completely humbled …and confused
Time: 2:45:30
Miles: 19.01
Pace: 8:42 minutes per mile
Average Heart Rate: 156 bpm
I’m in some uncertain territory right now because it *seems* as though my working heart rate is dropping again. While that’s generally not a bad thing (usually it is quite the contrary), right now I’m having a bit of trouble gauging effort on my runs.
For example, on Sunday, my heart rate was eight beats a minute slower at “hard†effort than it has been for the last month.
And yesterday’s long run turned out to be a more pronounced and problematic example. Yesterday, my effort did not equal my very low heart rate. I made the mistake of basing my effort solely on heart rate (which for the past few weeks has been between 158 and 160) and paid the price in the last half of the run.
I battled like crazy just to finish which, technically, I didn’t. I had planned on making the jump to 3:00 yesterday but being pretty badly depleted by the half-way point of the run, it was an unbelievable struggle just to get to 2:45. That’s not a terrible thing since jumping to 3:00 yesterday was a week ahead of Coach’s schedule anyway – I was just trying to build myself some 3:00 long run insurance on top of the eight weeks he’d already laid out for me.
I finished the run at a pace of 8:42 minutes per mile and I know I slowed down in the last half of the run – that tells me I probably started out too fast.
But the problem is that now it seems as though I need to step back from previous knowledge about my working heart rate and figure out what correct effort is.
Either that, or my heart rate is not rising to where it was previously because I’m fatigued.
Hey Andrew, what do you think?
On a more positive note, I feel very good this morning. Recovery seems to be excellent.
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Comment by Jim
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Tuesday March 13, 2007 @
Welcome to my world. My heart rate has been out as well ever since I upped my mileage. The same effort that used to produce a 155 HR now seems to produce ~145. On the other hand, getting the HR up to 155 now requires a tempo pace (or a hill), and getting it up to 170 requires a very strong effort.
But the leg muscles are not developing as quickly as the cardio system. I feel the need to work harder, because of my lower heart rate. On the other hand, working harder just feels as hard as ever.
Did that make any sense? Not sure…
In short, I think you will have to get used to lower heart rates for the same effort. Gauging the effort will be confusing for a while. Believe me, I know.