Low HR Training

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Four Weeks Now On The Books (Read 191 times)

    Now that I have been at this MAF for four weeks, I was wondering if anyone has had any similar experiences. And if so, what did you do to mitigate them? Or, am I just being impatient? As a frame of reference, I am using the range of 116 to 127 as my MAF training range. 1. Towards the end of the workout, my HR has a greater tendency to drift upwards more quickly. I have to counter this by walking more often and when the HR finally does get down to the low end of the range, it will move up more quickly to the top of the range once I start running again. 2. If I monitor carefully and don't go out to hard, it now seems to be getting easier to run for longer periods of time before I have to slow down and walk. But, I have not been able yet to run for an extended distance and keep the HR hovering close to 127. It seems to be either run and watch it go up, or walk and watch it go down. 3. I achieve my best times per mile if I run as if I am doing aerobic intervals. For example, when my HR drifts over 127, I start walking until it gets down to 116. Then I start running again until it passes 127. However, and as a result, my average HR for each mile tends to be around 122 but the max HR may sometimes hits 132 or 133 which technically is above MAF. 4. Steep hills become a bit of a problem because I may have to start walking the hill and my HR still drifts above 127. And, since I live in WV, there aren't too many places to run that don't have hills. Anyway, that being said (translated no weird-ass whining) here is my data for this week. Run Date Dist Avg Pace -------- ---- -------- 03/11/08 4.50 13:41 03/12/08 4.55 14:18 03/13/08 3.98 14:22 03/15/08 5.32 13:30 03/16/08 8.56 14:02 Regards to all.

    I intend to live forever . . . or die trying.


    run-easy-race-hard

      There's not too much you can expect after 4 weeks. With that said, what is your heart rate doing when you are running down hill, especially for long and sustained down hills?
        There's not too much you can expect after 4 weeks. With that said, what is your heart rate doing when you are running down hill, especially for long and sustained down hills?
        I fully agree that four weeks isn't enough time to work miracles. Besides, I am having a lot of fun with this and I believe that in the long run, I am going to be much better for doing this. I have to admit though, that today at the end of my workout, I really wanted to turn it loose for the last mile since I haven't done so in a month now. I managed to resist temptation though. But, to answer your question, running down hill works kind of like a recovery for me because my HR trends downward a bit. Of course, if I start pushing hard down hill instead of just letting it flow naturally, my HR will trend upwards. It works out really well though. The location where I have been doing a lot of my training has plenty of short gentle uphill and downhill sections. Rarely do I get to run a completely flat course. Best regards

        I intend to live forever . . . or die trying.


        run-easy-race-hard

          I actually have the same around here - there are no flat courses outside of the track or treadmill, which made things very hard going for quite a while (probably 5-6 months actually for me). It is very important not to consistently let the heart rate sink way down on the downhills (at least not more than 5-10 beats anyway) to ensure that you have some preservation of running economy. It is a tough trade between running economy and controlling heart rate, however.