Running for an hour
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I have decided that I’m going to try running by time when I run in the gym from now on. I have tended to pick a distance such as 5K or 10K as they are nice “round” numbers that correspond with common race distances. I think that it makes more sense for me to focus on time while I’m doing low heart rate training as I can get a bit more distance in my workouts that way. So instead of saying how long did it take me to do 10K I’ll say how far did I go in an hour.
When I first started my low heart rate program I hopped on the treadmill and did a test as to how long it took me to do 10K keeping my heart rate under 146 beats per minute and it worked out to just about an hour. So about a 6 minute per km pace.
For my run today I managed 11.09 km in the hour which is about a 5:25 minute per km pace all while keeping my heart below 146 bpm. That is more improvement than I dreamed I would get from the whole program which I’m planning on continuing for at least another 10 weeks. Hard to believe that I’m getting faster by running slower but it really seems to be working.
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December 18th, 2008 10:17
Andrew, I agree with the running to time reasoning you have. I used to do something similar when I was a member of a gym (relatively new to this running business).
It’s not going to be useful to you (as you’re running to a fixed HR), but I used my Garmin to record my HR on a “benchmark” fixed pace run. I would then use SportTracks to compare the HR profile. Some sample analysis can be found here: http://irlchris.blogspot.com/search/label/running%20benchmark
As for the low hr running, fair play for sticking with it. I’ve toyed with the idea but the 154bpm just seems ridiculously slow for me. So, to that end I ended up bumping that up to 160bpm which is where I do a fair bit of my running these days. However, I’m still doing faster sessions, which Maffetone says to avoid.
I’m going to keep a close eye on your progress…keep us updated.
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AndrewE
reply on December 18th, 2008 1:32 pm:
It’s really tricky running so slow at first. At times (when going up steepish hills) I have to slow down to an almost walk to keep the heart rate low.
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December 18th, 2008 10:34
Wow that’s really good!!
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December 18th, 2008 14:44
Excellent! Focusing on heart rate is a great way to train. I remember experimenting with a similar program a few years ago:
http://www.cymru66.com/running/254/
Keep up the good work!
–Steve
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December 19th, 2008 08:04
hmm I’m not sure I yet entirely understand how the low hr thing works out
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December 19th, 2008 10:08
Your article really motivates me to get a heart monitor. I’ve put it off for a long time, but I think it’s something I need to do. Thanks!
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