I finally got to hear a talk on heart rate training! This is something that has been a longtime interest of mine, as I know so many people who swear by it. But I admit that it does scare me. Why does it scare me? Because – as I strongly suspected – I’m running too fast! Even though I feel slow, apparently I need to go even slower to get faster.
Ugh!
Long runs: 60-70% of my max heart rate (Zone 2). 116-135bpm. I’ve been doing them at Zone 3 and even bordering Zone 4 at times! Much too fast. Bummer.
Steady runs: 70-80% of my max heart rate (Zone 3). 136-155bpm. I haven’t been doing this type of run – not intentionally.
Tempo runs: 80-90% of my max heart rate (Zone 4). 155-175bpm. Honestly, I’ve been fairly decent at this, but sometimes just a bit too fast.
Speed runs: 90-100% of my max heart rate (Zone 5). 175+ bpm. I’m good at doing this! ;)
The goal with heart rate training is that it helps you recover better, as most people (myself included) run too fatigued, which isn’t efficient. For me, I’ve always wanted to improve my endurance. I guess I’ve run out of excuses! This is going to be tough. But since this is my first marathon, now is the time to practice the training. Slow down to speed up, eh? They say the definition of crazy is doing the same thing and expecting different results. And I’ve been doing the same thing for years now without the improvement I was hoping for. I guess it’s time to stop acting crazy!
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