145 BPM MAF (Heart Rate Training) November update

Well, once again it’s been a while since I’ve posted an update on my Heart Rate (HR) training, and here it is.

At the moment I’m loving my EZ (Easy) run training. I’m continuing to work within my 145 beats per minute (BPM) boundaries and I’m making steady progress in the EZ or endurance running ‘zone’. I’ve been tracking my runs on Strava, it’s such an easy thing to do and the very friendly software keeps telling me that I’m trending faster! What does this mean?

Over the last 2 months, all bar one of my morning or afternoon runs on one of my routes have been run faster than the previous one. It sounds crazy, but it’s true!

These runs range from 5.57km – 6.5km and now take between 27 – 29 minutes. Both of the out and back runs were originally half an hour, as I ran out 15 minutes and aimed to be back by the 30 minute mark. On the weekend I like to get in an hour to 90 minute EZ run, though my recent focus has been chasing as much vert as possible to prep for the Vertical K race at the end of November.

Stupid hills!

The three morning/local runs that I most enjoy are the ‘Up the hill and back’ run which sees an elevation gain of roughly 63m up, and the lovely descent down, there is the ‘Bridge to bridge’ variation which is fairly neutral, though it also has more gain than you first think and finally the flattish, but with a steady 3% gradient home is the ‘Seville out n back’.

In the last two months my 'Bridge and back' time has dropped from 5:07pace to 4:48pace. 

The  ‘Up the hill and back time’ has come down from 5:03km/minute to 4:35km/minute.

Finally, the flattish 'Seville' run has come down from 5:00 to 4:34.

I’ll also note that these best times have now happened in the morning as well, where I was previously slower during my morning runs. Interestingly my best progress has come on the hill run. I am now running well ahead of the grade adjusted pace, in fact is says my 5:01 pace up the hill is nearer 4:23 pace on a flat. I’m still about 20 seconds behind what it says I should be running down the hill though. Hey, I’m more than happy to be hitting 4:03 pace down the hill though. You’ve still got to run, but imagine a sub 4 minute pace at your easy effort level!

Positives from this? My EZ pace/ half marathon plus pace is ‘this close’ to 4:30 pace. I’ve never run this fast at a sub 165 BPM effort level, let alone at a very relaxed 145 BPM level. I think it’ll soon be time to put it to the test somewhere.

Negatives? I do think I’ve lost a little of my top end pace. 3:55 km pace seems to be where I work best. Now I know this is a cracking pace to have, but I’ve been chasing 3:45 pace over 5kms for a while and it’s just not happening.

So, I’ll continue this training and see where it takes me. I’m hoping to improve on my 4:48 flat (football oval laps) 5km MAF (145 BPM) test, and I want to hit 4:30 pace. It’ll take time but time is what I have and I’m loving the training.

Till next time my friends,

ThisFishCANrun J

Heart Rate Training - It's got my blood pumping!

   Why does 5:05 excite me? It excites me because it points to progress. It excites me because it is very achievable and it excites me because I have something new to chase. For a little background keep reading, to get to what I’m excited about skip to the heart…

   My last couple of posts have been about my training and how I’m using me Heart Rate to guide my training and racing to maximise my effort at a maintainable level. A couple of years ago I tried a similar strategy and I think I gained some good growth in my running with it, but I never persisted with it. I did improve my pace from initially over 6:00 min/k pace to 4:55 pace. Then I stopped. I’m not sure why, ego?  

   Now I have started again and it excites me. My early training – since Feb this year was purely by HR, and I had no indication of the pace I was running at. I targeted 145 Bpm as I had trained to this before and my reading suggested that this number is the ideal number for nearly all runners, regardless of ability. 

   There are many formulas you can use, I struck on this one due to a blog that I read. As with anything new, you always question it and a little research lead me to breakingmuscle.com and robertsontrainingsystems.com/. Both blogs heavily support the 180 rule developed by Dr.Philip Maffetone  which is essentially 180Bpm – your age for your long run HR pace, or maximal aerobic capacity development. I've also posted on these pages and eagerly await some feedback on my training mix. 

   Since picking up the Suunto Ambit in early March I was only recording my HR. Now I can record my HR and then analyse the pace at the end of a run, and in more detail on the computer at home. My last three weekend long runs have been at the 145 Bpm average, but the varied terrain and incline made it difficult to gauge average pace. Close analyse of the data showed I was running at 5:45- 5:55 on the flats.

   Last Tuesday I did what I call a HR pyramid on a flat 700m section of the trail. This was to gauge my pace on the flat at set HR zone. Rep 1 was above 140 Bpm, rep 2 was above 150, rep 3 above 160, rep 4 was above 170 and rep 5 was to be a flat out HR max.  I could only hit 177 as the max and held it to make 2 x 350 intervals. What were the times I was doing?

•  140-145 Bpm = 4:36 km pace
•  155 – 160 = 4:32
•  165 – 170 = 3:56
•  170 – 175 = 3:37
•  175+ was 3:18 pace

   This has been fairly consistent with my other training runs and 160 – 170 Bpm seems to be the ‘comfort zone’ where I can now push for a couple of km to finish the last 300-400m at the 180 redline and roughly 3:30 pace for a strong 5km finish. My recent Parkrun was very similar –I started at 160 Bpm and a roughly 4:30 pace and the last 1.5km was run at 170+ for a 3:35  final km.

Heart rate training

   Now why did today's run excite me? I was feeling a little full of cold before heading off to run, so the planned tempo hill run became and EZ run. It took about 800m for the HR to settle (a little longer than usual), it maxed at 179 then instantly settled at 138 Bpm. Yes, it was an extra EZ run and I enjoyed the 2-3% downhill for 3.5 of the 6.25 kms on the 30 minute out trip.To give an indication, when running this trail the gradient change is subtle, but when riding you go from coasting along to a constant pedal to keep moving. The exciting part is that my average pace was 5:04 and even hit 4:16 on the slightly downhill sections. On the return trip I allowed my HR to push to 143 average up the hill and the pace hit 5:13kms, with a peak of 4:16 on the true flat of the last 300m.

   The question is, is my two high intensity, 165 + interval or tempo sessions where I aim to build endurance at the high end going to complement the strength I'm developing at the low end?

   I’m hoping this is the tip of the iceberg, the breakthrough run where it all falls into place. If I can maintain this pace for the effort level at the Great Ocean Road half marathon I will smash last years’ time out of the water.

  My 12km #citytrail run Sunday the 19th will be another experiment - can I mainitain that magic 160 Bpm for 8 km, and then finish strong at 170 Bpm for the last 4km? It will be a physiological and psychological challenge but one I am very much looking forward to!

   I'll let you know!

My Summer Training strategies - Heart rate training

   A while ago I posted about my experiences with Heat Rate training (initial post and the follow up post). With my increasing training load for the Roller Coaster run (a write up to come) and the Great Ocean Road in May, for my training during the Australian Summer I needed to find a baseline and manageable limit to my training.

   With a change in family lifestyle in February this year, my weekday training had to make the switch to afternoons. At the time I was super excited to not have to get out of bed, hit the road early and train before school. Most of the time I really enjoyed it, but in trying to establish better sleeping habits I liked the idea of an extra 20-25 minutes in bed each day.

   Fast-forward 6 weeks and it’s tougher than I thought. A long day, the drive home and then a regular 27 – 30 degree C heat I’m needing to find motivation and regularity. For me the regularity has become my heart rate.

I’ve continued to love my easy long runs, and have had no issue with running them at a heart rate of 140 – 145 on the flatter runs, while on the hillier runs I aim to keep it at 145 and up to 150 on the incline. Yes speed drops, but effort has to remain consistent. This also means I need to push a little harder on the decline – no slacking off. I’ve again built up to happily running 2 hours over varying terrain and gradients.

   As I mentioned, after work has been the challenge. So in the last 4 weeks and after some experimentation and realisation, I’ve been targeting 160 BPM as my happy place. I calculated it as about 90% of my working heart rate – 185 recorded max this year – 10%. Using a formula from Brian Mac, Sports coach, my 85% zone is 163 so when I push it that little more or allow it to fluctuate due to the many variables in a run and life I’ve been hitting the sweet spot. There are many different formulas out there. 160 seemed to be where I could manage a stupid steep 2km hill climb or push 3km on a constant 3-6% uphill course at about 4 – 4:15 minute km pace.

You can check out some of the data @ http://www.brianmac.co.uk/hrm1.htm

   So how am I utilising this? My weekday runs are a mix of a 5.5km rather steep hill run (Roughly 50% mix of ascent and descent as its out and back) where I limit 165 on the up and push to stay at 160 on the down (that stupid 2km incline inc), 7km over 3.5km out at a 3-6% gradient hill at 160 before pushing the speed to hit and maintain the 165 on the descent, 1km trails repeats on a favourite track at 160 bpm, dropping to 145 bpm during static recovery before the next repeat, diminishing ks where I start at a pace and increase the speed every k over 5km and finally varying high speed intervals (100m on an incline on a bush trail or up to 500m on the Warby Trail) where I try to max and sustain 165 – 170 and recover with a 50m walk. I think I get a great mix of training on my two nights a week and as I lost my foot pod, I’ve only had HR to go on.  And, this gives me a constant when the temperature has been hot. With the new Ambit 3 I bought I’ll be able to monitor HR and speed. The speed component I’ll only look at at the end of each run as I want to train my heart, not the head.   

   How do I know where I’m working? At 145 bpm or less I rarely have to think about my breathing, and if I do I can easily breathe nasally during the intake and exhale through the mouth. 150 bpm and higher I start to focus on my cadence and breathing in for three strides and out for two, on a 3-2 inhale-exhale cycle. At 160 BPM I drop to a 2-1 inhale exhale cycle and really have to focus hard to breathe nasally although I do revert to all breathing through the mouth when pushed.

   So, the big question is, has it worked? I’ve only really just found 160 BPM to be that happy place in the last few weeks and as luck would have it, my evening run nights have been those hot and humid nights that we all don’t love to train in. I’ve pushed the 1.1km repeats to 170 but by the third my time over the 1.1km dropped by 35 – 35 seconds.  Perhaps 160 has been an inflated target that’s not pushed me enough. I'll also monitor my resting HR by lying down for a minute (just enough to relax) and work from there. If it's a lower HR I'll be able to push harder, if it starts higher I may just take things a fraction easier. And, theres always just going by how you feel. 
   You’ll have to come back for my Maroondah Dam 8km race report to find out just how it all worked, as this was a race of pure forget the rest strategy. It was all about me and learning what makes my keeping ticking.

   Cheers and happy training, the Fish!

Heart Rate Training and Running

Finally a little bit of time to sit down and put fingers to keypads :) 

In the last few weeks my training runs have lost some of the gloss, some of the zip that I was getting 6 or so weeks ago. In that period I've run two races - one road the other trail and achieved PB times and top 10 finishes in both. I should be flying!

I'd spent the last 4 months refining my form and gait and felt full of confidence - enough so to write about it in my previous posts. 

So, why is the training track such a struggle? I was chatting to Leigh at Refine Training in Kew and he suggested that I should look into some Heart Rate training and research. 

I spent some time browsing and found these great websites which really inspired me: 

Mark Allen - a gun Triathlete 

Runners World - a great article and still highly relevant 

and 

Coach.org 

From what I had read, I had been over taxing myself. A simple rookie mistake? More speed each session, dropping times and the desire to do better than the last run. 

I strapped on the monitor and took off. A 9.5km run at a 'moving but not flying pace' took me 41:15 - 5 minutes faster than in August when I was learning to retrain my form and gait. Surely this is only good? Then I looked at the monitor. I was running at 159BM and right up in the 80-85% HR zone. I had been sucked in by my ego - yup I'm faster and stronger and more refined than before but not training as smart as I thought. 

Now according to Runnersworld a 1/2 marathon can be run at this pace, but I am only training. Who am I racing and why? 

After getting back to the research I should be running at this 80-85% mark for a maximum of 10% of my training. Here I was training at this rate all the time, who knows what crazy mark I was hitting for my intervals...

So, what should I be doing? After reading Marks site I, the self educated decided that I need to drop back into that 60-75% zone and rebuild my HR. This zone is where all the good stuff happens. Its the correct exercise levels to increase my heart strength and size for better blood flow and oxygen consumption. In turn this makes each beat more efficient and the reward for effort greater. 

On the weekend I strapped on the monitor again and went out for a run with my wife. Operation Target 145HR (60-70% Max HR zone). As we took off it felt painfully slow - ala Marks droppping from 5 min miles to 8 min miles. But, 2km in to the run we both felt relaxed and really happy - it made for some great chats. It was a real struggle to keep at the 145 target, especially up hill we we had to really drop our pace and lift the leg cadence just to avoid walking. An 8.5km run took us 48:30 - normally a 38 min run for me and 43 min run for her. However, we both felt we could go out there and run it again and again. Not the usual feeling! 

On Tuesday I did a 9.5 km run again at target 145. This I felt a little better but still really had to watch the tempo on the outbound to avoid over reaching and keep the HR down. It really allowed me to focus on form and function again and I enjoyed stretching out a little on the homebound leg as the decline meant I had to run faster to keep the HR up. The time was 3 minutes slower than the first run of this route 4 months ago and 8 minutes slower than when I ran it  the week before my 41:12 10 km race in Lara. I will try this run again in two weeks and see if any difference has been made. Yeah I know, weather conditions can have a big impact...

Today I did 12.2 km in 1:00:10. It felt great! Again I had to really slow for the inclines, its amazing how you will jump 5-7 BPM with even just 2-3 degrees- very frustrating! But, on the flats and declines I could lift my tempo to push the HR back up. This felt like running again and I really enjoyed it. The average km time was 4:55, not 4:25 like previous runs. 

In hindsight my retraining of my gait and style really slowed me down and forced me to train in the right zone. Were those 3 months of form and function focus the best thing I ever did? Was the 30-40 sec per km faster a combination to training in the right  HR zone and improving my stride?  

My goal from here is to target 145 for 3 of my 4 runs a week until the 5th of Jan when I have a 7.75 km trail race. On the other day it will be tempo training of about 20-30 min in the 80-90% HR zone to keep my speed and so that the body does not 'unlearn' race tempo situations. I hope to build my heart endurance for the 29 km trail race on the 13th of January next year.

I hope that in these 6 weeks I can get my ave km time back to 4:30 or less while training in the 'Target 145' days, essentially buying an extra 35 seconds for the same perceived heart effort. Will this translate into much faster race day times (4:00 or sub 4:00 kms) where I can push it the extra 15-20%? 

What are your experiences with this? 

Cheers and happy running, Lachie

December 30 update

Well, its with a feeling of mixed success that I write this. It's been nearly a month of the new training and I dont feel as though I've made fitness gains but I have learnt so much about myself. 

The target  145 BPM has been easy to hit. It took a little getting used to running slower, almost a minute slower than my race and previous training times. But then again, I was training at race pace all the time. 

Dropping the pace really enabled me to not only focus on my form and running, but really enjoy things again. I come back from training refreshed, not knackered. However, I'm not yet really any faster at the 145 BPM pace.

In the four weeks I've made up perhaps 5 seconds per km again, so a slow and steady improvement. 

I've run my toughest hill climb ever, a 45 minute climb up an average 15-18% incline. for this run I seriously managed the HR to keep it at 145 and I felt so good I did an extra circuit at the top. The trip down was 23 minutes slower and the HR averaged about 137-141. I didn't push the speed for injury sake. 

I've also run my longest run ever, 29.4km of which the last 18km was a 2% incline nearly the whole way. For the first 12km I kept the traget HR, but from there the slight incline all the way meant it slowly crept to 148 for a few km, 150, 153, 157 and peaked at a steady 161 for the last 3km. I would have slowed the pace but was meeting the family at the end of the run for a picnic. I had over sold my time so I had to keep the the km pace rather than heart rate. 

With out the 145 BPM goal I'd have gone out at 80-85% of my max HR and more than likely failed to make the distance. I'd have peaked to early up the hills and gone too hard too soon on the long run. 

Wearing the HR monitor each run now know more about how I feel and at what effort each run is. E.g when I'm cruising its at about 145 - 150. When I push hard it goes up to about 157 - 162 and at 166 + I'm beathing hard but I know I can sustain it for at least 20 - 30 minutes (the weather might get the better of me when it's hot!) 

My last ran was up some serious hills, and I let the HR get to about 159-163 for the 700m - 1.25km on the longest hill climbs, but I felt confident and refreshed as it dropped back to 145 within about 200m of descent/flat running.

My next run is a 7.75 course over short, undulating hills (Read how I went in the Portsea Twilight run). The race plan is to go out at 163-167 and hopefully a sub 4:00min km pace. Yes, It'll race up on the hills but I know that I can race the downs and it will drop to 130BPM and probably as high as 145 if I really push it - I know that I can recover and power on. Will it work? I hope so! Runners world also state that you should be able to run 5-10km at 90%, which is for me is 171 BPM. I know I can do 162-165 for 5km on a hot and humid morning. 

Until the end of Jan I will aim for 145BPM on my long slow runs and use that as the recovery point for my tempos. When I get back to work in Feb I'll trace my original 9.6km 'test' course and see if I can sustain the effort but hopefully gain that valuable time that I am chasing. 

Stay tuned, time will tell :)

Cheers, Lachie