A few discussions have been had around the varying HR values, really highlighting the dangers of reading too much into one-stop-shop methodologies around zones and the like.
Having recently been given privileged access to @Poet and @Jorgan strava they both reside on the absolute opposite end of the HR scale to me.
Here’s my activity from Weds night - all sub threshold and i could’ve held on for another hour at least, probably more if the legs were up for it. https://www.strava.com/activities/2464027312#
I’m genuinely intrigued as to what i could achieve at Jorgan’s HR avg of his long run yesterday or the day before. During my, erm, recovery period in the next few days i might go out and see what pace i can get up to for 5-10km in the 120’s! Just as a (super) scientific experiment.
So also just a general warning for any newcomers looking to delve into HR based training for the first time. No matter how many books a particular author may have sold, or what pros they have coached, they odn’t know your body! Take the time to find works for you!!!
I found yesterday my HR started to drift up (albeit only a few beats) because of lack of fluids, and maybe that it’s ‘uphill’ for the final 5km. I took 500ml with me, but it was fairly warm and that’s not a lot for 28km (2h19) of running. I drank a shedload last night, for most of the evening when I got home, and there wasn’t much coming out the other end!
I haven’t done a maximal VO2 test for over 20 years, but would be amazed if it was more than about 170 now (it was 183 when I was 20 years old). I would put this down to beginning distance running aged 12.
Also, even my Garmin (Connect) doesn’t really grasp my body; the moment I don’t run a 7:30 mile at 120bpm it says I’m non productive or detraining
Yeah, when I was doing long runs before the 113, I was running 7:30/mile and averaging low 130s. But I was concerned that might be a bit ‘hard’ and have tailed it off slightly for this last Ironman block.
My ‘issue’ is that my runs tend to be pretty undulating and trend uphill back to the house (more ascent than descent). As we know, most Ironman runs are flat, maybe with the odd overpass! So keeping my HR capped is a bit more difficult; especially when the ego keeps trying to have a say.
I think this is my point i was making about knowing your body. The 181 was flattering, as it was buliding at the start of the run. the majority of it was run at 183/184. I know that i can sustain pace at that level. I can dip into 185/6 for a very short amount of time, but more than a minute or two at a time without allowing it to settle back, and i’m slipping into sub threshold pace and things will soon start to crumble. Been there, done that.
148bpm for 10.04km (after a 61km 84% FTP bike, a week before 113) @ 4:06/km
142bpm for 21.31km (pre-113 “long run”, a fortnight before) @ 4:54/km
Dog jogs at ~130bpm for 5:10-5:20/km and less than 40 minutes.
Not bothered about these, just run to HR and time and pick up his turds.
recent parkrun was 162bpm for 3:40/km
march half marathon was 164bpm for 3:50/km
So, erm, yeah!
I can run a half marathon at a higher HR than parkrun…
…and my pace for 142-149bpm is all over the place.
I know what’s easy and what’s hard and just use HR to cap my efforts.
Half marathon was an exception, as it just felt incredibly easy.
I think my “problem” is that my lactate is so super close to my threshold, so that if I go into it, I massively blow - which is why I think my parkrun times don’t correlate to my half marathon time for this year.
In mid/late teens I had a swim mHR of 178, whilst training partner had a max of 222. But then our thresholds as % of max were completely different too, so agree need to know from experience what you can sustain.
After many years of trying and failing to run a sub 3 marathon, I stumbled across Maffetone.
So I started using that as a guide which felt about right.
So all steady runs up would be around 149bpm.
This would be somewhere between 7:45-8 min/mile.
Short story it worked.
However why I mention it on this thread is now I am faster than a 3 hr marathon runner, I still do most of my runs around 7:45-8 min/mile, but my hr now always hovers around 130.
Blackpool Half Marathon @6:47 min per mile with 131 average HR
Managed to get it to 140 with a sprint to the line.
HR doesn’t really get over 145 so really important to know your own body and go from that rather than what the ‘experts’ say.
