I had 2 really good sessions this week with good distance/duration progress and dramatic improvement in run / walk ratio. Only 1 month ago I was just managing 3 x 4 minute run intervals on the treadmill compared to 4 x 8 minute run intervals yesterday.
Road running sessions 1 month apart, 4 Jan and 5 Feb have gone from 2.2km (18min) to 5.9km (41min).
Saturday, Road
A major goal reached with the run element alone exceeding 5 km, this was by far the longest session I have achieved so far.
I set off with my new toy, (Heart Rate Monitor or HRM - see last post), with the intention of keeping my heart rate (HR) below 165bpm. Once I started running, it went straight up to 172 and I had to force myself to slow down and relax to achieve 165.
On each interval it would be higher and I would again pull it down to 165. There was a noticeable increase uphill where I had to accept that 170 was unavoidable
At 165 I'm at a slow plod run from which it would be difficult to go any slower.
I was actually a lot fresher on return home after this session even though it was my longest road run by far. I felt I could have gone on at end of each 5 min interval. Mind you, my fitness must be improving so maybe I would have been OK this week anyway.
Tuesday, Gym
I was intending a road run but with snow on the ground and a generally foul day I headed off to the gym for treadmill and swim. Today was to be 4 x 8 Min's, a considerable push forward.
Knowing that during my last treadmill session I was exceeding 175bpm, I set out aiming at keeping below 165. I started by reducing the gradient I had been training at from 2.3 down to 1.6 but I was also keen to increase the speed to more like my road speed in my search for answers to the apparent effort difference between road and treadmill.
On my first 8 minute session at 10kph I managed to keep between 162 and 165 which pleased me, however, my second 8 resulted in 168-171 with peaks to 173. I decided to drop speed a little for third 8 min to 9.5kph and at first this seemed manageable maintaining 165 but by halfway through I was around 168 with peaks to 171, still, this was going in the right direction so for my fourth 8 min I reduced to 9kph with a fairly satisfactory 164-166 with an odd peak to 170.
Through none of this was I out of breath or struggling and my 3 minute recovery walks at 5kph got me down to 118, 125 and in the last one 134. These represented recoveries of 30-40bpm from steady which is re-assuring for health purposes.
Heart Rate Questions and Lessons
My HR during training is significantly higher than the default Cardio fitness recommendations on websites I have visited. Reading these, most suggest that I should be aiming mid 130's for the type of running I am doing at my age. I am 30bpm above this. This acknowledged, my resting HR is very low for my age suggesting I could use a lower age in tables but even this only permits me 140's leaving me still 20bpm over.
Searching through forums, there are loads of other people reporting 165-175 and describing the same situation of a comfortable breathing state and good recovery but unable to lower further without stopping running altogether.
A figure which keeps appearing is that HR defaults should be treated as having +/- 24 bpm error as everyone is different. I could go for testing my Max Heart Rate to find the correct parameters for me personally but that seems unnecessarily taxing and I see no health benefit and some health risk in testing it without medical supervision so will give that a miss.
I will carry on monitoring and using the HRM as a way to avoid over taxing myself. It will be interesting to see if it does lower as I get fitter still.
Noticed to appear to make a difference:
- Thinking HR down whilst looking at the display seems to work 2-3bpm
- Relaxing shoulders (even if already feeling relaxed)
- Breathing out smoother rather than blowing out
- Thinking a bounce in step so that stride extends slightly and foot fall frequency reduces
- Relaxing my face into a smile seems to drop 2 bpm on the treadmill! :)
Running for St. Ann's Hospice in memory of Margaret Donovan (Mum) and Sheila Waddington.
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