        2-Endurance: 132-147

                        3-Tempo: 149-153

                        As I have been training for the last five months under 135 bpm, I have been training mostly at my active recovery level. According to this article, I should have been training at my 132-147 endurance level.  Being able to use the higher limit would have let me do more running and less walking.  I'm not yet sure which method is better, but I wanted to share another alternative.